Daily News

AIC to Premiere Documentary on Roger Corman’s Fantastic Four

SPRINGFIELD — American International College (AIC) will host the Western Mass. premiere of Doomed: The Untold Story of Roger Corman’s The Fantastic Four this Friday, Sept. 25 at 7 p.m. at the Griswold Theater on the AIC campus.

The documentary’s screening, a movie about a movie that never happened, follows a successful series of showings this summer at San Diego Comic-Con, the Screen Actors Guild Foundation in Los Angeles, and Aero Theater in Santa Monica, Calif. The film has received rave reviews in Variety, Esquire, and the Wall Street Journal.

Doomed is the brainchild of AIC Film and New Media Professor Marty Langford and his creative partner, Springfield native Mark Sikes, now living in Los Angeles. Langford, a lover of sci-fi films, comic books, and superheroes from his youth, was intrigued when he uncovered legendary film director Roger Corman’s unreleased work, The Fantastic Four.

In a Hollywood tale of intrigue, Langford and Sikes unravel the mystery surrounding a fully cast and produced movie — now a cult classic — that never saw the light of day. The documentary, three years in the making, gives the actors and crew a chance to tell their story.

“They put their hopes and dreams into a project they thought was going to change their careers,” Langford said, “but, in reality, there was never any intention of releasing it. Those with the most invested were kept in the dark.”

The screening of Doomed: The Untold Story of Roger Corman’s The Fantastic Four is free and open to the public and will be followed by a question-and-answer session with Langford.