Forsaken: The Making and Aftermath of Roger Corman’s The Fantastic Four

by William Nesbitt

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 cancelled 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 cast, crew, and producers, and featuring over two dozen exclusive photographs, 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.

Genres: Audiobook

370 pages, Paperback

Published December 3, 2019

Reviews

[David Weathersby · Rating 4 out of 5]

It’s a book of interviews, not exactly an oral history, surrounding the making of 1994’s “Fantastic Four”, a movie that was never released. The book serves as a good companion to the documentary “Doomed”. It expands on what was shown there, and since the book was written several years after the documentary, it also provides an update. It’s an impressive bit of work to track down all of the still living people involved with the movie, save for one, which is explained. It’s a very nice testament to early 90s and low budget filmmaking. The only reason it gets nicked a star, there are some errors (typos?) that made it through on dates of movies. For example, it lists “Howard The Duck” as 1989, but that was 1986. Otherwise, this is a very interesting and informative book that may provide the final answer on why the ‘94 film was never released.

[Jason Henwood · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed the audiobook which was narrated by the cast and crew of the original 1994 film. Strangely though, the actor who played Reed Richards could not stop himself from ad libbing during his narration. He interjected nearly every few minutes. Most of the time it was funny or he added some meaningful information; however, a few times he blatantly disagreed with points the author was making and criticized the text. It was a little jarring.

[Chuck White · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great set of interviews from almost all the key players involved in making the film, that help to shed light on the complicated history of its non-release.

This would have been a 5-star rating, except for the rampant typos throughout the text.

Highly recommend a another pass at editing this book, prior to a second print.

[Ben · Rating 5 out of 5]

Bought this immediately after watching the Doomed documentary, hoping to know as much as I could about this fascinating little film.

All-in-all, I was very pleased. The interviews conducted give an even wider look into the production of the shelved 90s flick, and help to almost fully round out the details of what went on.

Give it a read if you're a fan of Fantastic Four, Marvel, or the MCU. You might just learn a thing or two.

[K M · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fascinating look behind the scenes of a movie that has never been released. I especially enjoyed critiques of modern day superhero movies. Watch Doomed, the documentary before starting with this book.