Monday's news regarding the Walt Disney Company's plans to acquire Marvel Entertainment had comic book movie fans buzzing about what would happen to Iron Man and Captain America. But now it looks like the publisher's first family of superheroes will receive a fresh coat of paint too.
According to Variety, 20th Century Fox has announced plans to overhaul the "Fantastic Four" film franchise with a new movie produced by Akiva Goldsman and scripted by Michael Green.
No strangers to comics-to-film adaptations, Goldsman is currently producing movies based on DC properties "Jonah Hex" and "The Losers," while Green is both the co-writer of the upcoming "Green Lantern" movie (starring Ryan Reynolds) and co-executive producer of NBC's "Heroes."
At this point, there's no word on whether "Fantastic Four" stars Ioan Gruffudd, Jessica Alba, Chris Evans and Michael Chiklis will return for another go-around as the superpowered family of Reed and Sue Richards, Johnny Storm and Ben Grimm, respectively. Chiklis previously expressed some doubt to MTV News that he'd reprise his role as the rock-covered hero nicknamed the Thing.
The presence of the Silver Surfer — a character introduced in 2007's "Fantastic Four" sequel — is also up in the air, though Fox has indicated a desire to spin the character off into his own solo film.
Tim Story directed the first two "Fantastic Four" films, neither of which received particularly high praise or box-office numbers, despite the characters' long history as one of Marvel's most iconic superteams.
While Disney's upcoming purchase of Marvel Entertainment will eventually put it in control of many of the publisher's stable of characters, the big-screen rights to both the "Fantastic Four" and "X-Men" properties (as well as "Daredevil") are held by Fox for as long as they continue to make movies out of the associated characters.
For breaking news and previews of the latest comic book movies — updated around the clock — visit SplashPage.MTV.com.
50 Cent Says ‘Streets Of Blood’ Film Comes From ‘A Rebellious Place’Miley Cyrus co-star wants sequel
