It was a busy day of interviews, and we've absorbed more information than we can possibly process, but it wasn't over yet. It's the guys you've been waiting for - the five main actors of Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer; Ioan Gruffud (Reed Richards), Jessica Alba (Sue Storm), Christopher Evans (Johnny Storm), Michael Chiklis (Ben Grimm) and Julian McMahon (Victor von Doom).
They sat in a neat line, right in front of the divided up Fantasticar, wrapped up warm against the bitter Vancouver winter, and gave patient, thoughtful answers. Except that McMahon fellow, he was a bit of a firebrand...
Julian, can you tell us about the new and improved you? Will you have the pleasure of being more evil this time?
Julian McMahon: I didn't know I was! I think that's just part of my personality and after doing the movie the first time, I just became a bit of an asshole. I portrayed that in the evilness of this character. He's just a little bit more evil because he's coming back for revenge, and then we have the new suit, which is pretty extraordinary. I just wore it for the first time last week. It looks amazing. I can't tell you too much about it but it's very evil, but at the same time it's not that evil.
Er...
I always pictured this movie as kind of a kid's movie, so you don't want to be so evil that the little kiddies can't be watching it, but it's been fun. I haven't been here the whole time like these guys have [he gestures to the other four actors]. I've been footing in and out, because I've been shooting my TV show [Nip/Tuck] at the same time, so I haven't been as immersed in it this time around as I was the last time, but it's been good fun - and it's been evil!
Can each cast member talk about what's new or different with their characters this time around?
Chris Evans: I think everyone has a pretty good arc. They make sure everyone has a journey. In the first one Johnny was kind of a one man show and wanted centre stage, and I think the reason the Fantastic Four have always succeeded as a group of superheroes and as a comic book is that they're a family, they're a unit, they're a group. I think Johnny has to know and respect that, and I think in this movie he learns to appreciate the relationships around him.
Jessica Alba: Nothing's changed [laughs]. No, I have longer hair... kidding... and we're much more mature in our characters as superheroes, and so this movie is definitely a product of that. We're all very much a family. We all live together and we're getting married [Reed and I]. That's sort of the centerpiece for my character in this movie. It's all about the wedding. She's sort of 'Bridezilla' in the best way. She's stressed and it has nothing to do with you Julian. Yeah, getting married, not you [speaking to Julian], to him [pointing at Ioan].
Ioan Gruffudd: Yes, finally Reed Richards has taken centre stage and about time too really. He's come more to the forefront. He's much more comfortable with his role as the leader and as the sort of father figure really of the family and I'm delighted about that. It's a lot more interesting character to play, compared to the first one where he was a little bit more nerdy or dorkish. Now this time I'm stepping up to the plate and becoming the leader, and of course the relationship between Sue and I is much more intimate and much more real. It's more three-dimensional.
It's more developed and evolved and an interesting point that Jessica brought up about the fact that we're much more comfortable now with being superheroes. We are actors and people watch us do our work, and we're commodities. The Fantastic Four appreciate themselves to be commodities and are able to sell themselves as commodities as well as being superheroes. So that's an interesting aspect of it.
Michael Chiklis: I don't know how much I have to add. They've covered pretty much everything but as far as The Thing is concerned, he's taken another step in his relationship with Alicia in this picture and he's a more lovable curmudgeon. If Reed Richards is the leader and the brain of this outfit, I would think that Ben Grimm would be the heart. He's a lovable curmudgeon.
He's come to grips much more with his malady of being a superhero and he's also a lot of the conscience and strength of the group, and as a complement to everybody else's function. I've always thought that, like Chris said, the Four separately are fantastic, but together they're much more powerful.
Michael, can you talk about the changes and improvements that have been made to your suit? What can we expect from The Thing this time around?
Michael Chiklis: In the first film, I talked a lot about it - ad nauseam actually, to the point where I couldn't even stand to hear my own voice about it. It was a pretty uncomfortable situation and it was a main concern for me coming into this one that it not be the same, because it was very experimental and there wasn't enough time to really look into it. The last [suit] didn't have a pant zipper, so it just made it into a 45-minute ordeal to urinate, frankly. Sorry!
Jessica Alba: Make sure you put that into print!
Michael Chiklis: Yeah that's lovely [laughter], so there were things, like the heat, and the heaviness. Although the hero suit itself isn't much improved, meaning when I'm dressed in the Fantastic Four garb, that you really can't fake because he is bare-chested and fortunately I'm only in about 25% of the movie in that one, but in the rest of the movie... I think it's really quite cute when you see him in the tuxedo, for instance. So when I'm dressed in wardrobe it just creates the appearance of bulk without the intense discomfort and it's able to come off and on very, very quickly. So this has been a markedly more comfortable experience and much more helpful frankly.
Can each of you discuss what this movie means to you?
Julian McMahon: I feel a bit repetitive because this is obviously the second time around and I'm going to repeat myself, but I was a big fan of the comic book and the cartoon. So I always thought Dr. Doom was the most evil guy on the planet until Darth Vader came along and then I thought Darth Vader was. Then they were kind of one and the same in a way, and so to be able to play that character and to play in that genre and it's a superhero genre. I mean it's ridiculous, you know, it's just fun and as an actor, and particularly playing the evil guy you get to just do silly fun stuff.
Michael Chiklis: It's about a dysfunctional family and their relation to it.#nbsp; People relate to it because they all have their own dysfunction in their own families, so it would be hard to find a family that isn't dysfunctional.
Julian McMahon: It's also comic book.
Michael Chiklis: Yeah it is, so it is fun.
Christopher Evans: Yeah I agree with that. I think this was a great opportunity to play a superhero. It's kind of every boy's dream, so in that regard it was a great character to land, but any film that's this big and this exposed, it's good to kind of get your face out there. It's just a good opportunity. It enables future work, and helps prolong any potential career that you might be able to have.
Jessica Alba [surprised by Chris' caution] Which he 'might be able to have'...God forbid, 'cause you just have nothing going for you! Just good looks. [she teases him] He's actually a really good actor, in case you guys were wondering. For me, I think just being part of a comic book movie that appeals to family is kind of a big deal, and being able to play a female character that is so strong and so dominant, and doesn't use her sex appeal to get ahead. She's not a villain, she's not nasty, she's quite a noble character to play and that's great. I think it's a great female icon.
Ioan Gruffudd: Personally it's sort of seeing myself, the image of myself that I would desire to have when I was watching these sort of movies as a kid. It literally is a dream come true to play a heroic part and to play a superhero was just a little extra bonus I think. So it's just seeing that childhood dream come true.
Attention temporarily diverts to the Fantasticar sections directly behind the actors.
Michael Chiklis: The Fantasticar is pretty fantastic and I'd love to have one of those, but this breaks up into parts which is pretty awesome. This is mine right behind me and they all come together into one. Yeah, it's kind of macho actually. Put together, it's going to look phenomenal. The first time I looked at it, I was excited. I'm a car guy. I like cars and this one flies. I'd like to cruise around in this if they can get it to work.
Jessica Alba: It made me a little sick actually when we were shooting.#nbsp; I got a little nauseous, in all honesty. We actually spent a lot of time in the car and filmed full days in the car, doing a lot of the virtual stuff, or CGI stuff. What is it like... a Back to the Future ride? It's similar to Universal Studios Back to the Future ride really, going down, going up...
Ioan, what's it like being a British actor in a big budget Hollywood movie but not being the villain?
Ioan Gruffudd: Well, I'm delighted to be able to break that tradition really of having a Brit or a person who isn't American playing the bad part. I'm very proud of the fact that I've immersed myself into an 100% American character, and that was a major desire of mine as an actor moving to Hollywood, that I was to be believable as an American. I didn't want any attention brought to me to the fact that I was a British actor. I'm an actor, period. So I am very proud to have this opportunity, and I'm Welsh.
Julian McMahon: Does that mean that I haven't broken any moulds? Is that what you're trying to say by that? [joking]
Ioan Gruffudd: No, I was just saying...
Julian McMahon [affecting hurt feelings]: No, no that's fine. I'm cool with that. I'm just the standard run-of-the-mill whack job who just got a job because you came from another country. Okey dokey big smokie.
In regards to the Silver Surfer, how do you work with an invisible actor on set and how that's played out?
Julian McMahon: We can't talk too much about the Silver Surfer, but he does look really good. That's just what we do on green screen.
Christopher Evans: No, there's somebody there. Doug Jones just wears the body suit.#nbsp; That cat's been out of the bag for a while so if I wasn't supposed to say it, someone should have told me that a while ago [laughter].
Ioan Gruffudd: It's the same essence as what Andy Serkis did with Gollum. He was there for the off camera work, and Doug is there for our off camera work. So we just have a physical presence there to work with. He has dialogue and it's good to bounce off a real person, rather than a tennis ball with an X on it.
Julian McMahon: And sometimes, though, I've done some scenes where he hasn't been there, and I like the tennis ball. I do. It's so good having no other actors. There are no arguments. You can do what you want.
Jessica Alba: You get to be the centre of attention, Julian.
Speaking of special effects, has it gotten any easier to work with effects the second time around, or is it just as challenging?
Michael Chiklis: No, I think we've all gotten better at it. It's moving more smoothly. There's more [CGI] than there was in the first one.
Ioan Gruffudd: There's certainly a lot more green screen this time around and to be perfectly honest the preparation for that sort of process is to get yourself a lot of DVD's and a lot of Playstation games, because you're going to spend a lot of time in your trailer. But that's just the nature of green screen, because it's so precise and it's such an art in that sense, that it takes so long for them to set it up, just for one particular shot and then you come onto the set, and you're quite literally working for two or three takes, which took about maybe ten minutes, and they've set it up for the last hour and a half. So I tell you what, my hat goes off to those guys who did all the Star Wars movies totally against the green screen, because at least we have the organic nature of working with sets and tangible things, compared to just a green canvas.
Julian McMahon: I think it's a different type of skill. If you have to work on green screen, it's a different type of skill as if you have to work in a house, in a kitchen with other people. Actually I think that it's very developmental in regards to the way you start to think about things. Once you're working on green screen, you are looking at tennis balls, you are looking at an X marks, you have to create it all in your head. And like [Ioan] said, take your hats off to all these Star Wars guys and Harrison Ford flying down with Chewbacca behind him and I mean that's pretty good effort. It definitely creates another part of your brain...
Michael Chiklis: You have to be in touch with your [inner] child.
Julian McMahon: Yeah, and the fantasy of the whole thing, flying through space or flying through the air or in a car like this and there's an imagination that goes along with that.
Ioan Gruffudd: It heightens your concentration. I think that's what it does, because you are searching for things that aren't physically there. It really - somehow, weirdly - gives you a real focus, because you have to focus on things that aren't there and it really concentrates your mind and I think it will add to all these sequences when you see us so concentrated and so involved that we believe that we are flying this car and being tossed around by Doom. If we don't believe it then the audience won't believe it.
Michael, going back to the suit and the Fantasticar, what kind of a challenge do you find when getting inside the car in your suit?
Michael Chiklis: I guess I brought it on myself and it's been about discomfort. But I have to say, last week I got to work with a ten foot tall, 1650 pound Kodiak bear and that's one of the reasons why I love this business, is because that's something you don't get to do in life, to stand in front of a predator six feet away like that. In spite of whatever discomfort I've had to go through, it's been quite exhilarating sometimes and getting into the Fantasticar is just a matter of... they've made a huge bucket seat for me. I fit in there fine, so they've accommodated me in whatever ways they've been able to, to make it livable. So it's been fine.
How do you, as actors, find the seriousness in the part, when you're doing a sequel with all the visual effects and the comic book storyline?
Michael Chiklis: Frankly in the first one I had a much more serious story line, totally. I was a guy trapped in a body he didn't want to be in and I had much more of a conflict in that way. In this one it's very light for me.
Ioan Gruffudd: I think there's a practicality of it. We have done the first movie, we're setting up the story in the first movie, and there wasn't much scope for adventure. We were explaining to everybody who we were, introducing ourselves. Now we start the movie. Everybody knows who we are. We start the adventure almost immediately, so in that sense it's a massive step forward but as far as the actin, I think - to go back to your question - it's a pleasure to come back to a character, having played it once. It's a luxury. You don't get to do that unless you're in a show or in a series, and to do that on screen in a movie like this, it's a great feeling. It gives you a lot of confidence and I've evolved over the last two years, and that will in turn feed and bleed into the character of Reed Richards.
Jessica Alba: To be honest, as silly, big, 'comicbooky' and CGI as everything is, we really play it for real and with as much conviction and sincerity as anybody would feel in those circumstances. Like Ioan said, there's been a two year gap where I've been able to do a few things as well, and I think where you're growing as a person, as an actor will definitely help you in doing the next movie and if we get to do a third one, we'll be even more evolved hopefully as people and as actors.
Christopher Evans: I agree. I've never had an opportunity to work on a sequel, even working on television, playing character and having an opportunity to see the way you portray it, see the way it came to life and refine your approach. This has been a great opportunity, regardless of the genre, whether you have a children's movie or an action film or a deep thinking piece. It's exciting to get back in the saddle, to try and adjust what you don't think worked and make better what you think did. So regardless of whether the script is directed towards children or adults or silly or whatever, I was excited to get back in the saddle.
Michael Chiklis: I'm regressing. I'm not evolving. [laughs].
Julian McMahon [getting a bit lost]: What was the question? Oh yeah, yeah, that's our job, to take it seriously. I know it's a kid's movie and it's a popcorn movie and all that kind of stuff but you have to take the job seriously. So if I'm in a situation where it's funny, then you have to make it funny. If I'm in a situation where it's dramatic, you have to make it dramatic, and dramatic can be funny sometimes and all that kind of stuff. So it's just like any other job. You just have to take a script, work with it any way you can, work with your other actors, you work with the director and you come up with something that's hopefully plausible and hopefully something sticks to the screen, and everybody goes, 'Well I believe that we're in that moment in time.'
All of you have specific powers. Can you discuss if they will be different in this film?
Ioan Gruffudd: I don't think the powers are the same. They are limited in that sense, to our own individual powers. What's interesting is the psychological aspect of it that we are presented with the character of the Silver Surfer who is rather ambiguous. We are not sure whether he is good or evil, so that's more of a challenge this time I think for the characters. Of course there'll be lots of Fantastic special effects and myself stretching and catapulting objects and Sue protecting us in her invisible sphere and Johnny flying and chasing the Silver Surfer and all sorts, and Ben scaring away bears. The interesting part is that psychological element. How do we work as a team against this other force, coupled with Dr. Doom. So the challenge is twice as much this time.
Julian McMahon: We have to be pretty specific to the original comic in a way, so it's not like we can just come up with powers that weren't already there. So it's an enhancing of the story line and an enhancing of all the powers. I do come back and try to get more power, which I do get for a period of time, and at the end of the movie I kill them all [laughing]. Aww, I'm sorry. I take that back!
So they already are what they are, and they can be enhanced by certain things, and the Silver Surfer comes in and he throws things into the mix, and I don't know if you know the comic book very well, but the Silver Surfer's got some pretty extraordinary powers. It's something to behold and something to reckon with if I [as Doom] get hold of it, and something different if they [The Fantastic Four]do, so it's that kind of battle to a certain extent.
Michael Chiklis: We never really touched on it. The fact of the matter is in the first piece, it's an origin piece. We can jump right in now and the stakes are raised. Now we're introduced to another character, the Silver Surfer, his powers are enhanced and now we have a bigger challenge on our hands and we can jump right into it. So it's bigger. It's better.
Jessica Alba: We all - like they were saying - have the same powers, it's just integrated into our day to day life, so it may have been a big deal if Johnny can toast his own toast, now it isn't. We don't care anymore. Or if I turn things invisible, it's like, 'make it reappear Sue' or whatever, 'well listen to me then!' It's just a bit more integrated I guess.
Christopher Evans: Jess took my answer. There's just more of a practical approach of the powers, more comfortable than with the first one. We were clunking around and figuring it out, but now we've got it down.
Jessica, what are your feelings on the new celebrity status of the Fantastic Four and how that compares to what celebrity status has done for or indeed to you?
Jessica Alba: Well, I hate everyone now and I don't know my family anymore and I just live in a cage really. I only walk out when I'm in full hair and make up and I'm ready to do press conferences, really. Yeah, okay, next question [she's kidding around, but there's the faintest suggestion she does feel somewhat jaded by her fame]. No, really it just shows that they still want to be human beings. They still want a very regular family life and unfortunately when you're under a microscope, everyone's very critical of your version of what that means, and so people are picking them apart and putting them on pedestals and lifting them up and tearing them down for newsworthy sound bites and they're like, But we're still human beings. We just want a family. We just want to be married.
Unfortunately they can't, because they are superheroes and they have to sacrifice their regular life for that. In turn, in wanting to be an actor and losing your anonymity a bit, but it only means as much as you want to give them. If it really matters that much whether someone's hair is messed up or not or whether you're wearing the right boots for the season, or whether you're out partying too much...who cares. And I think it just really depends on how much weight you put on it.
Ioan Gruffudd: That was very eloquently put. I think also for the Fantastic Four there was no choice in the matter, with these guys. These powers were thrust upon them. There's a certain element of choice of being an actor. You are going to be in the public eye and therefore you have to take on that responsibility and I think the Fantastic Four, as much as they've capitalised on their fame, their marketing themselves, there's a certain amount of responsibility and you can't have your cake and eat it. So that is actually brought up in the movie and it's a very interesting subject.
After the jollity of the press conference (Julian McMahon was an unexpectedly wacky presence), Fox take us to dinner. This is delightful of them, but after food we are due to go on set and watch a scene being shot, and movie schedules are notoriously fickle things. Long story short, I have about two bites of my delicious main course (local speciality black cod) when we're whisked away to the Shanghai set. Which means I missed dessert. Man, I hate missing dessert. The thought of being within about twenty feet of Jessica Alba did take the sting out of it a little, admittedly.
Words cannot describe how chillingly cold it was on set. It sank deep into the flesh, right into the bone, and my very marrow felt like it was crunching with crystals of ice. And this is wrapped up warm, standing as close as I could to a portable heater while avoiding setting fire to my clothes! I needed to distract myself. But how? Well, I guess the fact that I was standing behind a huge (and fake) pagoda on a street that was dressed to look like Shanghai, crammed full of Chinese extras, helped.
It seems the Invisible Woman had run into some trouble in her section of the Fantasticar - probably the Silver Surfer kicking some arse - because Alba was sitting in a busted up version; smoke-blackened, wires exposed. It was mounted on a special rig that allowed it to charge down the street, spinning in circles, which honestly didn't look much fun for the poor girl, but hey. That's the business they call show. For our part, we were crowding around the tiny flickering monitors, nodding sagely and pronouncing judgement on each take.
Mmmm... too much hand movement in that one.
Her hair was in her face. Couldn't see her properly.
Back seat directors, one and all of us. Silly, really. After one of the takes, Alba looks over at someone we can't see and jokingly flips him/her the ol' middle finger. Tut tut, young lady! Someone (presumably) whispered something along the lines of The press are here, watching you right now, dear. Try not to do that. into her earpiece, because she instinctively laughs, and looks right into the camera sitting in the seat next to her. Bless.
After a little while, our little knot of inquisitive journalists is judged to have seen enough by the powers that be, and we're ushered away, back to the warmth of the hotel (which is, conveniently, about thirty seconds around the corner). A busy day. A cold day. Mostly cold.
DESIGNER
The day after we met Don Payne, we get driven to the soundstage where Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer is being shot. We are bundled into two buses which look like they see a lot of use ferrying highly excitable teenagers to and from proms - leather seats, lots of fairy lights, minibar (sadly empty) - and after getting ever so slightly lost, we trundle into a huge, anonymous looking lot.
In the dark, cavernous warehouses we tiptoe through, every sound is amplified to a boom, and you never know who might be filming what, where, just around a corner. We are led to a curtained off sanctuary, and an exciting up close and personal encounter with the Fantasticar, which couldn't look much less like a bathtub. Tim Flattery is the man responsible for creating this geek wet dream - it's sleek, silvery, and segmented, and while the first thing you think is "up close, it's huge, and gorgeous", the second thing you think is "why is there a big Dodge badge stuck to the front?" How does that fit into the story?
"That's a question for Tim (Story, the director), but there's reference to Dodge's involvement in Reed's design. There's definitely a reference to it in the script, and I think it plays out in, you know, a humorous moment."
We'll hear more about that later, but for now let's hear the design concept!
"I don't know if you're familiar with the Fantasticar from the '60s comics; it was kind a neat thing back then but it doesn't apply so much for a film, it's more like a flying bathtub. In sitting down with Tim we discussed what it should be, what it should do, and I went away and did a bunch of plans. His reaction to them was, 'It's not a predator, it's got to be something that's really aggressive and cool, yet soft.' And so I started drawing from nature.
"A lot of times if I get stuck, I'll start looking through books of bugs and undersea creatures. I kept referring back to manta rays and stingrays and that's basically where the shape is derived from - from its organic lines, to how it undulates. He saw something pretty close to this design, and I came in with something I knew he would respond to, and he said, 'That's it.' Then it was a matter of just refining it from there."
The challenge is, presumably, to avoid making it look like other superheroic transport like the X-Men's X-Jet or the Batmobile.
"There's always that challenge, and I actually did one of the Batmobiles. People, for some reason, immediately see the Batmobile in everything. I don't know why... I think it's because it's such an icon. So that was a real challenge with this. It's got to be something that is truly individual in it's design, hence something more organic, softer."
We have already seen that it breaks apart into pieces, just like the original, but why three and not four?
"We kept Johnny and Sue together in the rear cockpit, it was a creative decision by Tim and it makes more sense in the design too, to have one in the front [Mr Fantastic] and then obviously the oversized rear cockpit for Ben Grimm [he's not kidding - the rear section is huge, to fit in the massive Thing, and has a great big bucket seat, and massive joysticks]."
Did you build a practical version, that actually drives around or whatever?
"This is a practical version. These are all working monitors that feed in navigation, whatever information they need. Obviously they can't see each other, so there are intercom units where they can see each other on screen and be able to talk to each other, so it's a full working prop. It's not the Batmobile, where it can go 100 miles an hour but..."
And it doesn't have wheels, right?
"No it hovers all the time. It uses an ion generator and so it's a clean-burning engine that's based on an electrical charge, as opposed to a gas motor, and it uses a photon accelerator for lift, which is existing technology too."
So how much of a dent does something like this make on a wallet?
"It's a tough question to answer because we built this in conjunction with the breakaways so it was split in series. I'd say in total it was probably $1.2m. That's just a guess, though, because it goes in stages and there's so many elements involved."
And how long did it take to build?
"To physically build this? From start of construction to end was about four months and about another month for when they built the breakaways."
Is this the only one there is or is there another one?
"This is the only full vehicle and then the breakaways, those are the only breakaways. We didn't make two. This is it. This one will also break away for shootability, like if we want to take the front end off so you can get a camera in and shoot Jessica Alba or whatever and get a closeup on her face."
And, indeed, why wouldn't you? OK, now a warning. The next bit is very interesting, but mainly if you're actually involved in making giant cars for superhero movies. He gets pretty technical about the process of actually constructing this beautiful beast...
"When I did the Batmobile, we sculpted the whole thing full-size out of clay and then moulded it from there, but now we'll take my design and build it digitally in a programme called Alias, and from that math we will mill all the moulds directly off of the model, so we mill all the negatives of these skins and then lay up. This is all high temp epoxy. It's not fibreglass, it's high temp epoxy with composite core in it, and we'll lay that up inside the mould and then pull the parts out and finish them that way, so there's no sculpting involved anymore to get the shape. It just goes right from a digital model to a five axis mill that cuts it out, which is a great process. It saves a lot of time. The Batmobile took us... it takes forever to sculpt complex surfaces like this. And you need serious talent to make sure your highlights track and you're getting what you want."
Phew. Was the design heavily influenced by the comics, or did you just go off on your own?
"Well I'm a comic nut so I always try and pay homage to what's been there and what I grew up with and what I know that people are familiar with. In this case, what's been done in the comics for the Fantasticar, and it only shows up here and there, it just didn't apply to the movie. I tried to keep it in the back of my head but really just the tone of the movie and the tone of the characters in the movie are what drove this, as opposed to the comic.
"The homage to the comic is that it does break apart, and I think in the comic I remember it being white. This was going to be blue for the longest time and then we ended up changing it to a silver, further down the road. But it helps with the Silver Surfer - it complements him - and the big decision was because of the [Fantastic Four's blue] costumes. We wanted something that will accent the costumes."
This new technique - does it make the whole thing lighter, stronger?
"Oh yeah. You have to pay attention to the frame structure which gets engineered and designed first, and if we were to do this out of a polyester or fibreglass to get the same strength, it would be twice as heavy. Because we're using composites, we're able to lighten that up considerably and it has a heavy enough frame as it is already. When it splits apart, we have that structure in there to keep it strong when you're putting it together, so you really want a light skin. You can walk all over this and you know its not going to break."
Does that mean that it is capable of being a lot more violent as well?
"Oh yeah, because you don't worry about body panels cracking on you, twisting or contorting or whatever. They're bulletproof."
The actors must not like you very much...
"Well, it's not me, it's the guy running the gimble. The more jerking around the more they can get into character, that's the way I see it! [laughs]"
What was their reaction when they first saw it?
"All they knew was that there was a Fantasticar in the movie and they walked up to it and everyone was pretty fired up about it. A lot of questions. Even Tim Story - who obviously did know what it was - took his shoes off, got on top of the thing and was running up and down, he was in every single cockpit and making 'Brrrrr!' noises with the joysticks, it was pretty funny. Jumping from one thing to another and pushing every button there was in there... he was in there for about a half hour before he got out!"
The original Fantasticar really didn't have any functioning bits at all. It just worked, almost as if by magic. Did you plan ahead a lot, deciding which buttons did what, etc.?
"There are some things that you have to think about ahead of time because you have to be script conscious. Obviously things have to get incorporated; how does it break apart? What do you do to break it apart? What's the action? Where you see these screens, I don't put anything static there because it can be added by video later, so I don't think through that too much. But the main functions of the vehicle, I think about heavily while I'm designing. How does it work? How does the thrust work? How does it lift? What controls do you need inside to control the lift? What controls do you need inside to control the thrust? And I'm also a pilot so I'll rely on some of that knowledge to go into what you see inside the cockpit."
Speaking hypothetically, could this be turned into a roller coaster ride?
"Yeah, why not?"
I could see it in a theme park.
"Oh yeah, definitely."
Let's get into the nitty-gritty. The nuts and bolts, if you will. Does this have weapons on it?
"It's transport and a fast one at that, but there are no weapons on it. It'll protect them, obviously, but there's nothing on it that's aggressive."
What's the hypothetical range?
"The range is indefinite, because it's an ion generator, so it's self-powering and it runs clean, and it's pressurised, so you can run it at any altitude up to 50,000 feet. Normally an ion generator is known for slow acceleration, but this one has been concentrated as it has four chambers and so you can get up to Mach 2 rightaway. Gravity helps that."
And how much does it weight?
"Just under four thousand pounds [four metric tons]."
OK, Tim is clearly a man who has thought every detail through. So we test him. Why do the individual units need wings, if they are hover vehicles?
"Just for stabilization. As a unit on it's own it's in perfect harmony. When it breaks apart, you need extra stability because now you don't have the length, which is twenty feet."
Well played, sir. Well played. You know, it's kind of a funny image thinking of Michael Chiklis in full Thing makeup trying to get into that rear seat...
"Just getting him across the floor is difficult [laughs], and it's something that concerned me because the only way to get into this vehicle is to drop in. If you notice, you have to walk up, put your foot on the seat, put your hand there and slide in because it's so low profile. So when we were building this thing, I'm sitting there and I'm scratching my head thinking 'How is a guy in 70 pounds of rubber...' and - have you guys seen the suit? Or seen the bulk of it? It's huge. There's a lot of mass on him, so it's not easy for him to move around and the best scenario is just to walk up the back and get over, because it's like it's own ramp. It's not easy to get in in a t-shirt and jeans let alone...but it's like getting in a sports car. You drop in."
We're pretty much running out of questions for now, but we wonder what will happen to it once the movie is done with.
"It could show up at Comic Con. The talk is that it'll go through the auto shows under Dodge's auspice. They'll showcase it."
And you're going to use it for the next movie?
"Yeah, it'll be in the next one for sure."
Are they going to make it into a toy?
"Oh, I'm sure. How couldn't you? I want to play with it. Yeah, there's always a market for toys whenever there's a flying vehicle."
Do you get a share of that?
"I wish I did!"
We take a short break here, if nothing else to give poor Tim a chance to escape our clutches, but soon enough we're back to examine the other big working props, just next door - the three sections of the Fantasticar, sitting separately.
Quite a lot of technical questions are asked (again), and Tim fields them expertly. Every tiny element of the Fantasticar has been thought through, from the exhaust to the size of the halogen lamps on the front, and - charmingly - he speaks about it completely seriously, like we could hop in and fly away at a second's notice.
For example, someone points out a couple of pretty small tubes poking out of the front of the front section - Reed's bit. They could quite easily have just been stuck on there to look generically 'high tech', but no.
"Those are Pitot tubes [no, we hadn't heard of them either, but they really do exist.]. They're gaining information for the cockpit, like air speed. They talk to all the satellites orbiting the Earth for navigation, like a G1000 on a cockpit that gives you coordinates, a flight plan etc., so those are the information gathering systems. It's a sensor and an induction system for delivering information."
So there you have it. We have one more topic to cover, and it's a slightly sensitive one. Product placement is rarely a fan pleaser, and none of us failed to notice the Dodge branding on the front of the Fantasticar. Did they approve your design?
"No, they came in late in the process. We sent renderings to them because of their involvement in the movie, obviously they wanted to see it, and they came back with comments like, 'Is it possible to do this?' 'We would like to see this' and so as long as it's not interfering with the overall design, we will try and accommodate them. Things like putting the badge on, and trying to do [Dodge's signature] crosshair [grille], but in my own way."
What was their biggest request?
"The biggest overall request was just placing the ram's head logo, and seeing if we could work in the crosshairs on the front end. The front end already looked like this anyway, this is how it was originally designed: sticking out like a fish mouth. So it was natural."
Why Dodge?
"Usually it's been my experience on movies that there'll be a few car companies interested in wanting to get involved, because it's great exposure. Like in I Robot, Audi got heavily involved with that car. A lot of times it just boils down to working it out with production - who fits best with the movie? In this case it was Dodge, so they set up a relationship with them, and I tried to accommodate them as best I could.
"I worked with a guy that came down twice during the construction phase to see it, and I let him know where I was planning on putting the badging and did it so he could see it and was happy with it. I waited until I finished building it and delivering it up here before I applied all of this, and then I applied it up here right before shooting. And that's really the extent of it. It's velcro so it [the badge] comes off."
So for the third movie, they could get a different sponsor? Just switch badges?
"[laughs] I don't know, but you could! It's more and more typical now, like... when I did the Batmobile, there wasn't any car company involved. It was just a matter of going in and doing it. But now it seems there are more and more relationships with more and more different types of companies for advertising. It's not just car companies, it's computer companies, fast food and all that kind of stuff."
Our time is up, for now. It seems that Flattery won't get you everywhere after all.
Sorry.
Check back soon, for the next exciting instalment, where we meet director Tim Story and producer Ralph Winter! It's good stuff. You'll like it. We promise.
Still impressed by the Fantasticar, we are ushered single-file, trying to be as quiet as the proverbial church mice, through various production offices and into a long room with a huge table running down the centre. It's covered with models of various sets, including Doom's impressive techno-throne and (intriguingly) the London Eye. Both of the main walls are plastered with innumerable pieces of concept artwork, set designs and so on, and we waste no time poring over all of it before our latest interviewees arrive.
Kirk Petrucelli is the Production Designer, and had plenty of experience with superheroic antics, having worked on Blade, Tomb Raider, and Ghost Rider, amongst others. Producer Ralph Winter? Well, get a load of this: Star Treks III-VI, all three X-Men, Planet of the Apes, and of course both Fantastic Four movies so far... Impressive.
They take us through some of the logistics involved in shooting the film, and for the most part it's mind-bogglingly detailed breakdowns of minutiae. Interesting, but somewhat overwhelming if you're not a hardcore film geek. Nevertheless, it makes a very clear impression on us: everything has been thought of. Every scene, every prop, every last shot has been chosen very, very carefully. Efficieny is key. Making the finished product look as amazing as it possibly can is key. These guys know the business inside out, and have put the hours in - and them some.
And then, the main man appears. Tim Story, director. Let's crack straight on with the questions!
What was your biggest challenge with this movie so far?
"I guess it's been figuring out what the Silver Surfer's going to look like and more importantly what his powers actually are, how they look. The definition of what the Silver Surfer does, in the comics, is pretty vague. Here we have a character that is all powerful. He could pretty much control matter and when you give somebody that kind of control you can go wherever you want to go, so it's really been figuring out his power and then of course bringing that to life in so much of the stuff we've done. #nbsp;So, building the action sequences for the most part."
What did you decide, as far as the Silver Surfer is concerned?
"Let me be as vague as I can [laughter]. We do take advantage of the fact that he can change matter, which allows him to have some really cool powers, and you guys will see this in the action sequences and definitely the trailer that's being prepared. He does have a very powerful force in the sense that... If Johnny has a fireball that he can throw, the Surfer has a pretty powerful powerblast as well. And then of course flight and his relationship with his board, we get some really cool advantages to being able to do some interesting things with his board that once again I won't give away, but we've been very creative.
General speaking, what's it like approaching a sequel like this?
"It's interesting, because of course first and foremost you think about the characters and their personal stories and where you can go with those. One of the biggest things that we all know about is that Reed Richards and Sue Storm at some point get married. It seemed pretty obvious that the next chapter would involve them getting married, because [in the comic] they have kids and so on, so there were some things that were fairly obvious.
"I knew that Ben Grimm in his last story was all about him wanting to get out of this body that he's been "given", and now he is comfortable in it, so apart from him being comfortable, where else do you go with him and his girlfriend Alicia's relationship? Johnny, who is the biggest playboy and coolest kid that you can imagine, what responsibilities can you now throw on him that he actually has to deal with? And there's some other surprises that we've definitely taken the liberty to go into.
"I'd definitely have to keep them a surprise, but there's some stuff in there when you think about where else can you go with these powers and everything else we've taken full advantage of. In getting to the sequel you first start there and then of course the next thing is the idea that I wanted more action. We wanted to bring back Doom and have Doom be a real issue, and in bringing all of that together, I think we've accomplished quite a lot."
Were there specific elements of the mythology that you wanted to get into this film that you felt you weren't able to get into the first one? Aside from the Silver Surfer, obviously.
"Yeah, that's a really good question. I think that the first film, as much as I wanted to be able to expand a lot of other things, I think for the most part it hit on the family element. There was a big issue with the Fantastic Four taking advantage of their stardom and making money and being rich. For the comic book characters we have out there, they're some of the most well-off as far as just running a corporation.#nbsp; There was a lot of that I wanted to get involved.
"I wanted to bring the high-tech world to it in terms of Reed Richards, because in the first one the story really revolved around him not making a lot of money and I had more of an industrial space, and in this case I wanted the Baxter building to be a little bit more prone to what we know him for, which is technology. So it was all of those, and then of course like you said the Silver Surfer came in and hopefully we have an opportunity to take Victor and Reed's relationship somewhere else as well."
Generally in this genre the corporate world is the source of all evil. These are good people and still they're rich and they have corporate power - how did you make that work?
"We actually used exactly what you said to our advantage in the story, that these are good people and when it comes down to a group of people that have every intention of being good, once you have to deal with running a corporation and what headaches that brings to being who you are, I think any of us... They say money is the root of all evil. I don't know that I believe that 100%, but we took advantage of the fact that now they have all these other responsibilities in terms of business and everything else. We incorporated it into the story-telling in this next film. So we did have to finesse it but at the same time it really brought a good layer to the personal story that these four superheroes have."
Tell us a bit about the Fantasticar and your involvement in the design.
"It's just the coolest thing in the world. We tried to get the Fantasticar in the last movie and it didn't make sense for it to come that early. I just knew when this first started to come to the idea of doing a second one, the two top things that I started working on were the wedding and the Fantasticar. The Fantasticar is like the fifth character of the Fantastic Four, and it's just cool! Think about a flying car and it breaking up in pieces and them all having their own pod that they have to control, I just knew it would be as cool as it's starting to look so I just got into it immediately."
You've really been listening to your fans, and their requests for changes. What changes did you want to make from the first one?
"There are a lot of things. Of course one of the biggest things that I heard and knew about was the fact that they wanted Ben Grimm's brow bigger and bigger and bigger and bigger. We had it rather large at some point and found that the biggest problem we ran into was that you couldn't light his eyes, because anytime I lit a set, his eyes would be in shadow. Chiklis, who was so amazing at being this character, the last thing we wanted to do was hide his eyes from everybody, so we actually had to scale back the brow from what we were thinking we were going to go.
"They always wanted Doom to be more of a bad ass, and I've taken those ideas to heed. They wanted action, which was the main point that I got and I think we deliver on that 100%. So those are three of the top things. There were other things that I don't always respond to in my blogs or whatever the case may be, but I read. Not at this point, because now the movie's taken care of, but through preproduction and the early parts of filming, I continued to read things on the web and just anything that I can use and bring to the screen, I will.
Have you guys pretty much stuck to Don Payne's script, or have you needed him to rewrite or change things?
"I find that in most of these types of films, you look at a scene and go, 'Hey, we're going to have to add this subplot', or whatever the case may be, so we probably used about 75% of his original production script. Throughout the process, you get on the set with the actors and they bring up points that we wouldn't think about and we'd have to go back. Don is sometimes called right on the set; 'Don we need you to give me this' and 'I need a line for that' and 'I'm shooting in about two hours, so good luck!' He's doing some changes to what I'm shooting tonight right now, so it's always a rewriting process. We constantly go back - I'd be lying if I said we get the script and that's it. We always go back and try to improve upon what we've done.
These films are pretty fantastical, excuse the pun, but everything is rooted in reality - witness the straight-faced way the Fantasticar was explained to us. With this in mind, how do you go about making a character like the Silver Surfer believable?
"It's the situations that we throw him in. We've done a little situation where we've kept him away from human contact for as long as possible in the movie, just because we wanted to keep him more of a mystery and then when he does get into contact with people... there is something that I wish I could tell you but I can't or else I'll get in trouble! But there's a certain thing that you guys will find out about soon enough that keeps it very based in reality, and at some point it's a guy from space, so what are you going to do?#nbsp;
"Other than that it's the way we've gotten the character captured and even in the CGI that we do with him, how he moves, his speech and actually how he actually responds. He does have conversations in this movie, on two occasions particularly where you feel like you're talking to a real person has a history, that understands. And you see him react to emotions and so on. So we tried to just keep him - although he is a space man at the end of the day, he's an alien - we keep him very grounded in reality and I think you'll see that in the movie.
Why aren't you using Doug Jones's voice? [He's the Silver Surfer's motion capture actor, the man who also played in Abe Sapien in Hellboy and Pan in Pan's Labyrinth.]
"The plan was always to cast an actor for the voice. There is a chance we may stick to [his voice], because I must admit in editing him it sounds very good right now, so who's to know what's going to happen but the plan was from day one to always voice an actor and let that come through."
So can you talk about Johnny's powers in this sequel?
"Not at all. Not at all. [laughs] I'll just say that Johnny's powers are enhanced at some point in the movie and I think it brings a very fun and... a very big twist to what happens in the movie."
And the rest of the gang?
"You know, we just kind of found ways to make them bigger and better. There's things with Sue we weren't able to go into in the first movie. People know that she's able to create force fields and actually she's able to hover on top of her force field, so there's things like that. We didn't get a chance to really - excuse the phrase - stretch Reed's powers as much as we could have in the first one, and then it's always fun to just think about Johnny and think about what else he can do with his power.
"If you can go on fire, does it make you bulletproof? In the sense that a bullet comes at you, #nbsp;will it blow up or melt before it gets to you? Things like that. Can you go through walls? Because you can get so hot in supernova, you could pretty much melt through a wall and go through it. The fun part of this movie and the next movie is where can you take these powers and go further with them.
So does that mean you already have ideas for storylines and characters for the third, or even fourth Fantastic Four movie?
"I definitely have ideas. There are so many different characters. The ones that come to you immediately are Puppet Master, Mole Man, the Inhumans, the Skrulls - any of those. You immediately think of some of those guys and think what would be the coolest one, but one of the things we always do with the new villain - and I think this goes for any comic book movies - you think of the visuals and what would be the coolest thing to bring to screen and how? So I definitely have a couple of storylines that have been swirling in my head that I've already talked to Avi and Kevin about, and we'll see what happens."
We've seen a lot of comic book movies, a lot of big budget special effect bonanzas - how do you stop the mainstream audience getting bored?
"Well I think it begins with the characters. Of course it's cool to see somebody catch on fire and fly and this and that. At the end of the day I think you have to make the story compelling, because I think the audiences - and we're talking ten-year-olds -#nbsp; they're so savvy to it. It's not enough to blow up stuff. Even with the Silver Surfer having this cosmic blast that he has, the idea is not to have him use his hands when he does it.
"How can he emit this power without the normal hand gestures we're used to? Instead of seeing it go from A to B, how does the power travel? You have to constantly think of new ways, and we're lucky that with some of our characters, there's a lot we haven't seen before, and we were able to just go with it. But I think it always starts with character.
"They've always said the secret to Batman is Bruce Wayne, and I believe that. The secret to these kinds of characters is giving the people behind the superheroes the story, and I think once you do that, and you do that successfully, I think you'll be OK."
Will we see any other characters come out of the story? Like Frankie Raye?
"Wherever I can I try to throw in characters that maybe the world is familiar with.#nbsp; There's no other 'superpower' character in this film. Frankie Raye is just... if Johnny is going to have a relationship, then why not? And what happens with her in the future? It does open itself up for the third one. And then there's some hints at a couple of other characters in the movie that are thrown out at some point. We'll see if we ever take those leads and finish them in the third one. Stan does appear in the movie again and it's a really funny homage to Stan Lee and Jack Kirby. Stan was up there for one day and he was doing the wedding and it's a really great piece of film."
We thank the three gentlemen for their time, they've certainly been most generous. We stick around for a quick runthrough of a special effects-heavy scene by movie legend Scott Squires (Star Trek, Blade Runner, Willow, The Mask, Dragonheart, Starship Troopers, The Phantom Menace, etc), and then we hear the news - the cast are ready for us.
Read what Ioan Gruffudd, Jessica Alba, Christopher Evans, Michael Chiklis and Julian McMahon had to say for themselves next week! Or, if you're reading this after Monday 2 July - go read it now!
Writer
Apparently, Vancouver doesn't know how to handle snow. Yeah, it seemed pretty strange to us, too, when we were there visiting the Fantastic Four 2 set. The whole city was in the dual grip of a remarkably persistent snowstorm, and utter, bowel-loosening terror. Those crazy Canadians.
Even though it looked like Christmas had come early (Fox had very kindly invited us out there last November), we had more pressing issues to deal with. Not (just) foggy-headed jetlag, but the prospect of meeting all the crucial players in one of 2007's biggest movies - Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer.
Vancouver is an extraordinary city. It's kind of like Canada's version of Los Angeles; an awful lot of films and TV shows are made there, including an awful lot of sci-fi. When we (myself and other journalists from all over the world) were getting driven around the movie set, for example, we spied some Vipers from Battlestar Galactica. But I'm getting ahead of myself.
The next day started with a lunch appointment with a certain Don Payne, the scriptwriter. It was even right at our hotel, conveniently. He's one of the writers on The Simpsons, but was also responsible for the Uma Thurman/Luke Wilson superheroic romantic comedy My Super Ex-Girlfriend (I wish it had made more money, but it didn't. Maybe some people just don't want to see a super-powered woman beating up on a regular guy. I personally enjoy that!).
A quietly witty, unassuming man, I couldn't help feeling sorry for him as he tried to have a bit of lunch with dozens of reporters - all trying desperately hard to look as casual as possible - sitting all around him. All eyes were locked on the poor soul as some small talk fluttered around the table - inevitably, the moment he happened to say anything deemed remotely newsworthy, there was the sound of at least fourteen dictaphone-laden hands lunging towards him. Seconds later he was staring, bemused, at a remarkable collection of gently whirring gadgets jostling for position with his soup bowl. A scattering of slightly embarrassed laughter wafts around as he surveyed this sudden crop of blinking red lights (Oh wow. This is crazy.).
Let the interview begin! Oh, and if it feels like it's skipping around a bit, that's because various different people were asking their own questions, bombarding him from all sides. He fielded them well, to his credit. Here's Don:
I have been a Marvel comics fan since I was very little, and so it's kind of been my career goal to work on a Marvel film. I told my agent, as soon as I switched agencies, that I really wanted to work with Marvel - 'Can you get me in there, any way possible?' So he kept putting me in front of Avi Arad, you know, over and over again, and I think I just wore them down and they gave me an assignment.
So how long did it take to write the script?
You know, it's such a blur right now. You have to forgive me because I got off the plane about an hour ago. I was up 'til midnight working on a Simpsons outline, then I arrived here about four and a half hours later. If I'm coherent, I've accomplished something today. But no, it seems to be an ongoing process. I met with him (director Tim Story), and I wrote it in maybe six or eight weeks, something like that? But I've been talking about it with him before for a while, shooting ideas back and forth.
Did they have any specific comic book 'story arcs' they wanted to include?
They knew they wanted to use Silver Surfer. They knew that they wanted to use Dr Doom. And they had some ideas about where they wanted the characters to be at this moment in their lives, so I basically just took that and went with it. There are little surprises in there that I don't want to spoil. Where are the characters now? Well, Reed and Sue are engaged, and get married. Ben is at a pretty good place right now because of his relationship with Alicia, and he's more confident in his own skin. And Johnny is Johnny. He's got his own issues in this, that I don't want to spoil. He's pretty consistent.
Did you refer back to the comics a lot, or is it all new?
Well, yeah, I mean... you've always got to go back to the comics. That's the source material. Because we're doing the Silver Surfer story we're pulling from Fantastic Four issues 48 through 50 (the issues in which the Surfer was first introduced to the world), and we're also doing... 57 through 60. I believe it's a Dr Doom/ Silver Surfer story. And some moments from Ultimate Extinction as well, and some new stuff, kind of thrown in.
What's been the biggest challenge?
It's always challenging to come on board a franchise that's up and running, especially one that is so important to me, personally, and so important to so many people out there. You want to get it right. You want to make it fun. You want to be true to the comics, but be able to please the general audience as well, and make it entertaining for them. When you write a spec... before you sell it, it's this little universe you create. You're playing God, and you can do whatever you want. With a franchise film like this, especially one based on pre-existing characters, you can never do that, it's always it's got a history, and there are a lot of people involved. It's a studio, it's Marvel, it's the producers, it's the stories, the director and you're trying reconcile people's visions - and your own - and make it coherent, first of all, and entertaining and fun for everybody else.
How much of the film will deal with the 'dysfunctional family' aspect - it seems like there's a lot more action in this one?
There is a lot of action, but the characters have always been based on the dysfunctional family, from the first issue. I think that's how they were conceived. And so there is that, but there is a lot more action, absolutely. We're hitting the ground running.
What did you really want to make sure you achieved with your script?
I thought the one thing I really wanted to do on this was to make Reed Richards more of a leader than he was before. I thought that Ioan (Gruffudd) did a great job, but I thought the character could be a little tougher, and a little more assertive, especially when he's dealing with such strong personalities. He's got to rein them in and be in authority. I also wanted to make Dr Doom more evil and more like he is in the comics, push him away a little bit from the corrupt billionaire into somebody a little more threatening, intimidating. The only thing I'd say about Doom is that he's certainly progressing towards the Dr Doom that people know in the comics, much more so than the first film.
OK, so we have to ask... What about Galactus?
Who?
Oh, you wag.
Well, the film really focuses on the Silver Surfer. But you can't have one without the other, and I'm not telling any tales out of school, because Tom Rothman (big cheese at Fox) himself said they Galactus will make an appearance, but... that's all I can say.
Fair enough, what about the Fantasticar?
I love the flying bathtub, but this is not going to be a flying bathtub. (this isn't as nonsensical as it sounds, as the Fantastic Four's mode of transportation in the early days of the comic infamously looked like exactly that - a flying bathtub). They don't have it at the outset of the story. I'll say that.
Intriguingly vague. So, what other elements of the Fantastic Four comic will we be seeing for the first time?
I think everybody has heard about Frankie Raye being in there. There are references to other characters that I don't want to go into. See, I don't want to spoil anything! I mean I'm a geek who hates spoilers, I have to say. I'm paying a visit to the Battlestar Galactica set today, and I guess they're filming the season (two) finale, so I'm conflicted because I want to see it but I don't want to see it, so I'm staggering around...
Did you opt in for a third movie?
Well, I certainly think the door is open for a Silver Surfer spin-off, and I think that the franchise lends itself to a third film, yes, definitely.
You're not going to leave us with a cliffhanger, are you...?
It's... (he chooses his words very carefully) self-contained. There are all kinds of questions left unanswered, which I think could be the spawn of a future film, but it is self-contained. It's not Pirates of the Caribbean 2, or Empire Strikes Back, it's not that open-ended.
Phew. So what is your vision of the Silver Surfer?
I just saw a documentary online on YouTube, which accurately referred to the Silver Surfer as a fallen angel. And I think that's a good analogy. I think he's one of the most complicated characters in comic book history, maybe the most complicated, because he's done this amazingly selfless act by saving his own planet and giving up the woman he loves to save her life, and yet he's become part of this horrible genocide on a cosmic scale, and there's a moral ambiguity there. He's a noble creature who has got a zen-like detachment from his actions and ultimately starts to become human again, although he's not human!
Do we see his backstory?
The movie does touch upon his back story. I think it could be more fully explored in a Silver Surfer movie. For a lot of the film the Silver Surfer is a mysterious force of incredible power, and the Fantastic Four try and understand what he is and what his presence on the planet means.
This is a dream job for you - but what did you enjoy most?
I liked it all, man. I mean I loved writing for the four characters, because I know them. They were like a family to me when I was growing up as a kid. And the Silver Surfer was great - he's a challenge. You've got to maintain him as this mysterious presence, but also noble and very intelligent, but also dispassionate. I think he's going to look really cool, from what I hear. He's going to look very faithful to the comics.
It terms of tone, the first film felt like it was aimed at kids. How will the sequel compare?
Well, I mean it is a family film. It is for everybody, but I'm hoping that it's not dumbed down at all, in any way. I've been on The Simpsons for three years, and we've never tried to dumb it down for kids. Ever. We hope kids learn things by watching this. So I think it's going to be a great adventure story, for the whole family. It's dealing with serious end-of-the-world type issues, so I'm hoping kids like it, but adults and fans like it as well.
Are you putting much of that trademark Simpsons humour in there?
No. I'm not. I'm trying to think... there may be one reference to a Simpsons joke from a long time ago. See if you can find it. All the geeks out there; see if you can find it. I don't think anybody knows that I did that, actually...
How does Reed and Sue's relationship progress in Rise of the Silver Surfer?
I think that they are trying to figure out exactly how to make their superhero marriage work. How is this going to play out? Can they have a normal life and be superheroes? Can they raise a family and be superheroes? That's the big issue I think they face.
So does that mean we are#nbsp; going to see Franklin (their baby boy in the comics)?
I think we're talking hypothetically in the future. (He reacts quickly, to make sure we don't get the wrong idea!)
OK, fair enough, we had to ask... If you go down that path, aren't you in The Incredibles territory?
Well, I like the Incredibles but the Fantastic Four did it first. So I'd say that The Incredibles can worry about themselves.
And what about poor Ben and his lady, Alicia?
I love Kerry Washington and I love Alicia Masters. Her role is pretty much tied to her relationship to Ben. I'm hoping that if we ever do the Puppet Master story, that she'll have a much more expanded role, for obvious reasons.
Stan Lee has a cameo in virtually every Marvel film, so can we expect to see him again?
Yes. We'll see how much of it is in the final film. But I think it's important that Stan Lee show up for the wedding, with Reed Richards and Susan Storm, for obvious geek reasons.
I have met Stanley a couple of times, and I'm just deeply in awe of the guy. I mean I grew up worshipping him. His name was one of all these great icons in comics. He was actually on a Simpsons episode, and I met him there. He was really funny. He was always trying to turn into the Hulk. It was kind of sad, because he couldn't do it, and people kind of said, OK, Stan, sure... and he'd say, No, really, I can do it! It didn't make it in, but I pitched it. And at the very end he actually says, 'Oh great... Flame on!' and he flames on. He was a good sport.
Indeed. The cameo mentioned earlier is actually a recreation of a panel in an old Fantastic Four comic, where Stan Lee tries to crash the wedding but gets kicked out. How much attention was paid to the hardcore fan, the people who will really notice little things like that?
Well, I know what the fanbase wants, because I'm part of the fanbase. I'm one of them. I try to stay as true to the comics as I possibly can, but you can't do a literal translation from the comics to the screen, otherwise in the first Fantastic Four you'd be talking about beaming 'pinkos' into space. So there are changes you have to make.
The Baxter Building (The Fantastic Four's home and headquarters) is geographically just around the corner from this hotel - will it be undergoing many changes from the first film?
The Baxter Building, because they're more successful and are making more money, has been refurbished. As has Reed's lab. It's not as grungy. It's more high tech. It's slick.
Quite an important theme in the first film was Ben's horror at his new form, The Thing, and Reed's attempts to reverse the mutation. Does this continue into the sequel?
You know, I kind of ignored that, because at the end it seemed like he was capable of fixing him - and yet he chose not to be fixed. I didn't really want to play that out, so I don't really allude to that. I believe that he is now mutated to the point where he cannot be turned back.
There are a tremendous number of Marvel films either already in production, or gearing up. Which of them would you like to be attached to the most?
Oh, I love them all. I love the Spider-Man franchise. I love the X-Men franchise, obviously. Fantastic Four... I love the Avengers. I love Captain America. I love Iron Man. Who do I *not* like, that's the question. Dazzler? I don't know.
Poor Dazzler.
Nah, Dazzler's cool too. I'd do Dazzler. It's really exciting that Marvel is producing their own films, and it will be interesting to see how that pans out. I wish them all the luck in the world, and I hope they hire me. They've got a good group of writers who really know their source material and they are really talented, so I'm hoping some really good movies come out of there. I mean I want to see Iron Man. Don't you? That's going to be great.
What about DC...?
Surprisingly, I grew up as a Marvel kid, I really didn't know DC that well. Occasionally, like... Spider-Man vs Superman. I got that. And of course I know Batman and Green Lantern and most of the Justice League, but I haven't been following or reading their comics that much, except for big event things, like Identity Crisis. I read that, I thought it was excellent. And Dark Knight of course. That was great.
Out of interest... Why Marvel?
There was something about the Marvel universe that really appealed to me.#nbsp; It seemed more real to me than the DC universe, partly because it was New York, and Los Angeles, and the characters seemed more flawed in their secret identities than they did with DC's universe. I mean Bruce Wayne had his problems, but he was also a millionaire, so... Peter Parker was somebody I could identify with, at that age, somebody who was picked on, and nerdy, and it was a wish fulfilment thing for me. But hey, I like DC, I've been reading Ex Machina...
So have you been working on The Simpsons movie?
No, just the TV show. I know all the guys, actually, who are working on the movie. I haven't seen it, but I think it's going to be great. They're really talented funny guys, and I think it'll be a lot of fun. I like what I've seen so far.
Is it based on any particular episode?
No, it's its own self-contained thing. An original story.
So what else are you working on?
I think Brian Singer said, A movie is never finished, it's just abandoned. I love that quote, and feel like it's the same with a screenplay; it's never really finished. I don't think there ever been a movie where they said, 'Okay, here's the script, let's go shoot it!' And they shot it exactly like it is on the page. You're always futzing the stuff, and you get a call from the site saying, 'You know, this line, what do you think? Can you give me a couple of options here?' Or 'you know what, we don't have this location today, can we do this instead of this...?' So I've been doing a little bit of that, and working on Simpsons. I've been busy the past two years so I've really been spending a lot of time with my family, and enjoying that. But I've got a couple of specs I'm working on also, so we'll see how that pans out. One is kind of an action/romantic-comedy, and the other is a Men In Black/Ghostbusters kind of supernatural comedy... action... thing.
Now... important question. Have you been watching the TV show Heroes?
Yes! I love the TV show Heroes!
What do you think of the way they've approached a superhero story, episodically, on TV?
I love the fact that there are so many characters, so many good stories that can hook you in. If there's one that doesn't really appeal to you, just wait a minute; you're going to get something else that you like. I love that. And they're all origin stories - all origin stories are always really interesting. And I like the mystery of it all, like you wonder who's doing what, and what is their relationship? And what is their power? I think last night's - I didn't see it because I was working on that Simpsons outline - but I know it was six months earlier, and I thought that that was, it's on my Tivo right now, and I'm looking forward to seeing it. Don't spoil it for me! (Remember, this was back in November '06, we're sure he's had lots of chances to finish watching Heroes by now, the lucky devil.)
