The movie was essentially a "rights-retention" project. Producer Bernd Eichinger had purchased the film rights in the 1980s for approximately $250,000. To avoid losing these rights back to Marvel, he had to start production by late 1992. With a tiny $1 million budget
Imagine a world where comic book movies still looked like 1970s television. The costumes are spandex and swim caps. The Thing (Ben Grimm) is played by a former wrestler, Michael Bailey Smith, wearing a latex rubber suit so heavy he had to be air-conditioned via a tube. When Smith was unavailable, Carl Ciarfalio wore the suit—but his face didn’t fit the mask, so they added a beard. Fantastic Four 1994 Internet Archive
: Critics note that while the execution is hampered by its budget, the film is surprisingly faithful to the "surface elements" of the original Stan Lee and Jack Kirby comics, sometimes more so than later big-budget adaptations. Preservation The movie was essentially a "rights-retention" project