Reed Richards (Alex Hyde-White) and Victor Von Doom (Joseph Culp) are college students and friends. The two have been working on a special project for the last four years. The experiment requires the harnessing of energy produced by a radioactive comet-like energy source, called Colossus, which is predicted to pass by the Earth that night. If they can harness the energy from the comet, it can be used to power a spaceship. The experiment goes horribly wrong. Victor is zapped with electricity and dies.
Ten years later, Reed is still working on the project along with another friend, Ben Grimm (Michael Bailey Smith). By now they have built the experimental spaceship and are ready to try the experiment again when Colossus once again passes by the Earth. Ben is the designated driver of the spacecraft. To round out the crew they bring on sister and brother team, Susan and Johnny Storm (Rebecca Staab and Jay Underwood).
One of the main components of the ship is a giant diamond that is used to protect the inhabitants of the ship from the comet’s radiation. The night before the experiment, the large diamond is stolen and replaced by a fake. The culprit is a sewer rat known as the Jeweler (Ian Trigger). The switch leaves the crew exposed to cosmic rays. The spaceship crashes and the crew members find that they have gained superpowers. What they don’t know is that Victor Von Doom did not die years ago in the first experiment but has also gained superpowers. Now calling himself Dr. Doom, Victor blames Reed for what happened to him and vows to destroy Reed and the other Fantastic Four members.
“The Fantastic Four” was created in 1994 and was directed by Oley Sassone. It is a science fiction superhero adventure film that was never released anywhere. In essence it is the movie that was never supposed to be.
In the 80’s, German film producer Bernd Eichinger purchased the rights to the Fantastic Four from Stan Lee. The rights to the characters were set to expire in 1992. With time running out, Eichinger approached Roger Corman to bring it together quickly and cheaply. This is where things get a little contradictory. Some say that Eichinger never intended to release the film, only to hold on to the film rights. Others say that the film was to be released and that a premier was planned but then canceled and the film, for whatever reason, was shelved. Eventually Eichinger sold the rights to 20th Century Fox, I think sometime in 2002. From my understanding Fox was doing their own Fantastic Four film and didn’t want competition so Fox destroyed all copies of the film that they could get their hands on. Or so the story goes.
The film was available to watch on YouTube at one time. I think it has since been taken down, but bootleg copies can be found in various low places, especially at comic book conventions.
The thing about “Fantastic Four” is that it’s not bad. It is low budget, especially compared with other similar films, however, the special effects were pretty decent, as was the acting. It has some camp and awkwardness in parts, and the story was average, but the overall movie was fun and full of action. It’s certainly worth a peek. It even has the MARVEL scroll at the beginning of the film.
Bernd Eichinger was the producer of the Constantin Film Production Company. They produced quite a few of the West German krimi films as well as the “Resident Evil” films.