Harry Potter Director on Why He Was Fired From Marvel’s Fantastic Four

Harry Potter director Chris Columbus is opening up about why he was fired from Marvel’s Fantastic Four movie that was released in 2005.

In addition to directing the first two Harry Potter movies, Columbus is known for helming movies such as 1987’s Adventures in Babysitting, 1990’s Home Alone, 1993’s Mrs. Doubtfire, and more. After writing a script for a Fantastic Four movie in the 1990s, Columbus was attached to produce the 2005 superhero movie directed by Tim Story; however, he was ultimately fired from the project.

What did Chris Columbus say about Fantastic Four?

Speaking with Hanna Flint, Columbus said about why he was fired, “We were in a weird situation on Fantastic Four, the first Fantastic Four. I had worked on a script, and there were a lot of writers involved. And then they were about to make the movie, and they were producing it, and I came in and met with the director and producer, and I had some ideas. I basically said, ‘Some of this conceptual art should feel more like Jack Kirby,’ who was the artist of the Fantastic Four. It should feel more like the Silver Age of Marvel. 

“I left that meeting and, on the way back to my house, I got a call from the head of 20th Century Fox saying you’re fired. You had too much of an opinion. Those two Fantastic Four movies, we had nothing to do with. We got an executive producer credit on them.”

Columbus said that he also wrote a Daredevil script and that he was “always obsessed” with Spider-Man, though he no longer has any plans to make a superhero flick.

“Over the years, people have done it so well that I sort of, personally, lost interest in making a superhero movie,” he explained. “I think it started a little bit with Spider-Man 2, when I saw what Sam Raimi did with Spider-Man 2. At the time, I thought it was a perfect movie. Then, bits and pieces along the way — the first Batman films, and certainly the latest, Matt Reeves’ The Batman with [Robert] Pattinson. That was a brilliant film. I realized I don’t have the desire to make those films, anymore. People are doing it better than I could ever imagine doing it at this point in my career, and I love what’s going on with it…Probably getting fired on the Fantastic Four films probably soured me a little bit.”

Originally reported by Brandon Schreur at SuperHeroHype.

Source: Comingsoon.net