Josh Trank Lost Star Wars Gig Over Fantastic Four Problems

Just over three months away from its planned release, Fantastic Four underwent reshoots, which were necessary to help the film hold together but nonetheless proved highly problematic, given the busy schedules of stars Miles Teller, Kate Mara and Michael B. Jordan, all of whom had moved on to other projects. Three days of reshoots last month had to take place on the weekends to accommodate Teller’s commitment to Arms and the Dudes, and those days on set forced Kinberg and Parker to fly in from Canada, where they’re busy producing X-Men: Apocalypse (also for Fox).

To make up for Trank’s lackluster performance, the producers tapped Stephen Rivkin (Avatar) to come in and pull the film together in post, making him the second editor to work on the project (Trank had previously worked on the movie with Chronicle editor Elliot Greenberg). That’s an awful lot of maneuvering for a blockbuster that didn’t have much time to play with in the first place – Fox was reportedly gunning to get the film made before rights for Marvel’s First Family returned to Marvel Studios, which would have certainly used them).

After the dust finally settled on Fantastic Four, Kinberg evidently communicated his displeasure with Trank’s performance on Fantastic Four to Lucasfilm President Kathleen Kennedy and the rest of the Star Wars brain trust. The more they heard, the less confident all of them felt with handing over a blockbuster pic to the director. All these conversations took place under lock and key, and no one involved is expected to comment candidly on the content of them.

Still, it doesn’t take much to fill in the blanks. Now, Lucasfilm will hunt for a replacement so that the spinoff can stay on track, and moviegoers will watch the progression of Trank’s career with increased interest, likely wondering whether he’ll tackle (or be entrusted with) another huge studio tentpole like Star Wars. Perhaps it would be best if he simply went back to smaller, more creatively freeing pics in the vein of Chronicle – after all, not everyone is cut out for blockbuster filmmaking.

Fantastic Four opens on July 30th.