Trivia
While Sue Storm is unpacking in the Baxter Building, in the background a signed photo of the band Devo can be seen.
Share this
To get through the long arduous make-up, Michael Chiklis spent the time in the make-up chair watching the Boston Red Sox, his favorite team, who happened to be breaking the "Curse of the Bambino" winning their first World Series since 1918.
Share this
It was Julian McMahon's idea inspired by his role on Nip/Tuck to have Victor's scars sealed by surgical staples.
Share this
It was Ioan Gruffudd's idea that Reed should continually be taking notes: "On a good day, I'd be writing formulas that I remembered from my algebra class in school, and on a day when I was really concentrating on the other actor, it would just be gibberish."
Share this
WILHELM SCREAM: used at least twice during the last fight of the film. Once as the bus is thrown, and then again shortly after.
Share this
As part of his costume for The Thing, Michael Chiklis wore prosthetic teeth. To prepare himself to speak with the prostheses, Chiklis wore them when reading to his children.
Share this
Michael Chiklis, the only one of 4 title actors already familiar with the comic book, has been a devout "Thing" fan since childhood, and eagerly fought to have a "real" Thing rather than a computer-generated character. wore 60 pounds of latex which took three hours to get into. To keep Chiklis cool in the suit, a rock was removed from his head and cold air was sprayed into the gap between the suit and the actor.
Share this
Several moments in the movie take their visual cues from Jack Kirby's work in the very first issue of Fantastic Four: The cosmic storm is depicted with the same bullet-shaped rays from the origin. Ben possesses the lumpy craggy face from his earlier appearance rather than his more familiar beetle-brow. Johnny races against a missile like he does in the opening act of the comic. Johnny's flame-form is a smoldering pillar of fire like it was in the earlier comics rather than the more familiar burning man look. Ben smashes into an oncoming truck in an angle identical to the one given in a panel where he exits a manhole directly in the path of an oncoming car.
Share this
The script was developed for over ten years. The final writer was Simon Kinberg, who worked on the movie throughout its production.
Share this
Jessica Alba had a kidney infection during the filming and nearly fainted when she was with Julian McMahon in the space station scene.
Share this
Just after Victor throws his doctor into the X-Ray light, we see Reed writing on the board. The writing visible is the Acid-Dissociation Equilibrium (Ka) expression for nitrous acid (HNO2). It reads [H3O+][NO2-]/[HNO2]. It has absolutely no relevance to the plot or any of the other scientific ideas in the film.
Share this
Ali Larter, Julia Stiles, Kate Bosworth, Rachel McAdams, Scarlett Johansson, Elizabeth Banks, KaDee Strickland were considered for the role of Susan Storm/Invisible Woman.
Share this
A one-minute sequence showing Johnny Storm morphing into a ball of flames and soaring over Manhattan took 4 months to create. The background was an entirely digitized rendering of New York City.
Share this
When Peyton Reed was attached as the director, Renée Zellweger was considered for the Sue Storm/Invisible Woman role.
Share this
This feature is included in the first wave of Blu-Ray releases by Fox. A total of five movies were included in this initial wave. The others were Ice Age, Behind Enemy Lines, The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen and Kiss of the Dragon.
Share this
Not the first Fantastic Four movie. Another was made (The Fantastic Four) but never released because, unbeknown to the cast and crew, it was never intended to BE released; it was made only because the studio that owned the rights to make a Fantastic Four movie would have lost them if it did not begin production by a certain date.
Share this
Victor foreshadows Mr. Fantastic and The Thing before the storm scene happens. He firstly comments on Reed Richards 'stretching' for the stars during the meeting, then later jokes about Ben Grimm doing 'all the heavy lifting'.
Share this
The action sequence on the Brooklyn Bridge was shot using a 200-foot set erected against a blue screen in a Vancouver parking lot and then later enhanced with CGI views of Manhattan.
Share this
20th Century Fox hired director Tim Story after his ensemble work on the Barbershop comedies.
Share this
Ioan Gruffudd was very excited about showing off to his Welsh parents that he was working on a major Hollywood production. Unfortunately, the day they came to visit him on set, he was filming an elevator scene.
Share this
In the early 1990s Bernd Eichinger's option on the rights to The Fantastic Four were about to expire, to avoid this he commissioned Roger Corman to make a film (The Fantastic Four) as quickly as possible so he could keep hold of the rights. This was mainly to thwart Chris Columbus who was after the rights at the same time. Corman's version only cost $2 million, neither him or his cast and crew knew that the film was dumper-bound. It has however been seen in bootleg and download versions, with the general critical consensus being that it was a terrible movie.
Share this
Ioan Gruffudd's efforts to keep an American accent continually were hampered by the fact he would receive new script pages on a regular basis, forcing him to learn new lines at short notice.
Share this
Laurie Holden, who plays the fiancée of Michael Chiklis's character Ben Grimm, would later appear alongside Chiklis in the final season of his TV series The Shield.
Share this
Reed's smart phone, which he uses to control the holographic presentation at the beginning of the movie, is a Samsung SPH-i700 on Verizon. Verizon was a marketing partner for the film.
Share this
Jason Schombing, who plays the suicidal man, was recommended by his good friend, Michael Chiklis (the Thing, who rescues him).
Share this
During the pier conversation between Reed and Sue, not only were the actors not together (which is relatively common in filmmaking), they weren't even in the same country. Jessica Alba was filmed in New York City, while Ioan Gruffudd was filmed in Vancouver, BC, Canada.
Share this
When Johnny holds up a Thing toy (it says the "Clobberin' Time" line), it's a figure from Toy Biz's 2002 line of "Marvel Legends" action figures, a line of highly-detailed toys based on various characters from Marvel Comics. The particular figure shown is from the second wave released, and was packaged with a reprint of "Fantastic Four" (volume one), #263.
Share this
For most of the shoot, Michael Chiklis was terribly uncomfortable in the hot Thing suit. The final street battle, however, was filmed in Vancouver in December, leaving Chiklis as the only comfortable one of the four (the rest were in the skintight blue uniforms).
Share this
While being examined by Reed, Ben mentions that he used to smoke. In the comics, the Thing used to smoke cigars, up until the early '90s, when Marvel's new editor-in-chief, Joe Quesada, instituted an "anti-smoking" policy for all the company's characters, banning them from being shown smoking on-panel.
Share this
During final showdown scene between the Fantastic Four and Dr Doom, which was shot in winter, Michael Chiklis was the only one who wasn't cold, since he was wearing the Thing costume. The rest of cast were freezing, wearing flimsy costumes.
Share this
During development Chris Columbus pushed for the film to have a heavily comedic tone along the lines of the Batman TV series. Despite being hired because of his comedy background, Tim Story was able to persuade Columbus that going for an outright comedic tone would end in disaster, and pointed to the success of Spider-Man as proof that the film could still contain plenty of humor while having a generally serious overall storyline.
Share this
Cameo
Stan Lee:
Although Lee has made cameos in many Marvel movies, this is the first time he has played a character from the comics: Willy Lumpkin, the Fantastic Four's kindly old mailman. His line was supposed to be, "Welcome home, Dr. Richards," but he changed it to, "Welcome back to the Baxter Building, Doctor Richards!"
Share this
Ralph Winter:
the film's producer, playing the construction worker at the end of the film who closes the container door on Dr. Doom.
Share this
Richard Ho:
one of Wizard magazine's staff writers, appears as one of the reporters in front of the Baxter Building in a crowd sequence. Wizard is one of the most successful and popular magazines about the comics business.
Share this
Spoilers
In the very last scene of the film, the now inanimate Dr. Doom is being shipped on a cargo vessel with the word "Latveria" on the stern. In the Marvel Universe, Latveria is the country that is consistently under Dr. Doom's control.
Share this
During the scene outside the Motocross arena, the surrounding advertising helps tell the story. As Ben hurls Johnny, flaming, into a Burger King sign, the sign reads, "Fire Grilled Perfection". As the fight progresses, we see SoBe "Adrenaline Rush"...and finally, the super hero's top rule against killing is represented by Mountain Dew Code Red..."Live By the Code".
Share this
