The Fantastic Four News 1

=FANTASTIC FOUR REBOOT CONFIRMED=

Fox hires Batman & Robin scribe to oversee redo.
BY JIM VEJVODA 20th Century Fox has confirmed rumors from earlier this year that it will reboot its  Fantastic Four franchise by announcing the hiring of Oscar-winning screenwriter (and, ahem, fanboy favorite)  Akiva Goldsman to oversee the project. Before he became a producer on  Jonah Hex, won an Oscar for scripting  A Beautiful Mind, and made a bundle adapting Dan Brown's Robert Langdon novels into movies, Goldsman wrote the Joel Schumacher nipplefests  Batman Forever and  Batman & Robin. Variety reports that Fox has also set Heroes and Green Lantern scribeMichael Green to pen the screenplay. The trade adds that since the reboot deals are just getting under way, it's too early to tell if any cast members from the first two films -- Ioan Gruffudd, Jessica Alba, Michael Chiklis, Chris Evans and Julian McMahon -- will reprise their respective roles for the reboot. This contradicts reports from last March that claimed Fox wanted to completely retool and recast the franchise and replace director Tim Story.

The FF reboot news comes less than a day after it was announced that the Walt Disney Company had made a deal to acquire Marvel Entertainment for $4 billion. Word of the deal instantly spurred speculation that Marvel (and, hence, Disney) would inevitably reclaim those properties of theirs whose screen rights were held by other studios.

But, as Variety points out, "Fox controls Fantastic Four in perpetuity -- as long as it continues making the films. Fox has the same arrangement on Marvel Comics properties X-Men, Daredevil and Silver Surfer. Marvel is a producer and financial participant through a licensing agreement."

IGN Movies will bring you more news on the new Fantastic Four film as it develops.