After the epic borefests that comprised the first two Fantastic Four movies, news of a reboot has been met with mild apprehension at best, until now. The Hollywood Reporter has finally reported something that might cause people to care about a Fantastic Four movie again:
Dr. Doom is said to be the villain of the reboot (the character appeared in Fox’s two previous movies and was played by Julian McMahon). The Hollywood Reporter's Heat Vision is hearing that the studio is likely to go for a big name and isn’t ruling out switching genders for the role.
Doctor Doom, or Mrs. Doom as she would be called in the film because women aren't allowed to go to college in Latveria, might be a hit with moviegoers, but wouldn't be able to rise to the top position in the small, Eastern European country without a lot of struggle. It wasn't until 1996 that women were allowed the right to vote, and even then, they were only permitted to vote for one person: Doctor Doom. The metal facemask that all women are required to wear in public at all times in Latveria is a symbol of the kind of gender inequality that exists in the backwards and highly religious dictatorship, and that problem will only be compounded by the new bikini costume Fox will probably put the female Doom in for the movie.
Of course, at this stage, this is all rumor, but it certainly raises a lot of questions. For instance, would Doom's rivalry switch from Reed Richards to Sue Storm, or might we see the Richards/Doom relationship take on a dynamic of sexual tension previously seen only in the most bawdy of fanfic?
Time will tell, but The Outhouse fully supports this change, especially if it results in a steamy sex scene involving a man with elastic flesh and a lot of referring to the self in the third person. If nothing else, it will make people want to see the movie, which is far more than the dude from Nip/Tuck was ever going to do. The only problem is that Joseph Gordon-Levitt will need to undergo a sex change operation in order to play her, but hey, he's gotta do what's best for the movie, so get on that one JGL so we can start writing the casting rumor articles.
