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trivia

Chris Columbus, Raja Gosnell and Peyton Reed were each attached as director at some point.
Not the first Fantastic Four movie. Another was made (_Fantastic Four, The (1994/II)_ ) but never released because, unbeknown to the cast and crew, the movie was never intended to be released and was made only because the studio who owned the rights to make a Fantastic Four movie would have lost the rights if they did not begin production by a certain date.
Steven Soderbergh and Sean Astin were both interested in directing.
George Clooney and Brendan Fraser were considered for the part of Reed Richards.
Paul Walker was considered for the part of Johnny Storm.
Julia Stiles, Kate Bosworth, Rachel McAdams, Elizabeth Banks, KaDee Strickland were considered for the role of Susan Storm/Invisible Woman.
Tim Robbins was considered for Dr. Doom.
James Gandolfini was considered for the role of Ben Grimm/The Thing.
The film has nearly 900 special effects shots.
A one-minute sequence showing Johnny Storm morphing into a ball of flames and soaring over Manhattan took 4 months to create. The entire background was an entirely digitized rendering of New York City.
A replica of a part of the Brooklyn Bridge was constructed on-set in Canada.
While Sue Storm is unpacking in the Baxter Building, in the background a signed photo of the band Devo can be seen.
Contains over 25 cameos from real life employees of Fox television affiliates.
To get through the long arduous make-up, Michael Chiklis spent the time in the make-up chair watching the Boston Red Sox, his favorite team, who happened to be breaking the "Curse of the Bambino" winning their first World Series since 1918.
Inspired by his role on "Nip/Tuck" (2003), it was Julian McMahon's idea to have Victor's scars sealed by surgical staples.
It was Ioan Gruffudd's idea that Reed should continually be taking notes: "On a good day, I'd be writing formulas that I remembered from my algebra class in school, and on a day when I was really concentrating on the other actor, it would just be gibberish."
WILHELM SCREAM: used at least twice during the last fight of the film. Once as the bus is thrown, and then again shortly after.
As part of his costume for The Thing, Michael Chiklis wore prosthetic teeth. To prepare himself to speak with the prostheses, Chiklis wore them when reading to his children.
Michael Chiklis was offered the role of Thing after Jennifer Garner suggested him for the role.
Cliff Curtis read for a role in the film.
Michael Chiklis, The Thing, is the only of the 4 to have read the comics.
It took three hours to get Michael Chiklis into The Thing suit.
Although Stan Lee has made cameos in many Marvel movies, this is the first time he has played a character from the comics: Willy Lumpkin, the Fantastic Four's kindly old mailman.
To keep Michael Chiklis cool in the Thing suit, a rock was removed from his head and cold air was sprayed into the gap between the suit and the actor
Several moments in the movie take their visual cues from Jack Kirby's work in the very first issue of Fantastic Four: The cosmic storm is depicted with the same bullet-shaped rays from the origin. Ben possesses the lumpy craggy face from his earlier appearance rather than his more familiar beetle-brow. Johnny races against a missile like he does in the opening act of the comic. Johnny's flame-form is a smoldering pillar of fire like it was in the earlier comics rather than the more familiar burning man look. Ben smashes into an oncoming truck in an angle identical to the one given in a panel where he exits a manhole directly in the path of an oncoming car.
Cameo: [Ralph Winter] the film's producer, playing the construction worker at the end of the film who closes the container door on Dr. Doom.
The script was developed for over ten years. The final writer was Simon Kinberg, who worked on the movie throughout its production.
Michael Chiklis fought to have a "real" Thing rather than a computer-generated character.
One of Wizard magazine's staff writers Richard Ho appears as one of the reporters in front of the Baxter Building in one of the crowd sequences.
Jessica Alba had a kidney infection during the filming and nearly fainted when she was with Julian McMahon in the space station scene.
Was shipped to theaters simply under the name "Bug".
When Peyton Reed was attached as the director, Renée Zellweger was considered as Sue Storm/Invisible Woman
At one point Susan Storm looks at an issue of People Magazine with her face on the cover. Also on the cover is James Marsden with the headline "James Marsden eyes next superhero role" and Rebecca Romijn with the headline "The Mystique of Rebecca Romijn".
According to the actors in the DVD commentary, Marvel Comics founder Stan Lee, who makes a cameo appearance as the mailman, was supposed only to say, "Welcome home, Dr. Richards." Instead, Lee says, "Welcome back to the Baxter Builing, Doctor Richards!"
Just after Victor throws his doctor into the X-Ray light, we see Reed writing on the board. The writing visible is the Acid-Dissociation Equilibrium (Ka) expression for nitrous acid (HNO2). It reads [H3O+][NO2-]/[HNO2]. It has absolutely no relevance to the plot or any of the other scientific ideas in the film.

goofs

When Victor Von Doom is shown proposing to Sue Storm in the space station, for a brief moment you can see a reflection of the blue screens they used to create "space".
As Susan Storm is containing the Super Nova being created by Johnny Storm her nose begins to bleed, but seconds later there is no sign of blood on her face.
When the Fantasic Four are at the breakfast table, the fork that Ben Grimm is eating his fruit with changes shape between camera shots. Also the fruit on the end of the fork disappears and reappears between shots.
During scenes that are supposed to take place in New York, you can clearly see the Burrard and Granville bridges. These bridges are in Vancouver, not New York.
After his exposure to the cosmic storm, Reed's hair turns very grey at the sides. When we next see him, it is almost gone. The volume of grey hair changes throughout the film.
When The Thing walks into the bar his footsteps are heavy enough to bounce the pool table and make the jukebox music jump, yet the drinks on the tables don't move at all.
During the motorcycle show you can hear the announcer speak, during an overview shot, but you can clearly see that he doesn't have the microphone near his mouth.
As Von Doom is watching Mr. Fantastic on his monitors as he's doing the equations on the blackboards, the final underlined statement is already on the board - then Mr. Fantastic goes and writes it on the board, underlines it, and retracts his arm.
When the "Thing" gets out of the police van, you can see a blanket under the van which hides the hydraulic rams (so the van can move up and down because of the Thing's weight.)
When Sue Storm picks up the memories book that she finds in a drawer in the Baxter Building, she opens the book twice.
When Johnny jumps off the building and finally yells, "Flame on!" he flames up, then in the next shot, he flames again.
When Victor and Ben fall through the ceiling when in the pool, the water rushes down a hall towards some man. In the next shot he's gone, but then in the next shot, he is back again and rushing into the room.
When Ben smashes the Thing action figure against the wall, someone is standing in the hotel lobby and is pushed off camera by a crew member.
In the last shot, after Von Doom's assistant talks to some crew members on the back of the container boat, they walk off-screen. When the camera zooms out there is no sign of them.
When Mr. Fantastic gets thrown out of a building and remains hanging outside the entrance, a lot of people gather around him. But when Von Doom comes down and grabs him, the people have disappeared.
When Johnny Storm is coming out of the motorcycle show, he has his arms round the shoulders of two women. In the next shot he is linking arms with them then in the next shot, his arms are back round their shoulders.
When the Johnny jumps off of the Baxter building and turns into the torch, as he is flying, the "4" on his chest shown in the CG flames is a MIRROR image of the actual 4 on his real uniform.
It is stated during the 'super nova' sequence that Johnny's temperature of 4,000 degrees Kelvin (3,727 Celsius / 6,740 Fahrenheit) is near to 'the temperature of the sun' and that were he to get any hotter, he would ignite the atmosphere of the planet. In fact, this is a discredited idea from before the earliest atmospheric nuclear tests, and nuclear fireballs with temperatures of tens of thousands of degrees have had no such effect.
When the bird lands on the Thing and poops on him, the bird dropping is in front of the bird, not back.
When Von Doom is removing the metal pieces from his scar, the scar is on the right side of his forehead. Later, when Vondoom is looking in the mirror, the scar has moved to the left side of his forehead. After this the scar remains on the right-hand side.
During the scene on the bridge, when Reed Richards reaches for the firefighter, his arm extends, but so do his clothes (he was wearing a suit). However, nobody else's clothes have the same effects as their powers and they do later say that the only clothes that act like their powers are their uniforms.
As the FDNY ladder truck is responding to the car accident on the bridge, the rear cab is clearly visible. This is where the rear tires of a tiller type ladder truck are steered from. When the ladder truck is hanging off of the bridge, the cab has disappeared. The bridge has sustained major damage due to the ladder truck collision, but the ladder truck is surprisingly still intact. Also, the main ladder on fire trucks are operated by hydraulics. It would not be possible for the main ladder to slide out, as it did while dangling over the side of the bridge.
When Ben (The Thing) and Von Doom are fighting in the street, Von Doom hits Ben hard enough to send him sprawling. When Ben falls, the street below him starts to crack and break into pieces BEFORE he lands.
During the first interview scene on the bridge, Johnny hugs Ben and you can see that his shoulder is actually soft foam, not rock.
Johnny Storm watches as Reed Richard's arm stretches across the hallway and retracts holding a roll of toilet paper. However, his arm shows that he is still dressed in his stretchable unitard. To use the lavatory, most people remove a one piece outfit by taking their top off. Richards' arm should have been bare.
When the waitress sets the stack of pancakes in front of Ben in the diner (with Von Doom), the butter pat slides off the side. In the next shot, the butter has magically jumped back to the top center of the stack, and stays there for the rest of the scene.
When Ben is attempting to rescue the jumper, he falls back and off of the girder. In one shot, he's hanging firmly from the girder, but in the next shot, his fingers are securely grasping the wire below.
When the firetruck is hanging from the bridge the fire fighter on the ladder faces towards the water below, then away, and changes several times during different shots.
When Ben (The Thing) goes to punch Jonny Storm outside the motorbike track after Jonny had thrown fire at him (Ben/The Thing), Reed is standing by Jonny. But when The Thing goes to punch Jonny, Reed is standing in front of Jonny.
When Doom hits most people with his electricity, they are killed instantly, but when he does this to Susan, she isn't killed, or even weakened for that matter.
When Johnny "flames on" in regular clothes, they are always burned off. However, this doesn't seem to affect his hair in any way.
When Doom is fighting with Sue Storm, we can see the flash of Ben changing back into the Thing in the penthouse of the Baxter Building which is several blocks away. Less than a minute later, Thing crashes through the wall to save the day