“Doomed! The Untold Story of Roger Corman’s The Fantastic Four” (2015) is disingenuous in some ways, but I was still thoroughly engaged by writer-director Marty Langford’s documentary. It chronicles a strange incident in the history of superhero cinema: Bernd Eichinger’s Constantin Film and producer Corman made a “Fantastic Four” film in the early 1990s for the ultra-low (in film terms) price of $1 million, and then it was not released – except via bootlegs, which is why it has a cult following and why this docu is able to show clips.
Key players quoted
Despite the title, this is not the first instance of the story being told – the docu even cites previous articles — but “Doomed!” does bring together director Oley Sassone and all the main actors for lively interviews.
This is partly a straightforward “making of the movie” chronicle, and it’s neat to see Thing’s monster suit and mask by John Vulich, later renowned for making great monsters on the cheap on TV’s “Buffy.” And it’s partly one long expression of bafflement from the cast and crew that they made a big-franchise movie that wasn’t officially released.
Drawing suspense
Langford tries to draw suspense out of the reason why it was never released, but doesn’t stick the landing. In factual terms, the answer is fairly simple, but “Doomed!” doesn’t explain it well; I had to do further research online.
What happened was that Marvel’s Avi Arad purchased the finished film for the same price it cost to make, so Eichinger broke even. Arad benefitted by not having the “FF” brand tarnished with a cheap film.
Eichinger benefitted because by making the film, he retained the license, whereas it would’ve reverted back to Marvel otherwise. When the next three “FF” movies were made (in 2005, 2007 and 2015), his company remained the license holder. “Doomed!’s” viewers would’ve been well served by a graphic illustrating the contractual agreements.
Conspiracy theory
One of the actors expresses the juicy conspiracy theory that “The Fantastic Four” was never intended to be released; that Eichinger rushed it out only for the sake of retaining the license and that Arad was always going to buy the film and bury it.
“Doomed!” includes robust evidence that everyone expected the film to be released, and the fact that Arad’s offer to buy it came late in the game. Plus, one can use common sense: The two parties could’ve come to the same end point with an extension of the license, without having to involve anyone else. So it’s somewhat irresponsible to not clearly shoot down this conspiracy theory for its lack of proof.
Langford leans into the oddity value of a big-fanbase film not being released, but he makes it seem like this is unheard of in Hollywood. It’s not, although it’s more of a thing on TV, where unreleased projects are built into the industry’s very structure.
For example, a “Wonder Woman” pilot episode was made and not picked up in 2011. You can see it on YouTube because someone leaked it (as someone did with 1994’s “Fantastic Four,” which can be found on disc for about $15). As with most TV pilots that don’t go to series, “Wonder Woman’s” was not intended to be released.
What’s more, plenty of TV shows and movies are what I like to call “underreleased.” In TV, this means an episode aired once, but if you missed that airing, you missed your chance to ever see it. In movies, this often means a film was released in a limited quantity on VHS but not on disc or streaming; you can perhaps find a rare VHS copy for, say, $50.
This can happen even to projects with big names attached, or people who later become big names. For instance, I have attempted to do complete watches of the catalogs of David Mamet and John Hughes for my blog, and there’s one hole in each series because of an underreleased entry.
Abandoned work
“Doomed!’s” biggest value is in showing the way actors and a director feel when their work is abandoned by their bosses. They received paychecks – although some spent their own travel money to hype the film at conventions – but didn’t have the opportunity to have future employers see this work.
(Then again, from the film clips within the documentary, would they really want to? However, I should admit I have not seen the film, which rates a 3.8 on IMDB.)
“Doomed!” is worth watching for an unusual chapter in superhero movie history, but beware of its conspiracy mongering and claims of uniqueness. The talent behind “The Fantastic Four” got a raw deal, but there’s not enough evidence to justify the documentary’s additional – and unnecessarily confusing – rabbit holes.