2016's Tribeca Film Festival, an event which celebrates New York City as a cinematic melting pot, held a public discussion between comedian Chris Rock and filmmaking auteur J.J. Abrams, both of whom grew up in the Big Apple. They sat down to chat candidly about everything from lens flares, Rey's parentage, to some of the more recent comic book movie failures. Chris Rock was especially critical of DC's latest step in a questionable direction, “Did you see that Superman Batman s***? What the f*** was that? I can’t say anything, they weren’t going to cast me anyway,” said Rock, probably in reference to the fact that he was cast in a Superman movie in the late 1990s at the height of his career in stand-up comedy, as Jimmy Olsen in Tim Burton's Superman Lives (but after seeing what Zack Snyder did with Olsen in Batman v Superman? Chris should be glad he wasn't cast, seems like he dodged a bullet there, literally.) The comedian, best known for his roles in Dogma, the Madagascar films, and Top Five, also poked fun at the notion of a mortal man going up against an invincible flying alien. “Superman can’t fight a guy that drives a car! He gets a flat. Like he’s gonna fight Superman. Needs Triple A, but yeah, he can fight Superman. He’s got jumper cables, and he’s going to fight Superman.” Sounds a lot less inflammatory than what he had said just seconds earlier.
Later on in the conversation, Rock makes a very interesting case for what J.J. Abrams' next tentpole blockbuster should be, "Okay, you're a comic book guy. Alright, I mean... could you direct a Fantastic Four? Could SOMEONE save it?" Abrams reacts reluctantly to the audience's timid laughter and applause by facepalming, and then shaking his head, but Rock continues,"I love the Fantastic Four and they keep f***ing it up! Like, god damnit. It’s the Fantastic Four!” after which J.J. asks, "Is that your favorite [superhero property]?" "That is my favorite of ALL of them! You know? And Spider-Man, too. But they've made FAR too many Spider-Mans." So contrary to what many in the industry now hold to be true, there is an audience for this, and there are still people willing to pay to see a Fantastic Four adventure come to a theater near them! So even though J.J. himself hasn't shown any interest in directing Marvel's First Family back to the big screen, he did offer the 51 year old comedian some solid advice, "Get in there with Denzel [Washington], man. You do it," to which Rock says he's "too old" to direct a superhero film. Given that, apart from Will Smith, he and Denzel are two of the only black actors in Hollywood capable of getting a movie made these days, (sad but true) what are the odds that Chris Rock's proposal for a J.J. Abrams-directed, Bad Robot-produced Fantastic Four film actually pans out?
- BUT WHAT DO YOU THINK? CAN FANTASTIC FOUR BE REVIVED, AND IS J.J .THE GUY TO DO IT? -
- SOUND OFF BELOW! AND IF YOU WANNA READ MORE ---> MY FANTASTIC FOUR SCREENPLAY -
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