LOTR Star Sean Astin Almost Directed a FANTASTIC FOUR Movie and He Wanted Christina Aguilera as Sue Storm
In the early 2000s, shortly after finishing his work on Peter Jackson’s The Lord of the Rings, actor Sean Astin (The Goonies, Stranger Things, Rudy) was looking to direct something. During a recent interview with Collider, he revealed that during that time he almost got to direct a Fantastic Four movie!
He explained that his version of the movie actually would have been based on a script that Chris Columbus was previously attached to direct. He even talked to Kevin Feige about directing the film long before he was leading the charge at Marvel studios. The film came very close to happening, but it ended up falling through because studio executive Tom Rotham didn’t think he was ready to direct.
Astin went on to reveal that his top choice for Sue Storm was Christina Aguilera, who had never done any acting at that point. He also met with Cameron Diaz for the role, who ended up passing on because she didn’t want to sit in a makeup chair for very long. He also wanted to cast Michael Chiklis as Ben Grimm/The Thing, who actually went on to play the role in director Tim Story’s 2005 film.
It would have been really interesting to see Astin get to make his Fantastic Four movie. He tells the full detailed story of his experience trying to get his Fantastic Four movie off the ground in the video below.