Michael Bailey Smith: The Fantastic Four
Year:
1993
Role: Lead
Director: Oley Sassone
Ah, yes, the ill fated "The Fantastic Four". We had such great hopes for this film. This was going to be the film that was going to give a boost to our careers. Take us to the next level. It was a great movie about the comic book legend, "The Fantastic Four". But it never happened. The film was shelved. There’s been a lot of stories about what happened. Stories in Entertainment Weekly, L.A. Times and dozens of magazines. Here’s an actor’s point of view on what happened.
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First of all, I was thrilled that I got this part. I played Ben Grimm, "The Thing". Ben Grimm changes from human form to "The Thing", after an accident in space. For the first time, I got to play a character that wasn’t a bad buy. I got to play a character that was a lot like me. When I first got the part I thought I was not only going to play Ben Grimm but "The Thing" also. But production told me that they had hired a stunt man to play "The Thing", mainly because it took several months of pre-production getting the "The Thing" suit ready.
Carl Ciarfalio played the "The Thing" and he was willing to work with me to make sure that continuity between the Ben Grimm and "The Thing" remained the same. Carl is not only a great stunt man but a good actor as well. A real professional. Someone I try to emulate when working on the set.
It was a joy to play, Ben Grimm, because I just basically played myself. I got to act like a little kid, fall in love and experience the horrible change into "The Thing." There was a full range of emotion I got to experience with this character.
When we finished the film, the cast knew we had something. We knew that this could turn into a little gem. Alex Hyde-White (who played Reed Richards), Rebecca Stabb (Sue Storm – Invisible Woman), Jay Underwood (Johnny Storm – Human Torch), Joseph Culp (Doom) and I all felt that way. It really became apparent during the L.A. Comic Book Convention at the Shrine Auditorium. The production company, Concorde Pictures (Roger Corman), played a movie preview (trailer) at the convention to see the response. There must have been 500 people waiting for hours to see the preview. It was awesome! When the preview finished, we all heard a thunderous cheer from the audience. Right then, we knew we had something. We asked Concorde Pictures how promotion they were going to doe. They said that they couldn’t do much more promotion due to budget constraints. So that’s when Alex Hyde-White and I went to work. We hired a publicist and began to work on promoting the film. The only help we got from Concorde Pictures was production shots of the cast for the fans for autographs.
With the help of our publicist, Alex and I went to all the comic book conventions and stores through out country that we could. We showed the preview, talked about the characters, went to children’s hospitals, did TV and Radio shows, we did everything we possibly could to promote this film. It was fantastic seeing the look on people’s faces, their excitement and enthusiasm for the film, especially the little kids. We took a little low budget film that had no chance of really doing anything and generated enough publicity, enough heat that people throughout the country starting talking about it and were anxious to see it.
So, on in mid-January of 1994, we had it all set up. We were going to have a premiere at the Mall of America in Minneapolis, Minnesota. We had the Ronald McDonald House and Children’s Miracle Network tied into the premier, we had local and national TV and newspapers tied in. With our own money we did all of this. But, one week before Christmas, I got a call from our publicist. The film has been shelved and to stop all efforts in promoting the film. I was devastated. All that work, all of our hopes and dreams for this film, were gone. At the time, we did know why. All we knew was that no one was going to see this wonderful little movie.
What we did find out was that this film was a co-production deal between Nu Constantine and Concorde Pictures. Nu Constantine had the rights to the film and was going to lose them if they didn’t start production before 1994. So, they hired Concorde Pictures, who can start a film in production almost instantly. We started filming December 31 of 1993, which at the time I did think was a little strange because most of Hollywood slows down during this period. With Nu Constantine retaining the rights, it was their chance to continue shopping it around to the big studios. Not the finished movie of course, just the rights. They found a buyer in 20th Century Fox Studios. So, that was it. Some where in Hollywood, sitting on a shelf, collecting dust, is a wonderful little movie about four fantastic people who turn into super heroes and help save the world from the bad guys.
When I look back at what happen, there is still a little sadness. But it was a great experience meeting and touching the lives so many people that had a common bond with the Fantastic Four. Maybe the Visual Effects were not the greatest, but you know what, the story was great, the characters were great and all of the actors put 100% into the making the film very special.
What happened made me aware that this is ShowBUSINESS not ShowFRIENDS. It’s all about business. It’s all about making money. Like it or not, that’s the way it is. From this point on in my career, my perspective on the whole industry changed. Whenever I’ve finished a film or a TV show, I basically just let it go. I done my job as an actor and that’s all the control I have. But you know what, if I had to do it all over again… I would. Call me crazy, but I would.