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Paul wrote:1994 Trailer for the Fantastic Four movie (that they decided not to release) is on Reddit's front page today.

For perspective, Jurassic Park was released in 1993.

In 1983, German producer Bernd Eichinger met with Marvel Comics' Stan Lee at Lee's Los Angeles home to explore obtaining an option for a movie based on the Fantastic Four.[1] The option was not available until three years later, when Eichinger's Neue Constantin film company obtained it for a price the producer called "not enormous" and which has been estimated to be $250,000.[2] Despite some interest from Warner Bros. and Columbia Pictures, budget concerns precluded any production, and with the option scheduled to expire on December 31, 1992, Neue Constantin asked Marvel for an extension. With none forthcoming, Eichinger planned to retain his option by producing a low-budget Fantastic Four film, reasoning, he said in 2005, "They didn't say I had to make a big movie."[2] In September 1992, he teamed with B-movie specialist Roger Corman, who agreed to produce the film on a $1 million budget.[2]
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Eichinger then informed Sassone that the film would not be released. Speculation arose that the film had never been intended for release, but had gone into production solely as a way for Eichinger to retain rights to the characters; Stan Lee said in 2005 that this was indeed the case, insisting, "The movie was never supposed to be shown to anybody," and adding that the cast and crew had been left unaware.[11] Corman and Eichinger dismissed Lee's claims, with the former stating in the same article, "We had a contract to release it, and I had to be bought out of that contract" by Eichinger.[10] Eichinger, also in that article, calls Lee's version of events "definitely not true. It was not our [original] intention to make a B movie, that's for sure, but when the movie was there, we wanted to release it."[10] He said future Marvel film impresario Avi Arad, at this point, in 1993, a Marvel executive,

...calls me up and says, 'Listen, I think what you did was great, it shows your enthusiasm for the movie and the property, and ... I understand that you have invested so-and-much, and Roger has invested so-and-much. Let's do a deal.' Because he really didn't like the idea that a small movie was coming out and maybe ruining the franchise.... So he says to me that he wants to give me back the money that we spent on the movie and that we should not release it.[10]

Arad recalled in 2002 that while on a trip to Puerto Rico in 1993, a fan noticing Arad's Fantastic Four shirt expressed excitement over the film's upcoming premiere, of which Arad said he was unaware. Concerned how the low-budget film might cheapen the brand, he said he purchased the film "for a couple of million dollars in cash" and, not having seen it, ordered all prints destroyed.[12]

The thing is, this film might have done perfectly fine in, say, 1989.
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Here’s what I believe: If the studio had given the script to you and me, dear reader, we could have punched this up immeasurably within one week. And I don’t write that as a flip, idle boast; this dialogue is so devoid of humor...
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the climax feels like the mere midpoint of any Marvel Studios film — and the effect is that of a rushed school play trying to hit final curtain by curfew.

he said he purchased the film "for a couple of million dollars in cash" and, not having seen it, ordered all prints destroyed.

Paul wrote:The full movie is here:
http://www.dailymotion.com/video....rtfilms

Absolutely the best Fantastic Four movie made to date. I recommend it.

GORDON wrote:In other News, Fox executives were recently seen sitting around wondering if they could figure out how to cancel Firefly again.

Leisher wrote:More insider stuff about what went wrong.

This comes shortly after news that Marvel and Fox have done a ground-breaking deal for the X-Men TV rights – allowing 20th Century Fox to produce two new television shows based upon Marvel’s mutants.