Variety is reporting today that Fox has hired producer Akiva Goldsman to oversee the reboot of The Fantastic Four, and brought on Heroes alumni (and co-writer of Warner Bros' The Green Lantern) Michael Green to pen a screenplay. Fox wouldn't comment on the project further, but Variety notes that the studio owns The Fantastic Four in perpetuity, and that they're still keen on making a Silver Surfer movie.

Not HUGE news by any means as this thought has been around for quite some time that this might happen. But what it DOES mean is that we are about to be bombarded with casting rumors and script drafts for the next year or so before anything gets finalized.

The real question though, is why? Why reboot a franchise, that while yes, had its share of problems, EASILY captured the feeling of the comic book pretty damn well. I don't think it was the best series ever, or the best comic book to movie translation ever, but I do think that some of the casting was dead on and it really captured the spirit of what The Fantastic Four was all about. Thoughts?