Nate Bloom blogs on this week's Jews in the News.

Fantastic Four, Jewish Character Actor Stars, Groucho Story

“The Fantastic Four: First Steps” opens in theaters on July 25. It’s another Marvel superheroes film based on Marvel Comic stories. “The Four” were created, in the comics, by STAN LEE (1922-2018) and JACK KIRBY (1917-94):

A 2015 film entitled “Fantastic Four” was a critical and box-office flop. Disney got the rights to the Fantastic Four in 2020. Disney set out right away to make its “Fantastic Four” movie. But it took five years to make the film. Disney was stymied by a lot of personnel changes, the pandemic, and an actors’ strike.

The Fantastic Four are family members who gained super powers by exposure to radiation rays.

Here’s the basic premise: On a 1960s-inspired retro-futuristic parallel Earth-828, the Fantastic Four must protect their world from the planet-devouring cosmic being Galactus and his ‘herald’, the Silver Surfer.

The Four are played by Pedro Pascal, Vanessa Kirby, Joseph Quinn, and EBON MOSS-BACHRACH (“EMB”), 48. EBM’s best known as a co-star in “Girls” and “The Bear”.

EMB’s character’s birth name is Ben Grimm, but he is best known as  “The Thing”. In the past, the Thing’s skin was turned into orange rock and he is “super strong”. EMB’s features are very distorted as the Thing. Almost nobody would know that EBM plays the Thing if they don’t read cast credits.

JULIA GARNER, 31, plays the “Silver Surfer”. Silver can fly through galaxies and she can live for centuries. She is teamed up with “chief baddie” Galactus (Ralph Inerson)/ He likes destroying planets. (NATASHA LYONNE, 48, has a role in the film. But, to date, her character and the size of her role has not been released).

At least one of the film six screenwriters is Jewish—I could “confirm” JEFF FRIEDMAN, 58; The film was directed by MATT SHAKMAN, 49. He has a Jewish father and he’s secular.

It was just confirmed that a new series entitled 'Stuart Fails to Save the Universe' is set to stream on HBO Max in the next year. It is a spin-off from “The Big Bang Theory”, a huge TV hit.   KEVIN SUSSMAN, 54, will reprise playing Stuart, his “Bang Bang” character. Stuart owns a comic book store.

The spin-off plot is wild: Stuart is tasked with restoring reality after he breaks a device built by (scientists) Sheldon and Leonard. Stuart’s accident brings about a multiverse Armageddon. Three other supporting characters in “Big Bang”  help Stuart save “reality”.

“Together” is a comedy/horror film that opens in theaters on July 30. The stars are ALISON BRIE, 42, and DAVE FRANCO, 38. They are married in real-life and play a married couple in this movie. Both are the children of Jewish mothers and non-Jewish fathers and both identify as Jewish.

Here's a short summary of the premise: A couple move to the countryside but find themselves encountering a mysterious force that horrifically causes changes in their bodies.

Sounds weird, nu? Well, the good news is that this film got really superlative reviews (from critics and the public) at the 2025 Sundance Festival.  Film studios vied for the right to show it in theaters.

Do watch “Somebody Feed Phil Season 8 | Mel Brooks Extended Cut” on Youtube. PHIL ROSENTHAL recently interviewed MEL BROOKS, 98(!). Watch this 20-minute interview. I was almost crying! Brooks is ‘still all there’ (!) and still funny!  I’ll say more next week, along with another Rosenthal Youtube interview of real Jewish interest. (“Somebody Feed Phil” is a Netflix series).

If you find Rosenthal's Youtube channel, do look for another episode—an interview with ANDY MARX, 74. His paternal grandfather was GROUCHO MARX (1890-1977), the famous comic actor. His maternal grandfather was GUS KAHN, an acclaimed song lyricist (1888-1941). Kahn’s hits include “It Had to Be You”, "Toot, Toot, Tootsie (Goo' Bye!)", and "I'll See You in My Dreams".

Andy Marx (a photographer, novelist, and musician) can tell a story. I’ll repeat one Jewish anecdote about Groucho that Andy Marx said. In the near future, I will relate a really good Andy Marx story about Gus Kahn and a Beatle.

Andy said that Groucho had a bar mitzvah, but was not religious until the last years of his life. He joined a Los Angeles temple and he arranged (1974) that a rabbi preside over a seder. Well, the rabbi went on and on. Everyone at the seder had to suppress laughter as the frail Groucho said twice, clearly, “When does the wine come?”

Is there a “hungry” Jew alive who didn’t, at least once, think that the reading of the Haggadah (before wine & eating) was way too long?  Groucho spoke for many.