From Sundance to show time: Miles Teller takes on Mr Fantastic

If your character is called Mr Fantastic, that's a lot of pressure right there. But Miles Teller, star of (yet another) comic-book extravaganza Fantastic Four, wears it rather well, at least judging by the first time I saw him in the flesh, gliding into a chic London hotspot with his model girlfriend Keleigh Sperry on his arm. Dressed in a check print brown suit and skinny tie, all eyes were on this handsome 28-year-old who could soon have Hollywood at his feet.

Already this year, he's wowed audiences as the drum-at-all-costs jazz musician in the breakout Oscar-winning indie hit Whiplash and proved his blockbuster credentials in Insurgent, the sequel to Divergent, which reunited him with his "good friend" Shailene Woodley. Insurgent took US$295 million at the global box office - a decent number - and Fantastic Four, based on the Marvel Comics tale about a team of geeks who gain superpowers after a botched experiment, is expected to outshine that.

It's not the first time these characters have been brought to the big screen. Back in 2005, Chris Evans, Jessica Alba, Ioan Gruffudd and Michael Chiklis played the quartet. But despite a sequel, and reasonable box office (together, the two films made over US$600 million worldwide), the films were generally not well received. Perhaps aware of this, Teller distances himself. "I didn't see the other ones," he says.

Taking on the role of Reed Richards - aka Mr Fantastic - who can stretch his limbs like rubber, Teller is joined by an equally up-and-coming trio of stars: House of Cards' Kate Mara (as Invisible Woman, Sue Storm); Billy Elliot's Jamie Bell (as the hulking rock-like monster The Thing) and Michael B. Jordan (as Johnny Storm, aka the flame-throwing Human Torch), who previously worked with Teller on hip male comedy That Awkward Moment.