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Chris Columbus has finally peeled back the curtain on a piece of superhero movie history that never quite made it to the screen. The Harry Potter and Home Alone director recently revealed that he was actually fired from Fox’s Fantastic Four in the mid-90s after clashing with the studio over creative direction. According to Columbus, he had pushed for a version faithful to Jack Kirby’s classic comic designs, only to be told he had “too much of an opinion.”
Speaking on the Fade To Black podcast, Chris Columbus said:
“We were in a weird situation. On the first Fantastic Four, I had worked on a script. There were a lot of writers involved. They were about to make a movie and I was producing it. I met with the director and had some ideas. I basically said, ‘Some of this conceptual art should feel more like Jack Kirby, the creator of the Fantastic Four, and should feel more like the Silver Age of Marvel.’ I left that meeting and on the way back from my house I got a call from the head of 20th Century Fox saying I was fired and had too much of an opinion.”
What followed was a messy fallout that not only cost him the job but also cooled his interest in superhero filmmaking altogether. Although he was credited as a producer in the film, Chris Columbus admits that he didn't actually have anything to do with it.
Chris Columbus' career as a director
Chris Columbus has spent the last four decades shaping the way entire generations laugh, cry, and gasp at the screen.Trained at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts, Columbus went from writing Gremlins and The Goonies to directing the films that basically raised us.
Back in 1990, Columbus gave us Home Alone, a film that made paint cans lethal weapons and introduced the phrase “Keep the change, ya filthy animal” into pop culture forever. A few years later, he dropped Mrs. Doubtfire, where Robin Williams’ chaos in drag made us laugh through the tears, because beneath the comedy was a story about a family that still stings in the best way.
Then came 2001, when Columbus picked up J.K. Rowling’s little wizard's book and opened the gates to Hogwarts. With Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone Chamber of Secrets, and Prisoner of Azkaban, he bottled childhood wonder, cast three unknown kids who grew into icons, and set the tone for a billion-dollar saga that still defines fantasy cinema.
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The director's latest venture is another book to film adaptation with a star ensemble and a lot of mystery. Netflix's The Thursday Murder Club, a story about four retirees solving murders in their retirement home has caught the attention of the world and is now a hot topic among cinephiles.
Chris Columbus might have strayed away from making superhero films, but his filmography opened doors for some of the most wonderful human stories in Hollywood, and that's not all that bad a way to be remembered for your work!
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