CHAPTER 8:
JOSH TRANK'S CAREER DIES AT THE END
Now I'm just going to mention something that I should have mentioned in my DareDevil chapter. See, Marvel said that if a Daredevil movie wasn't filming by October 2012,they would own DareDevil again. What I DIDN'T mention was that Marvel offered to let FOX keep DareDevil if FOX gave them the film rights for Galactus and Silver Surfer. But FOX decided to give them DareDevil.
With that out of the way, let's begin the second to last chapter of The History of FOX/Marvel.
In August 2009, with the cancellation of F4 3 and a Silver Surfer movie, FOX decided to reboot the Fantastic Four. Akiva Goldsmith, who has an AMAZING track record with CBMS, was brought in to produce the movie. Meanwhile, Green Lantern writer, Michael Green was brought in to write the script.
This project didn't go anywhere. However, I'm sure you all know by now that in 2011, Max Landis wrote a draft for an F4 film. Landis wanted to write an enitre F4 trilogy. According to him, he wanted Doctor Doom to be saved for the final movie. It would be like Sam Rami's Spidey films, where he's the main character's friend. And at the end of film #2, it would be all "I'M EVIL NOW!", and the third film would be against him. I assume that the third film wouldn't be overstuffed like Spider-Man 3.
However, 2012 saw the releaseof a differnt FOX film written by Max Landis.This was Chronicle. Chronicle was a decent hit, but recievied praise from everyone. Also, it was a movie about idiot teens that became superheros. So FOX gave the directing gig for F4 to the film's director, Josh Trank. (Oh, and FOX asked Jeremy Slatter to write the script).
Now, with Josh Trank on board, he decided to adapt the Ultimate Fantastic Four instead. Some say it was because he could only work with young actors, while others say he did that to seperate themselves from the Tim Story movies.
Anyway, let's talk about Jeremy Slatter's script. His script featured set up for Galactus, the Mole Man, Doom, Doom's powers from the Tim Story films, shapeshifting, and some other crap. Yeah, this script was awful and Jeremy Slatter would go on to prove with the Lazurus Effect that he can't write jacksh*t. In 2013, Seth Grahame-Smith was brought in to rewrite the script. Trank also ended up helping with the script. Later that year, Matthew Vaughn came in to produce along with X-Men producer Simon Kinberg, who was brought in to help with the script.
Now, Trank had big plans for the Fantastic Four. A sequel was greenlit before the film's release and Trank wanted to use:
H.E.R.B.I.E.:
A PROTOTYPE FOR THE FANTASTICAR:
AND THE ACTUAL FANTASTICAR:
However, if you look at the concept art above for HERBIE, you'll se that he looks similar to BB-8 from The Force Awakens. Some say that's why he wasn't used, but that doesn't make a lot of sense. Also, if you watch the film B-ROLL, you'll see that the Fantasticar did appear, but that scene got cut.
But I'm saving the rest of the production for later. Let's talk about casting.
Before it was decided that young actors where wanted, Adrien Brody and Johnathan Rhys Myers were wanted for Mr. Fantastic. Keifer Sutherland was wanted for The Thing. Terry Crews also wanted to play The Thing. However,when younger actors were wanted, Jack O'Connell, and Game Of Thrones actors Kit Harrington (who would make a better Namor) and Richard Madden for Reed. Anton Yelchin were also wanted for Reed (WHICH WOULD HAVE BEEN AWESOME). Also, Siarose Ronan, Margot Robbie, Emily Rossum, and Alison Williams were wanted for Sue Storm. Meanwhile, Sam Riley, Dohmnall Gleeson, and Eddie Redmayne were wanted for Doom.
But when the casting for the four was finally announced, that's when it all began. That's when everyone hated this movie before they saw and the hatred would continue. Miles Tellar was cast as Reed Richards. The reason people didn't like this casting was because Reed is a charming smart guy and Tellar was known for playing asshole fratboys. Jamie Bell was cast as The Thing. This casting was controversial because The Thing is a giant rock monster and Jamie Bellis skinny as hell. Michael B. Jordan and Kate Mara were cast as Johnny & Sue Storm. This casting was controversial because Michael B. Jordan is black and Kate Mara is not black.
The only casting that wasn't controversial was Toby Kebbell as Doom. This was because no one knew who he was. But a few months later he starred as Koba the villianous ape in another FOX film, Dawn of the Planets of the Apes. Kebbell got so much praise as the villain in that movie that even the haters started to warm-up to the project due to his casting.
And then people forgot about that when some details about Doom were announced. First, they changed his surname from "Von Doom" to "Domshev" (which wouldbe a better name as it wouldn't scream "HEY, THIS GUY'S EVIL!) However, the next change was that Doom wasn't a brilliant inventor, he was a hacking blogger. AND IF THAT WASN'T ENOUGH...He looks stupid. I'm not putting up a picture of him in order to spare your eyes. Fans were beyond furious and any glimmer of hope they had for the film had died.
Anyway, when the trailer was released, some people started to warm-up to the project. When the second trailer was released, more and more people got exited for the project. As the film got closer and closer, more and more people got exited.
Also, there were many rumours about how the F4 and the X-Men to appear in the same movie (However, as two people in the comments section kindly pointed out - this may not have happend unless FOX gave Marvel some more cash due to the rights being bought at different times). But they had big plans for franchises, crossovers confirmed by Bryan Singer, and sequels, which were rumoured to featured Silver Surfer & Namor. Yes, FOX had BIG plans for the first family of comics.
And then they decided to scrap most of those ideas.
Considering that the movie came out a month ago, you all know why the movie got bad reviews. I even reviewed the film. I didn't hate it. But it wasn't that great. It's a "meh" movie to me. But the reviews were so bad, that it drove people away and the film became one of the summer's biggest bombs. Nothing could make this situation any worse...
Yes, the day before the release of the film, Trank pretty much came out and said that the movie did poorly because of the studio. Some didn't find this surprising as in early 2015, FOX ordered reshoots because they didn't like how the film turned out.
Suddenly, details about the production of the film were everywhere. First, there were the deleted scenes. Details were leaked (or made up) saying that the scenes consisted of Reed & Sue's romance, Reed in South America, scenes with Sue using her powers, Johnny's backstory, and a ccouple more action scenes. However, none of these were confirmed and the only deleted scene we know about is the action scene with the Thing drop.
But then there were the on-set stories. Collider reported that when it comes to Trank, he was difficult to work with. It's said that he had fueds with many of the castand crew. I'm not surprised as Trank never wanted Kate Mara for the role of Sue. Some say he had fueds because he was going through some troubles with his landlord. They also say he was abusive toward pretty much everyone.
When it comes to FOX, it's reported that they were a HUGE reason toward his behavior. People who worked on the movie said that Trank broke because he was driven to the breaking point by FOX. Also, it's said his clash was not with Simon Kinberg, but with Emma Watts, a production producer for FOX. Sources say she and the studio delayed casting and script approvals. They also said that the budget was cut by tens of millions. And they also said that when principal photography was beginning, FOX wanted even more rewrites and reshoots.
It's also reported that when FOX and Trank got along, they still managed to feud. For example, they started to agree with casting, as Michael B. Jordan was cast from the very beginning. However, they fought over who should play Reed (with Trank winning) and who should play Sue (with FOX winning). With Trank not getting the person he wanted for Sue, he treated her badly, with most of the cast, crew, and producers saying they never got along and that he was just cold and cruel to her.
What's even worse is that, the day the film was released, Max Landis who wrote Trank's first film Chronicle, put the first four pages of his F4 script online. Many people thought he was "betraying" Trank, but it was confirmed he was going to do it anyway to celebrate the film's release and that he had no idea how bad the film would turn out. However, what was worse, was that people actually loved these first for pages, claiming it fixes the problem of the lack of chemistry from Trank's film (I'd love to live in the universe where Lanids made his F4 films)
To say that the movie must have been hell to work on sounds like an understatement at this point. What matters is that changes started to be made when the film was in pre-production. What's odd is that, despite all this and the project being yanked away from Trank, he never got fired. Although, the editing of the film was done without him. But despite all this (and this is coming from someone who didn't hate the movie), both FOX and Trank are to blame here.
Now when this movie bombed, I made the mistake of thinking that the careers of the actors would die (because I was worrie about them, beacuse I like them as actors). In reality, they're doing fine. Miles Teller is still in Divergent, so he's doing fine. Kate Mara is still in The Martian, so she's doing fine. Creeed is coming out with a lot of anticipation, so Michael B. Jordan is doing fine. Tintin 2 will be made eventually, so Jamie Bell is doing fine. Toby Kebbell still has Dawn of the Planet of the Apes on his resume and he just got cast in the King Kong reboot/prequel (where he'll most likely play Kong), so he's doing fine.
But after the tweet and the on-set stories, FOX isn't the only studio who will never work with Josh Trank again. Hell, Disney fired Trank from their Boba Fett movie. And reports are saying he got fired from that because of his behavior. I wouldn't be surprised at this point. I used to feel sorry of Trank, but after hearing how he treated everyone, espicially Kate Mara... Well, let's just say that when I see Josh Trank delivering my pizza in a few years, don't expect a tip.
Now, I thought this was the last chapter I would make before I make a "And Now the Future of FOX/Marvel" chapter. But, as someone pointed out, FOX made a movie the same year as Fant4stic based off of a comic from a division from MARVEL! But this one isn't another superhero film. Let's talk about the spy genre for a second.
TO BE CONTINUED...