Yeah, I have a feeling that obviously a project like that cannot be moved forward on until the resolution with all the different contracts get resolved.   I guess my question is, would you…obviously would you…?

Ioan: Oh, I’d love to come back.  I’m dying to come back and do the 3^rd one.  I would love it.  It’s been such an amazing franchise to be part of and I’m so proud of playing him and to be part of American culture because I’m a British guy living in America, getting a chance to play an American icon and I’m really proud of that you know. It’s a big accomplishment for me.

I have—some of my writers have made sure I ask this question. Do you think Franklin—because in the comics apparently you guys have a kid named Franklin and do you think—would you welcome the opportunity to play a father?  How do you feel about that?

Ioan: You know I having read the comic books as much as I can, but knowing of his existence, I know in The Incredibles the super baby and it was basically plagiarized from “The Fantastic Four”.  That whole movie really took all the best bits from all the super hero movies but Franklin, I think, it would be great to see a live-action baby being sort of protected from the world by his parents because he was so powerful.  There’s so much scope for comedy there I guess at home.  I think there’s a scope for a sort of darker side of it of maybe having to expose baby Franklin to the world in order to save the world.  You know, we’re incapable of saving the world or whoever we’re fighting but we need to introduce Franklin because he’s all so powerful to save the world.  I know that we’ve established the franchise now as being sort of a family movie.  I’d love to see us take it to another level like the “X-Men”, making it a bit more believable in the sense that—and creative in the sense that Reed Richards could be that table or something.  Not just stretching his arms or that he would form different forms and being clever and not sort of funny but just cleverer in the way that he uses his powers and that we all collectively use our powers.  I loved the ending of “The Silver Surfer”.  I thought it was a really quite a moving, serious ending. The end of the world was nigh.  I loved that darkness and I would love to go down that route a little bit more.  I guess we’ve pandered to the orders that made it successful in the first place so it’s very hard to make a completely different movie the next time, but who knows?

It is interesting because Fox did choose with the “Fantastic Four” to make it very family friendly.  I think that a lot of fans honesty with the adult fans were a little upset about that but kids loved the movies. It’s a safe family environment, so you’ve sort of addressed this a little bit with what you just said but do you—the comic book super hero genre is bigger than ever—would you ever imagine yourself possibly doing another kind of in that genre but as another character or do you sort of see yourself as this is my mark?

Ioan: I mean, I would love to of course, but I fear because I’ve played Mr. Fantastic who was such a big icon in that world, I fear nobody would come near me because I’m so well established as that character.

Could be prosthetics.

Ioan: It could be prosthetics.  I mean, yes, I could be in 6 hours of makeup everyday, which would be a lot of fun, yeah.  As my friend, Doug Jones is doing now, on Hellboy II, he’s been doing like 6 hours a day before going to work.

I have some friends who went to the set recently and they’ve been raving about what they’ve been seeing there and especially Doug.

Ioan: It’s going to be very special this one.  I mean, Guillermo del Toro has controlled everything.  He doesn’t have a 2nd unit director.  He doesn’t even have an insert director.  He’s doing absolutely everything like on 1 camera, so they’ve been there for like 7 months or something.

But that’s going to make it. 

Ioan: I think so, yeah.

You know what you’re about to get.

Ioan: I think it’s going to be huge.  I mean, the first one was extraordinarily successful and I wasn’t familiar with “Hellboy” at all.  I think now that he’s established as a director and such a brilliant director I think it’s going to be interesting.

So a few other questions.  Are you… obviously like I got some info off of IMDB and stuff, are you doing anything else right now?  Are you reading scripts?  How is the writers strike affecting the actors?

Ioan: I hadn’t actually thought about it because this summer I mean-- I really haven’t done anything since “Fantastic Four” apart from voicing Agent Crush and literally finished doing “The Secret of Moonacre” now last week.  Then I got married at the end of the summer so that was my big project.  Then literally 2 days later was on the plane to go to Budapest to do the movie.  So, I’ve just come back and this is happening so I mean, it’s a scary time.  It’s something that has to be done and I think it’s something that has to be fought for and the studios aren’t budging and this is the only way of bringing them to the table, I think is this strike.  I think we will be going out as well next year as actors, although the writer’s might set a president that might help us in negotiations as the Screen Actors Guild, so we’ll see.

It’s interesting because unlike the ’88 strike, the advent of the internet has opened the door for middle America to discover what exactly is going on and the writers, who are very creative, have been putting together these YouTube spots, explaining their side very eloquently.  How do you feel about the situation and do you think this is an absolute that the directors and the actors are going to be fighting over the new media money?

Ioan: I think so, absolutely.  And it’s only right and just.  Of course, our side is going to see it one way and the studios are going to see it in a totally different way.  But, absolutely.  Something that we’ve created, that you’ve had a part in bringing to life that’s being exploited and you’re not seeing any revenue as a result of that so I think its…yes, this internet…there’s no legislation  in place for the internet to begin with and it’s just boomed into this intangible thing.  So I think it’s only right that we fight for that.

And the other thing is when you look at the numbers, you’re not talking about dollars, you’re talking about cents.

Ioan: Yes I know, but I guess in the studio sense—I mean, cents means if you’re talking about billions then it’s a lot of money for them.  I know the DVD sales are what keeps the studios running at the moment, you know?  The “Fantastic Four” was paid for on the back of the DVD sales for the first movie.  That’s the kind of money we’re talking about and yes, it is a percentage of that but justifiably so I think.

I wanted to jump back—you filmed in Budapest you said?

Ioan: Yeah, The Moon Princess. Yeah.

So can you talk about the experience of being on location there and also that’s where they’re doing “Hellboy 2”.  Budapest is really exploded.

Ioan: It’s an amazing city.  The history of the place is extraordinary.  They’ve been under Communism; they’ve been under the Natzi’s. They fought civil wars there and sadly at the moment their government—they had a revolution back in ’56 I think and things should have gotten better but they’ve sort of gone back to almost like a dictatorial state.  It’s a fascinating place, a brilliant place to visit.

What was it like working with Dakota especially after she did “The Golden Compass”?

Ioan: Yeah I know.  She’s 13 years old going on 33.  She’s such a wise old soul.  It’s sort of scary in a sense, but she’s brilliant.  And I loved working with her because I remember when I was her age starting out, I didn’t have half the confidence or the courage or the talent that she has now as a 13 year old so I just love seeing her enthusiasm and she knew everyone’s lines.  She was just immersed in it you know, as a child would be.  I really want it to be successful for her sake as well as for our sake.

I’m ending up, but I wanted to know with the strike does it allow you—obviously are you thinking about doing some theatre work in London?  Could that be an avenue that you’d explore?

Ioan: Because I’m a member of the Guild it wouldn’t be fair to go off and do work in other parts of the world.  I mean, I believe strongly that I should support the Guild and I don’t think they would appreciate that at all.  I mean, I live here.  I’m part of this society and I would have to support it so I’d find it very hard to cross the picket line albeit in the U.K.

I guess what I’m saying is what it comes down to is the projects that are already in—because again I’m still figuring this out—the projects that are still in development or the projects that are greenlit and ready to go, those are the projects that are ok to take?

Ioan: I mean as far as me as an actor, yes, I mean because our guild isn’t on strike at the moment.  Yes, so I don’t know how the studio—I mean, I guess they’re all—I don’t know if the directors have the rights to re-write things or the studios have the right to re-write things…I don’t know.  But yeah, if things are ready to go now then you can go off and shoot them which is the way movies should be make really.  Like “Amazing Grace” was made that way.  The script was in such a great state from its conception that we just went off and shot that script.  I mean, in the big studio movie world it’s like you have a greenlight to budget and a release date and go off and do it so it’s constantly pink pages, grey pages, you know, blue pages, change of locations, change of build that set, no we’re going to tear it down, we’re going to do it here now.  It’s just extraordinary, so it might force people into just locking off a script and then going off and shoot it.  It might save the studios a lot of money in the long run.

I was thinking the same thing.  Michael is now doing the next “Narnia” movie.  He’s doing the 3rd.  So have you called him up and said “you know, I was thinking ‘Narnia’?” 

Ioan: Yeah, because of my relationship with Walden who made this and Michael I would have got the call by now if there was anything appropriate for me I’m sure.

Well, listen I really appreciate your time….