Remembering the first attempt to make a Fantastic Four movie

In 1994, Roger Corman financed a low-budget version of The Fantastic Four. In some ways, it’s hilariously bad. The production values are about equal to the 1950s TV version of Superman. The Thing is basically just a regular-sized guy in a foam-padded costume, but that’s at least a pretty decent costume. The Dr. Doom outfit looks like one you could pick up at the last minute from Spirit Halloween.

The Corman version of the film was never released and no official prints were made, but the new film nonetheless recognized its legitimacy in the history of the franchise by giving the original Fantastic Four small roles. Two of them play newscasters and the other two play workers in a power plant.

Unofficial copies of the Corman version pop up from time to time. Here’s one:

And here’s the full story behind it.