Question: We walked by.

Flattery: Okay, you'll see. That's what it looks like after it's broken apart. It blows apart, you disengage it by these handles up in the top cockpit and the three pieces separate out and wings that come out and things like that. You'll see.

Question: Why three, not four, pieces?

Flattery: We kept Johnny and Sue together in the middle cockpit. It was a creative decision by Tim. It makes more sense in this design, actually. So we have one in the front, and obviously an oversized rear cockpit for Ben Grimm. We made these joysticks and painted them, shot them, looked at them, and we said, "Yeah, here's Ben Grimm's joystick." And they said, "There's no way, there's no way, that's way too big, it'll look like a joke on film." So we went down to Spectral and they put a standard in, in the perfect size, and now it's in the car.

Question: Does each piece relate to that person or their powers? Is there any correlation?

Flattery: No, only that Reed is obviously in the front, running the show on the car, and that in the rear, with Ben everything is accomodating his size. And once it breaks apart, they're all on their own, but that's as far as it goes.

Question: Did they build practical versions of this to drive?

Flattery: Well this is a practical version. I mean, even though this flies, it's set up on the gimbal for green screen on the set. Here you can see it's fit for cables, as well as working monitors that the navigation, whatever information they have - obviously they can't see each other so there's intercom units where they can see each other on screen and talk to each other. So it's a full, working prop. It's not the Batmobile where it's a car that can go a hundred miles per hour.

Question: Does this seal off for all-weather use?

Flattery: That's what you have Sue for. Also, the area of the windshield and all the top along the beltline is designed. We paid close attention to it when we did the digital model. In wind, it's all flowing over the top of your head.

Question: It's strictly a flying vehicle? It doesn't have wheels?

Flattery: It hovers all the time. It uses the same technology for thrust. It's an ion generator, so it's a clean-burning engine that's based on an electrical charge as opposed to a gas motor. It uses a photon accelerator for lift, which is existing technology too. If you get a chance to look underneath, you'll see the fans, and those are the lifting plants. And it's just the photon accelerator that creates the magnetic field and gives it its lift.

Question: How much did it cost to build this?

Flattery: It's a tough question to answer, because we built this in conjunction with the breakaways, so it's split. I'd say, all in total, a million two.

Question: How long did it take to build?

Flattery: To physically build this? From the start of production to the end, it was about four months. And about another month for the breakaways.

Question: Is this the only one there is?

Flattery: This is the only full vehicle there is. And then, the breakaways, those are the only breakaways. We only made two. This is it. This one will also break away for shooting, for shootability. If you wanna take the front end off so you can get a camera in there and shoot up over Jessica Alba and get a close-up of her face from underneath.

Question: Which Batmobile did you do?

Flattery: From Batman Forever. And I don't know if you're familiar with what that one looked like, it had the ribcage down the middle and we had to sculpt it in a bunch of different pieces because you couldn't mold it all together like that. If we were able to do that Batmobile the same way we were able to do this, it would've taken half the time.

Question: Was there a particular version from the comics that inspired the look or did you just go off on your own?

Flattery: Because I'm a comics nutm I try and pay homage to what's been there, and what I grew up with and what I know people are familiar with. But in this case, what's been done in the comics for the Fantasticar, and it only shows up here and there, it just didn't apply to the movie. So I tried to keep it in the back of my head, but really, just the tone of the movie and the tone of the characters in the movie are what drove this, as opposed to the comic.

And the homage to the comic is that it does break apart, like it does the comic. And I think in the comic, I remember it being white. This was gonna be blue for the longest time. And then we ended up changing it to a silver later on down the road. It looks sleeker, it helps with the Silver Surfer. It complements him. And the big decision was because of the costumes. We wanted something to accent the costumes.

Question: Was this ever up on a gimbal?

Flattery: It's up on a gimbal all the time, yeah. The cradle that it's sitting on now, where you see the flanks, where it's resting on that cradle, that's where the gimbal picks it up.

Question: Does the new process help to make this lighter or sturdier as well?

Flattery: Oh yeah. You have to pay attention to the frame structure, which gets engineered and designed first, and if we were to do this out of a polyester or fiberglass or something like that, to get the same strength, it'd be twice as heavy. But because we're using composites, you're able to lighten that up considerably - and it has a heavy enough frame as it already. Because it's gotta split apart, you gotta have that structure in there to keep it strong when you're clamping it together. So you really want a light skin, a light thin skin. So you can walk all over this and nothing'll happen to it.

Question: Does that mean you're capable of being more violent?

Flattery: Oh yeah, because you don't worry about body panels cracking on you, twisting or contorting or whatever. They're bulletproof.

Question: The actors must not like you.

Flattery: Well, no, it's not me, it's the guy running the gimbal. (laughs) Hey, the more jerking around, the more they can get into character. That's the way I see it.

Question: What was the actors' reaction to it?

Flattery: The only thing I can say is when I first saw them, when they first saw it - and because they didn't know what this thing was, all they knew was there's a Fantasticar in the movie. And they walked up to it and everyone was pretty fired up about it. A lot of questions. Even Tim Story, who obviously did know what it was, when it finally arrived up here, he took his shoes off, got on top of the thing and was running up and down, and he was in every single cockpit, making noises, holding the joysticks. It was pretty funny, y'know, jumping from one thing to another, pushing every button there was. He was in there for about a half-hour before he got out.

Question: Does the fact that Johnny flies under his own power factor into the decision to put Johnny and Sue in the same cockpit?

Flattery: You gotta ask Tim, because it very well could. It's come up in our conversations. Because Johnny flies, you know. But it's a definite question for Tim, it's a creative thing.

Question: Does this have weapons on it, or is it just a transport?

Flattery: No. It's just a transport, and a fast one at that. It'll protect them, obviously, but there's nothing on it that's aggressive.

Question: Did Dodge steal any of this design for the next car?

Flattery: I think it's still early, but who knows? Maybe it'll influence one of their concept cars down the road.

Question: What's its hypothetical range?

Flattery: The range is indefinite because it's an ion generator. It's self-powered and it runs cleanly. It's pressurized so it can run at any altitude that any jet can, up to 50,000 feet. And normally an ion generator is known for slow acceleration, but this one has been concentrated for those four chambers so it can go up to Mach 2. Gravity helps that.

Question: How much does this weigh?

Flattery: This weighs, when it's all together, 4,000 pounds. Just under 4,000 pounds. Obviously the front's a little heavier, and it splits off and when you see it next door, you'll see how it splits off and forms wings, and has all the hardware underneath, so some sections are heavier than others. This is the lightest section, the midsection.

Question: Why are wings necessary after it breaks apart?

Flattery: Just for stabilization, because as a unit, on its own, there's perfect harmony there. When it breaks part, you need extra stability. Now you don't have the length, which is kinda key, for stability. So it'll deploy wings out.

Question: How difficult was it to get Michael Chiklis in there in his Thing suit?

Flattery: Just getting him across the floor is difficult, and actually it's a good question because it's something that concerned me because the only way to get in this vehicle is to drop in it. If you notice, you have to walk up on the beltline, stick your foot down on the seat and slide in, because it's so low-profile. So when we were building this thing, I'm just sitting there shaking my head thinking, "How's a guy in 70 pounds of rubber..." It is huge, you know. There's a lot of mass. So it's not easy for him to move around. So the best scenario was for him to walk up the back, and get over, because it's like its own ramp.

Question: Did he need several people to help him?

Flattery: Yeah, we helped. It's not easy. It's not easy to get in in a t-shirt and jeans. But it's like getting into a sports car. You drop in.

Question: This will be kept for years?

Flattery: Yeah, they'll do kind of a circuit with it, after it's finished, I think it'll end up going through other shows...

Question: And you're gonna use it for the next one?

Flattery: Yeah, yeah. It'll be in the next one, I'm sure. It could show up at Comic-Con. I know the talk is that it'll go through the auto shows under Dodge's auspice.

Question: Did you build anything else for this film?

Flattery: I did brief concepts on some of the sets and things like that. Reed's lab and all that. They were really early on. And all that was dropped once we got focused on the Fantasticar and the rest of my time was completely spent on this, and building it, seeing it through. It took me all the way to the end. I enjoyed doing the other stuff too, it's just that this was a big undertaking to get it out, and get it ready for shooting.

Question: Are they gonna make it into a toy?

Flattery: Oh, I'm sure. How couldn't you? I wanna play with it. Yeah. There's always a market for toys whenever there's a flying vehicle.

Question: Do you get a share of that?

Flattery: You know, I wish I did (laughing)