Reed Richards and Victor Von Doom are college friends who use the opportunity of a passing comet called Colossus to try an experiment.
Unbeknownst to them, a crucial diamond component designed to protect them from the comet's cosmic rays, has been replaced with an imitation by a criminal named The Jeweler, leaving them exposed to the radiation.
After crash-landing on Earth they discover that the cosmic rays have given them special powers: Reed's bodily structure has become elastic, Susan can become invisible, Johnny can generate fire on demand and Ben has transformed into a creature with stone-like skin.
The Jeweler has his henchmen kidnap blind artist Alicia Masters whom he plans to force into being his bride, intending to use the stolen diamond as his wedding gift to her.
[4] The option was not available until three years later, when Eichinger's production company Constantin Film obtained it for a price the producer called "not enormous" and which has been estimated to be $250,000.
[5] In September 1992, he teamed with B-movie specialist Roger Corman, who agreed to produce the film on a $1 million budget, to be released by his distribution company New Horizons Pictures.
[11] During the months of post-production, music composers David and Eric Wurst personally contributed $6,000 to finance a 48-piece orchestra for the soundtrack.
[13] By this time, the world premiere was announced to take place at the Mall of America in Bloomington, Minnesota, on January 19, 1994, with proceeds from the event earmarked for the charities Ronald McDonald House and Children's Miracle Network.
[14] Suddenly, the premiere was halted, the actors received a cease and desist order on all promotion from the producers, and the studio confiscated the negatives.
Speculation arose that the film had never been intended for release, but had gone into production solely as a way for Eichinger to retain rights to the characters; Stan Lee said in 2005 that this was indeed the case, insisting, "That movie was never supposed to be shown to anybody," and adding that the cast and crew had been left unaware.
"[21] Eichinger continued negotiations to produce a big-budget adaptation, speaking with directors including Chris Columbus, Peyton Reed, and Peter Segal.
After pre-production briefly went underway in 1996, Eichinger and his company began production in 2004 of Fantastic Four (2005), released by 20th Century Fox, with an estimated $90 million budget.
[17] Following that film's 2005 release, Eichinger and Constantin produced a $130 million sequel, Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer (2007).
In 2013 a main story arc in fourth season of the television series Arrested Development concerned the character Tobias Fünke's attempt to stage a musical based on The Fantastic Four.
The setup for the story concerned his romantic relationship with DeBrie Bardeaux (Maria Bamford), an actress who had played Susan Storm in an unreleased Fantastic Four movie.
This backstory parodies the development of the 1994 Corman movie[29] and the storyline is an extended satire on various comic book rights battles.