Fantastic Four Movie Re-boot Fantasy Castings
Some quick musings by Bob Reyer
With Fox announcing a tentative release date of March 6, 2015 for the Fantastic Four movie re-boot, it’s not too soon to dust off the old casting couch, and start throwing some speculation into the aether, if only to beat my colleague Steve to the proverbial punch! I’m sure that a lot of you have probably much better ideas than I do, particularly on some of the younger actors and actresses, and most certainly those in the Indie film community, but here goes nothing!
Let me just begin by saying that I picture Reed Richards and Ben Grimm in their late thirties or early forties, with Sue Storm 5 to 8 years younger, and her brother Johnny a similar distance younger still. Of course, if producer Mark Millar and director Josh Trank decide to make this a 1960s period piece ala X-Men: First Class, you can throw my choices into a cocked hat! (…and if they had made this film 10 years ago, my perfect Reed and Sue: George Clooney and Charlize Theron!)
For Reed Richards, I would suggest (and I’m sure that I’m not alone on this one!) Jon Hamm of “Mad Men”:
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For his fiancee, Susan Storm. the lovely Rachel McAdams from “Midnight in Paris” and “Mean Girls”:
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As her brother Johnny, how about Thor’s “little brother”, Liam Hemsworth (“Hunger Games”)?
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And as for Aunt Petunia’s favorite nephew, Benjamin J.Grimm, the ever-lovin’, blue-eyed Thing, my choice would be Jeffrey Dean Morgan (“Watchmen”), whom I just saw be utterly charming and gruffly funny in “P.S., I Love You”, the perfect mix for ol’ Benjy!
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Now, our Ben needs his Alicia, and I’d love to see Amy Adams, but she may be busy as Lois Lane; however I’m not “settling” in the least if I cast Emily Blunt from “Looper” as the blind sculptress!
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No super-hero is complete without an adversary, and if they are going strictly by the (comic) book, that first villain would be The Mole Man, who would have to be played by Danny DeVito, and thanks to Byrne Robotics for that bit of brilliance!
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More than likely though, we will see Victor Von Doom, from whence these casting ideas sprang today, having just watched “Django Unchained”, and thinking to myself how absolutely perfect Christoph Waltz would be as Doctor Doom!
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However, the ruler of Latveria should be Reed’s contemporary, and as Mr. Waltz is significantly older than Mr. Hamm, if we go the younger route, a good choice might be Alexander Skarsgard from “True Blood”. (Maybe Latveria is closer to Sweden than we think?):
Before I go, my profound thanks to Steve Seigh for his fabulous job of selecting some great pictures for this piece!!
As I said at the top, I’m sure all you Gentle Readers have your own ideas about this, so please feel free to bombard me with them! I’m looking forward to seeing some great dream casts!
(Of course you do Robert dear, that’s because you won’t have to wade through the comments and the e-mails. He’s clueless about these things, darlings, but don’t fret, I’ll spoon-feed him the information in small doses so he doesn’t get a migraine! Audrey)
soundtrack: This little piece was written whilst listening to “Ballads”, the hauntingly beautiful album by the John Coltrane Quartet.
