August 7th brought an end to a long and seemingly problematic production for Fox’s Fantastic Four reboot, and the early verdict is that Josh Trank’s rendition of Marvel’s First Family is an unmitigated disaster. Despite showing early signs of promise – not to mention an impressive cast – script doctoring has fuelled an impassioned blame game between director and studio, with each party attributing the cause of the film’s quick demise to one another. It’s an unfortunate turn of events for everyone involved, though one can’t help but raise the question: what went wrong?
Only a week has passed since Fantastic Four opened and already Josh Trank’s derided superhero flick is unravelling – and fast. With deleted scenes by the bucketload and Fox bracing for $60 million loss, there is plenty for the studio to consider, though today a report by Entertainment Weekly has surfaced that sheds more light on the behind-the-scenes drama.
[zerg]It’s no secret that Trank’s project was hit by numerous setbacks throughout the course of development. Struggling to rein in his vision into one coherent whole, Simon Kinberg was drafted in to assist, before Scott Frank and Fox chief Emma Watts tossed their own two cents into the creative process. By this stage, Fantastic Four was already becoming a complicated affair, and when the studio cut the film’s budget by $30 million, things naturally took a turn for the worse.
Soon thereafter, tension among the cast and crew was bubbling dangerously close to the surface, with today’s report revealing that, at one stage, Josh Trank and Miles Teller squared off with one another, daring each other to throw the first punch. Again, it’s worth treating these allegations with a hint of caution, but considering the barrage of negative reports seeping out of Fox’s clusterfuck, it’s not difficult to imagine that things boiled over on the set.
For all intents and purposes, Fantastic Four was dead on arrival, and it remains to be seen what Fox will do with the 2017 release date. Will it scramble for a new director to push ahead with a sequel, or draft in Deadpool 2? Time will tell.
