Simon Kinberg, the writer and producer of X-Men: Apocalypse, was on the Happy Sad Confused podcast to promote the movie. Host Josh Horowitz inevitably asked about Kinberg’s other projects, including one of the Star Wars spin-offs (which Kinberg remained mum about), Fantastic Four, and X-Men: The Last Stand.
Kinberg is usually very candid about his projects, recently revealing that Wolverine 3 is “like a western” and comparing Channing Tatum’s postponed Gambit movie to a sexy heist film. He was also very candid about Fantastic Four and X-Men: The Last Stand, telling Horowitz all about his regrets with those projects. Regarding Fantastic Four, with its difficult production and reported $60 million loss, Kinberg reiterated what he’s said before about liking the cast, but not liking the tone.
“I don’t think that there is, in any movie that doesn’t work, a single decision that is the reason that that movie doesn’t work. I think that there were many decisions we made along the way that led to a movie that people didn’t like and to a movie that I would do differently next time. I think the biggest takeaway for me [is that] the tone of the movie, while really interesting and ambitious, ran counter to the DNA of the source material. I think the source material of Fantastic Four is bright, optimistic, poppy in tone. There’s a sort of plucky spirit to those characters, and we made a darker, sort of body-horror kind of version of Fantastic Four, which again as I say it now sounds really interesting and cerebrally ambitious, but isn’t necessarily Fantastic Four.” (transcribed by Comics Alliance)
He added that the Fantastic Four are still “a big part of the plan going forward” at Fox, so at least we may get a true-to-tone Fantastic Four movie someday. Kinberg added that he’d love to keep working with those actors, although it seemed like he was trying to avoid saying those actors would necessarily be working with him in a Fantastic Four movie.
Kinberg also spoke about his regrets with X-Men: The Last Stand, reiterating what he’s said before about not handling the Dark Phoenix storyline how he wishes he did. He said that it was treated as a B story when it should have been the primary story. I’m surprised he didn’t just explain The Last Stand by saying the words “Brett” and “Ratner” over and over.
Here’s the full interview:
Interview starts at 7:30. X-Men: The Last Stand at 16:30. Fantastic Four at 32:30.
(Via Comics Alliance and Earwolf)
