A Fantastic Journey: Dissecting Roger Corman’s ‘the Fantastic Four’

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Throughout cinema’s storied history, we’ve come to know and love an array of grand achievements. The likes of On the Waterfront, The Godfather, and 2001: A Space Odyssey, have challenged, entertained, and touched us, spoken to our spirits. But while the beloved masterpieces of the silver screen will always be with us, there are countless other gems that few have ever seen or even heard of. For every Citizen Kane there is a Citizen Toxie; for every Lawrence of Arabia there is a Larry of Arabia. Enter the B movie. Whether you refer to them as B Movies, Bad Movies or simply Low Budget, these films, regardless of how good or bad, have been integral in launching and furthering the careers of countless iconic filmmakers through the years. While most low budget filmmakers move on to larger budget studios and more mainstream filmmaking, there are those who, for various reasons, continue making low budget films, reveling in the schlock, and excel in doing so. One of the more influential of them is Roger Corman, the King of B Movies. Due to the sheer volume of his films, I will inevitably return to a few of his classics in future reviews; today, however, I will be looking into one of his lesser known films, The Fantastic Four. By 1992, German film company Neue Constantin Films had held the rights to make a film adaptation of the Fantastic Four franchise for several years but their rights were to expire at the end of the year, effectively transferring them back to Marvel. Unable to secure the $40 million that was needed to make a full budget film, Corman was brought on to cut the budget and complete the Oley Sassone-directed film. He scaled the budget back from $40 million to $1.4 million and Roger Corman’s The Fantastic Four was born. One can only imagine that a film that was slated to be a $40 million project but scaled back to $1.4 million would have it’s fair

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