10) David Cronenberg –Â Fantastic Four
As we’ve already mentioned, the Fantastic Four reboot was a pretty big mess, but it would be reductive to suggest that the whole film was bad. One of the highlights of the reboot were the few moments when Josh Trank explored the ramifications of the team’s powers. What would it feel like to wake up one day and discover that your skin is stretched out like rubber or that you’re permanently on fire?
Trank openly cited David Cronenberg as an influence on Fantastic Four, but most of the film’s body horror was lost in the editing process. Now, imagine if the actual master of body horror took a stab at the franchise. Sure, many people argue that the reboot needed more levity, but that wasn’t the real problem. No, the real problem was terrible editing, bad scripting and more blonde wigs than you could shake a stick at.
A Cronenbergian (yes, that’s an adjective) Fantastic Four would be the darkest Marvel movie yet, but with the famed horror director at the helm, this transition would feel far more natural and not just shoehorned in for the sake of it.
The likelihood that Fox would ever consider handing Marvel’s First Family over to the director of The Fly and Scanners is practically zero, but if DC gave him a chance, Cronenberg could also make a disturbingly brilliant Metamorpho film.
