By now most of us have read that Fox plan to do a Hulk style do-over to the Fantastic Four, and I for one am looking forward to it. The film is set to take a darker tone, though I feel it would be important that, while setting the film in a more real and therefore harsher world than the previous films, that the characters should not be turned into something they are not.

The Fantastic Four I want to see in a family of adventurers as was seen in Mark Wade's previous run and Mark Millar's current run on the comic book title. Having already seen the FF's origin in the previous film I do not feel it would be necessary to start from the ground up again, but rather give a quick recap of the origin as per The Incredible Hulk (2008).

I'd the film to be set well into the family's lives after the accident, presenting them as the world famous Fantastic Four that we all know and love. That being said I feel that although the family in itself should not be portrayed as dark I think that it is important that any threat they face be terrifying and credible.

So what threat should the FF face? Personally I would prefer to build up the threat of Doom in the first film in order to build up the anticipation of seeing him in a sequel just like the Nolan Batman film did with The Joker. I think Namor may be interesting to see if presented in a way akin to his first appearance in the Ultimate Fantastic Four series. Galactus has been done and so it unlikly that the filmmakers would want the revisit that event, at least at first. As I stated in my Avenger Movie post I would like to see the Skrull or their Ultimate counterparts The Chitari be seen as bing the threat in that movie, however if the Chitari could be presented differently from The Skrull then I thing this might be the way to go. Another idea would be to have the threat come from the Negative Zone. I think this will be the best option as it presents an established villain, Annihilus, and there are lots of faceless drones for cannon fodder.

Right, enough of the chit-chat, let's cast this bitch!

Eric Bana as Reed Richards / Mr. Fantastic










Yes Banna was once the Hulk but now that his version has been rebooted out it means he's free to give other Mavel characters a try. I think Bana would be a great choice for the constantly preoccupied but otherwise nice guy Reed Richards.

Naomi Watts as Susan Richards / The Invisible Woman










Naomi Watts is the only choice for me to fill this role; I just feel that not only does she have the right look but she is also believable as a strong character as can be seen in Funny Games (2007) and The Ring (2002).

Mike Vogel as Johnny Storm / The Human Torch










Vogel's character in Cloverfield (2008) was rash, hot headed, and ultimately heroic. It is that film that first made me thing that he would make a great Johnny Storm.

Liev Schrebier as Ben Grimm / The Thing










See Schrebier's performance as the surly tough Jewish militia man in Defiance (2008) and as soldier John Clark in the Sum of All Fears (2002) to see why I think he would be great in the role of the monstrous everyman Ben Grimm. For the thing, you need a great character actor to really bring out the charicters depth, and this is another reason that I think Schrebier is the right man for the job.

Ralph Fiennes as Victor Van Damm/ Dr. Doom










Fiennes is a fantastic actor and excels in playing the worst humanity has to offer such as in In Bruges (2008) and Schindler's List (1993). He also tops the current bad guy list as the inhuman Harry Potter villain Voldemort. Fiennes would bring the necessary coldness and class to the villain and has the acting chops to make him more than just the panto villain he is sometimes depicted as. And yes I would prefer the Van Damm surname; Von Doom is just too dumb.

John C Reilly as The Mole Man










This would be a personal favorite of mine as I love the actor and the villain. I do not think that Mole Man could carry a whole movie but I would like to see him as even a first act threat. Reilly is a highly versatile actor and could really bring the diminutive villain to life. Of course it would require some Benjamin Button style CGI to fit the 6'1" actor into the Mole Man's tiny frame.

Michael Emerson as Annihilus











Annihilus, I would imagine would either be a CGI generated character or and actor under some hefty Hellboy style make-up, either way, it will mainly be voice work that will be done on the character. I can think of no creepier voice than that of the bug-eyed manipulator Benjamin Linus from Lost.

So that's that, and most likely none of this wish list will come true. We can dream though.