‘Fantastic Four’ Reboot: Director Debunks New Origin Rumor But Fox Allegedly Warned Website For Infringement! Was It Actually Correct?
The "Fantastic Four" reboot movie has become the toast of the rumor mill in recent weeks. It did not sit well with Director Josh Trank. He used his Twitter account to personally refute the rumors-including one controversial claim.
The 'rumor' was about the purported plot synopsis which shows a different origin from the original comics and in the 2005 movie. The alleged plot synopsis was from Acting Auditions, which reads:
"The Fantastic Four will tell the tale of two very young friends, Reed Richards and Ben Grimm. After an event transforms the boys, they find themselves empowered with bizarre new abilities. Reed becomes a scientific genius who can stretch, twist and re-shape his body to inhuman proportions. Ben becomes a monstrous, craggy humanoid with orange, rock-like skin and super-strength. However, the two end up being owned by the government and used as weapons. But after they mature, two others with powers come into the picture - Sue Storm 'The Invisible Girl' and Johnny Storm 'The Human Torch.'"
Most rumor sites have reposted the synopsis, including (but not limited to) Flickering Myth and Screenrant. Josh Trank eventually debunked the synopsis through his Twitter account, and both the aforementioned sites posted an update along with Trank's tweet.
that synopsis is definitely not the synopsis or anything close to the synopsis. i don't know who put that out. byyee.
— Josh Trank (@josh_trank) January 24, 2014
However, Flickering Myth claims they received an email from Fox's legal department with regards to the plot synopsis they reposted:
"Yesterday, we received a rather nasty email from a legal representative from 20th Century Fox demanding that we remove the "purported plot details" regarding the studio's upcoming reboot of The Fantastic Four, despite the fact that director Josh Trank had previously debunked a synopsis (which we can't show you here, but a quick Google search should help you out) indicating an updated origin for Marvel's First Family."
Flickering Myth then concluded that the synopsis might be authentic, because of the email. They actually tweeted Josh Trank about it:
@josh_trank if the synopsis is false, why did Fox send us a nasty email claiming copyright infringement? — Flickering Myth (@flickeringmyth) February 6, 2014
Were the rumors actually correct? Did Fox send emails to the other sites as well? Only Flickering Myth came out and discussed it.
The alleged plot is derived from the Ultimate Fantastic Four, from Ultimate Marvel which is basically the entire Marvel Universe re-created. It should be noted that there was already an original script before Simon Kinberg was hired to revise it entirely. There were some speculations that the plot synopsis that leaked was based on the script that they decided to revise, but there is no verification to support this.
The only way to find out is to watch the movie on June 19, 2015.