Simon Kinberg talks The Fantastic Four and X-Men: Apocalypse

In a couple of recent interviews, producer and screenwriter Simon Kinberg was asked about THE FANTASTIC FOUR and the planned sequel, and talked a little about the upcoming X-MEN: APOCALYPSE.

We'll start with Simon Kinberg's conversation with Collider. Filming has begun on Josh Trank's new movie, and Collider asked Kinberg about the first few days of shooting.

“The energy on set is great.  Josh Trank is fantastic on set.  Really in command, really clear, and the thing that is most unique or defining about the new Fantastic Four is the tone.  We’re approaching it in a much more realistic, grounded, science rather than science-fiction way.  The playfulness or goofiness of those other movies is very, very different from what we’re trying to do, and that is true for the production design, the casting, the storytelling.  But you never know until you get on set how it’s all gonna start to feel, and just seeing those actors and seeing Josh, the way he’s articulating the tone and the way the actors are executing it gives me a lot of confidence that we’ll actually be able to make a cool Fantastic Four movie.”

Simon Kinberg goes on to say THE FANTASTIC FOUR will (of course) be converted to 3D.

"We’re definitely imagining the story in 3D as we’re making it, and it has powers that are well-suited to telling the story in 3D—not just Reed, but you have somebody that is on fire, and that’s something that can be immersive and scary.  The reason to use 3D in this Fantastic Four, I think, is to make the experience feel as immersive as possible, where you feel like you’re with the characters looking at themselves and looking at each other with these bizarre powers and feeling like they’re really interacting with you.”

A sequel to THE FANTASTIC FOUR has been announced even though the first film won't be in theaters until next summer, and Simon Kinberg talked a bit about the next movie.

“Well I think with a lot of these movies you have a sense that if it goes well you’re going to make another one.  If it’s a terrible disaster I don’t know that you ever get a shot no matter what the date is, but they have a lot of confidence in the movie and we have confidence in the movie.  And what I like about it is, as a writer you can start to think about, ‘Well what am I building toward?’

"That’s the thing that Marvel’s done so well, that’s what George Lucas did so brilliantly with Star Wars, the originals.  He started telling a story in Episode IV and he had a clear sense of what the backstories were and all of that.  You want to tell a coherent, complete story in each movie, but you can also start to think about and build toward how these characters evolve five years from now, ten years from now, and that’s just a cool way to tell a story.  It’s not that different as a sort of episodic storytelling than what comics do or what our favorite TV shows do.  You get to project beyond the two hours of the movie.”

Simon Kinberg also says already knowing there will be a sequel to THE FANTASTIC FOUR helps him as a writer.

“I think actually in some cases what it helps me do as a writer is it forces me to ask certain questions I may not do if I was just telling a one-off movie.  Meaning I have to ask questions of, ‘What is this gonna mean to them when they’re 30, 40, 50 years old?  Who are these characters going to become?’ because hopefully I’ll be writing them in three years, five years, seven years from now.  But those are not necessarily always questions you ask yourself when you’re telling a standalone movie, you sometimes are just like, ‘Who are they in the span of the three weeks this movie takes place?’ or ‘Who were they in the 30 years of their lives that preceded it?’ but you don’t really think past the confines of that film. I think there is an opportunity in this kind of storytelling when you can tell a bigger story, and you can actually even deepen each story by having it project across lots of episodes.”

Simon Kinberg doesn't talk too much about X-MEN: APOCALYPSE while speaking with SuperHeroHype, however Kinberg does say he is excited Apocalypse will be the main villain in the new movie.

"We want to tell the Apocalypse story and there's massive scale and scope to telling that story. There's going to be set pieces that I suspect are going to be bigger than anything we've ever done in an X-Men movie before and he's a great character. The biggest and funnest challenge of the Apocalypse movie to me is his character. How do you create a new villain for the X-Men world that is as good as any villain that's come before, is compelling philosophically as Magneto, not just in his physical powers, but in his philosophical depth. 'Apocalypse' is going to be a fun movie to write and make."

THE FANTASTIC FOUR will open on June 19th, 2015, and X-MEN: APOCALYPSE will be in theaters on May 27th, 2016.