At one point, Josh Trank (fresh off 2012's
Chronicle) was the hottest young director in Hollywood and was even set to direct his own
Star Wars anthology film, was on Sony's shortlist for its
Venom reboot and was also signed up for an adaptation of
Shadow of the Colossus.
However, a ton of behind-the-scenes drama on the set of
Fant4stic resulted in Fox having to divert energy from
X-Men: Apocalypse in an effort to salvage the film.
Lucasfilm caught wind of what was happening on
Fant4stic and reportedly fired Trank (though the man himself stated that he walked away from the project) from a planned
Boba Fett movie. For a long time, both fans and Hollywood insiders wondered if Trank's career was over before it ever truly began. However, he's set to bounce bank with an Al Capone biopic
Fonzo, with Tom Hardy set to star.
With his career poised for a turnaround, Trank recently took the opportunity to give his own take on his
Fantastic Four reboot, which you can read below.
Fant4stic... Huh.
Okay first of all, I thought it would be GREAT if I searched FF2015 and the shit wasn’t even on here. Low key I kinda was hoping it wasn’t. But it was! And I’m here. Anyway. Where to begin...
The movie is ALRIGHT.
I was expecting it to be much worse than it was. I literally haven’t seen it since like two weeks before it came out, and I was in a heavily [frick]ing traumatized state of mind. Why? Eh, save that for another time.
Anyway, movie review:
Great cast.
Everyone in the film is a great actor, and overall there is a movie in there, somewhere. And that cast deserves to be in THAT movie. Everyone who worked on Fant4stic clearly wanted to be making THAT movie. But.... ultimately... It wasn’t.
Did I make that movie they deserved to be in?
To be honest?
I can’t tell.
What I can tell is there are TWO different movies in one movie competing to be that movie.
Is there a #releasethetrankcut?
Doesn’t matter.
I’m not Zack Snyder.
Zack Snyder is a storied, iconic, legendary filmmaker who has been knocking it out of the [frick]ing park since I was in high school.
Me? Then?
I was 29 years old, making my 2nd film, in a situation more complicated than anything a 2nd time filmmaker should’ve walked into.
That said... I don’t regret any of it.
It’s a part of me.
And I just hope Peyton Reed makes the next Fantastic Four and crushes it. And that I get a cameo.
Anyway, that’s it.
Fant4stic.
As for Trank's endorsement of Peyton Reed, the
Ant-Man and the Wasp director pitched a '60s set, Beatles-influenced MCU reboot for Marvel's first family earlier this year. Reed actually pitched his vision for the project before the Chris Evans Fantastic Four films were released. Obviously, Fox went in a completely different direction, but there's still hope for Reed's take to see the light of day.
"
All those years ago, Kevin [Feige] was at Marvel at the time, he was a junior executive under Avi Arad. So Kevin knows of my love and passion for Fantastic Four," said Reed in a January interview with
SYFY Wire.