In December of 1992, filming began on a secret Fantastic Four movie. Several months earlier, Bernd Eichinger met with legendary producer and director Roger Corman about making the movie before his rights expired at the end of the year. The movie was finished in 1993 and scheduled for a 1994 release. Before the premiere, Marvel bought the film and the negative was destroyed. The Fantastic Four would never be seen. However, a single copy made during a routine transfer leaked out and found its way to comic conventions and eventually to the internet. Marvel refuses to recognize its existence.
Was the film bought up and canceled to preserve the integrity of later Fantastic Four films? Was Marvel unable to bear being cut out of the making of one of its biggest properties? Was the movie just a desperate move on Eichinger’s part to extend his option and give him leverage with Marvel? And what was Corman’s part in all of this? Was he a partner in some larger conspiracy, was he fooled along with the cast and crew into thinking this would be released, or did he have his own hidden agenda? Who knew what when?
Drawing from extensive interviews with the cast, crew, and producers, the true story behind the first Fantastic Four movie ever and one of the greatest Hollywood mysteries is finally revealed a quarter of a century later. Shelved. Burned. Hidden. Forsaken.
