Hollywood has always been a volatile place where stars are made and destroyed in a day. Capone director Josh Trank found out about this system the hard way when he found immense fame but failed to create a good Fantastic Four movie back in 2015.
After directing the superhero movie that was literally shredded to pieces, Josh Trank retired from directing a Star Wars project. Although it was speculated that they had fired Trank, the director had clarified that he chose to walk out since they were going to fire him anyway!
Josh Trank’s Career Was Ruined By Fantastic Four
Back in 2012, the director found critical acclaim when he created the hand-held camera movie Chronicle. With his unique take on the superhero genre, fans and studios had such high hopes for Trank that they decided to let him direct the 2015 film Fantastic Four.
As the world knows, the movie was hailed with negative reviews and received a lot of backlash for not being the Fantastic Four movie the world needed. With Trank’s career about to take off, the director literally vanished from Hollywood after his failed attempt, never to be seen or heard from again. The bizarre movie also led Josh Trank to walk out of Kathleen Kennedy’s office (the current president of Lucasfilm) and out of the Star Wars franchise too!
According to Polygon, Kathleen Kennedy had once said, “He [Josh Trank] is such an incredible talent and has a great imagination and sense of innovation”. After the whole thing blew over, it was reported by Polygon that the director was no longer attached to the Star Wars franchise.
“I quit because I knew I was going to be fired if I didn’t quit. But I was shocked it just hasn’t blown over. People get so excited to raise their pitchforks. I knew that this was going to be questioned and it was going to come under scepticism as to why I left Star Wars, and it was hard,” said Trank.
So what was the reason for the spectacular failure of such a bright director? Well, as per Josh Trank himself, he received a tremendous amount of interference from the studio which wanted to take the film in a certain direction.
Josh Trank Blames The Studio For Ruining Fantastic Four
After the whole ordeal reached its end, Josh Trank was asked where he thought it all went wrong. Narrating a detailed answer, Trank stated in an interview with Polygon that he felt as if he was essentially castrated, where he was the director but no decisions were in his control!
“It was like being castrated. You’re standing there, and you’re basically watching producers blocking out scenes, five minutes ahead of when you get there, having [editors hired] by the studio deciding the sequence of shots that are going to construct whatever is going on, and what it is that they need.”
In the end, Fantastic Four received a rating of 4.3/10 on IMDB and 9% on Rotten Tomatoes. The 2015 movie is currently available to stream on Disney+ in the U.S.
Source: Polygon
