The Fantastic Four

Fantastic Four by Mark Frost and Michael France based on the Marvel comic book by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby Shooting Script FADE IN: CLOSE ON A MASSIVE STEEL HEAD Our first thought: DR. DOOM?But it's not moving.A welder's torch sparks into frame in the hands of a sculptor on scaffolding.This is art, an epic 20 foot statue going up of a business mogul (VICTOR VON DOOM) in whose generously extended hands sit two intertwined columns of DNA.His face is chiseled, angular, perfect (too perfect).Past sparks, we MOVE down to pick up... EXT. STREET/VON DOOM INDUSTRIES TOWER - DAY REED RICHARDS and BEN GRIMM head toward the soaring glass-box atrium of VDI Headquarters.Designed to inspire awe, it does. REED High open space, exposed structural elements.Obviously aimed at first time visitors to create feelings of... smallness, inadequacy. Ben glances at Reed, who looks a little nervous. BEN Good thing it ain't workin... Reed, what are we doing here?This guy's fast-food, strip-mall science -- REED This wasn't our first stop, in case you forgot NASA.And Victor's not that bad.He's just a little... (seeing the statue) Larger than life. INT. VON DOOM INDUSTRIES TOWER - DAY They move past the statue, into the sprawling atrium. REED He's financed some of the biggest breakthroughs of this century. BEN You'd never know it. He motions to a high-tech ORB, showing FOOTAGE of VDI's accomplishments: a safe and clean nuclear facility, the first private Space Station.