10) Peyton Reed’s Fantastic Four
After we were prepared to hate him for replacing Edgar Wright, Peyton Reed acquitted himself pretty well with Ant-Man, which turned out to be a solid, if unremarkable, entry into the MCU. As such, he would have been a safe pair of hands to direct a Fantastic Four movie in 2003.
Reed has since explained that Joss Whedon’s The Avengers did a lot of similar things to his vision of Marvel’s First Family. This includes the absence of secret identities – Reed thought of the Four as “daytime superheroes” – and everyone coming together for a big New York-shattering climax.
He has even outlined his dream cast; Alexis Denisof as Mr. Fantastic, John C. Reilly as the Thing and the late Paul Walker as the Human Torch. Best of all, he hoped to get Furiosa herself, Charlize Theron, as the Invisible Woman!
While Fox eventually went with Tim Story, who helmed the lacklustre 2005 film and its sequel, let’s hope Reed gets another go at the Fantastic Four sometime in the future.