Almost nothing had been revealed about Josh Trank’s reboot of the Fantastic Four for Fox, which is set to start shooting in Louisiana in two weeks, until producer Simon Kinberg provided some tidbits of information in a couple of interviews at WonderCon over the weekend.  It appears that the FF reboot will indeed be an “origin saga” that will feature young versions of the classic Marvel superhero team and will attempt to create a realistic tone similar to that which Sam Raimi was able to impart to his original Spider-Man trilogy. 

Even though production has yet to begin on Trank’s Fantastic Four, Fox is so pleased with the direction of the project so far that the studio has already staked out an opening date for a sequel (see "Fox Claims Dates for 'FF' and 'Wolverine' Sequels").
 
At WonderCon Kinberg described Trank’s take on the FF to Crave Online: "It’s a much more grounded, gritty, realistic movie than the last couple movies.  If I had to say, the tone of it would be somewhere on the spectrum between Spider-Man and Chronicle.  The other movies (previous Fox FF films) were even further on the spectrum of being goofy and fun than Spider-Man.  Raimi’s Spider-Man, yeah, not Amazing Spider-Man.  Josh Trank’s instincts are to be as realistic and grounded and real with this stuff as possible. In many ways I would say it’s definitely more of a drama than comedy."
 
But Kinberg noted that Trank’s FF wouldn’t be nearly as dark as Chris Nolan’s Batman Trilogy: "It’s still in the direction of Spider-Man.  It’s not like Dark Knight.  And even Chronicle has a lot of fun in it.  We’re treating this as the origin of the Fantastic Four so in future movies you’d have them on sort of splashier adventures to some extent but in this one we tried to ground the science as much as possible and make it feel like it could take place in our world before it cantilevers into other worlds."
 
Will Trank’s "origin story" feature the classic "bombarded by cosmic rays" trope originated by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby?  The writer/producer wouldn’t say directly, but he did hint broadly in that direction, noting: "There is archetypal imagery of how they get their powers, for sure, and it does involve some sort of scientific travel."
 
Kinberg also told Den of Geek that Trank’s iteration of the FF would feature younger versions of the iconic characters: "We’re definitely telling a younger story that the original films did.  It depends on what books you look at.  There are some, like the Ultimate books, that tell this story.  So it is an origin story of the Fantastic Four, and it does follow them before they really know what a superhero is."  The producer added: "They’re older than high school, but they’re not quite grown into the world.  If anything, this is a coming of age story."