Mortal Kombat 2 writer Jeremy Slater also co-wrote 2015's much maligned Fantastic Four, and he has reflected on his experience.
The superhero movie, directed by Josh Trank, holds a Rotten Tomatoes score of just 9% and lost an estimated $80-$100 million for 20th Century Fox.
"Not at all," Slater told The Hollywood Reporter, when asked if he was aware of set "drama". "I worked really extensively with Josh Trank, and I had a great time doing it. I was really creatively fulfilled and excited. I thought I wrote an awesome script, and then I got the call that you almost always get on these big blockbuster movies: 'Hey, we're going to bring in some fresh eyes.' Then the next time you see the movie is when you're sitting down at the screening three years later.
"So I wasn't privy to whatever drama happened on set," he continued. "I wasn't even really privy to the fact that my entire script had been thrown out. It wasn't until I was sitting there in that first audience and realizing, 'Oh no, something happened here.' There was nothing in there that remotely resembled what I had set out to do.
"But there was a good two-year period there where I was walking around very confident," he added. "I was like, 'You guys, just wait for Fantastic Four. We're the next Christopher Nolan. We've got the next [Dark Knight] trilogy on the way.' You always go in with the highest of hopes and the best of aspirations. But sometimes the projects don't turn out the way that you dreamed about or envisioned. When you're a writer and you're playing in other people's sandboxes, it's really out of your control. You don't really have any bearing on the quality of the finished product. You just hope that your collaborators all want to make the same movie you wanted to make."
Miles Teller, who played Mister Fantastic in the film, has previously spoken about his own response to the experience.
"I think it's unfortunate for that, because so many people worked so hard on that movie and, honestly, maybe there was one really important person who fucked it all up," he shared.
"Especially as a young actor and at that time, it's like, 'Alright, if you want to be taken seriously as a leading man you gotta get on this superhero train,' and that was our chance. And the casting, I thought, was spectacular. I love all those actors. But when I first saw the movie, I remember talking to one of the studio heads and I was like, 'I think we're in trouble.'"
Fantastic Four was recently rebooted again in The Fantastic Four: First Steps, and the cast will return in Avengers: Doomsday.
Doomsday arrives this December 18, while Mortal Kombat 2 is in theaters now. For more, check out our guide to the most exciting upcoming movies for everything else that's on the way.
