His second `Fantastic' just had to be ... better

Vancouver, Canada — THERE he was, seemingly just another perpetual adolescent, gleefully flipping through the pages of a comic book at Comics Ink in Culver City. But director Tim Story was doing more than merely getting his comic-book jones on; he was on a market-research expedition that July of 2005, one that would help lay the foundation for Friday's Twentieth Century Fox summer tent pole, "Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer."

"Somebody came in [the store] and started talking: 'So what did you think about "Fantastic Four"?' " recalls Story on a rainy morning here as he munches on snow peas and rolls of sliced turkey between takes on the set of "Silver Surfer." Speaking with Zen-like calm and wearing glasses and a baseball cap snugly on his head, Story doesn't throw his weight around like the man in charge on this massive production that takes up three football fields' worth of hangars. So it's easy to see how he could go unnoticed at that comic-book store as the customers began chatting about his "Fantastic Four."

"One guy goes, 'Oh, it was terrible,' and starts going off on that theme. And the guy behind the counter was like, 'Well, I don't think so.' And before you knew it, four other guys joined in, and I sat there in one of the aisles and was able to hear what they thought the weaknesses and strengths of it were."

That was just two weeks after the release of Story's unlikely 2005 box-office hit, which opened with a $56-million domestic weekend and topped out at $329 million worldwide. A franchise was born -- yet because the movie was almost universally panned by critics (The Times called it a "mild summertime diversion") and a good share of fans alike -- Story is that unusual species of director delivering a sequel to his success in an almost defensive crouch.

"I'll be the first to say that before I was able to get enough of the audience response, I was pretty down on myself about what it was," Story says of the first movie. "I didn't have a chance to do all the things that I wanted to do with it. And later on, I had to realize that the audiences had a fun time."

In Story's reconnaissance missions, including setting up a MySpace page where he invited discussion about the first film, the director gleaned two major needs for the next movie. "I want to be sure that in this one, we have enough action for the fan boys," he says. "And most importantly, I want Doom to really be the badass and the cool villain that I think he can be."