Never has a film had so much bad press before its opening weekend is even over, but Josh Trank’s Fantastic Four is struggling to find a modicum of positivity at the moment.
Amidst all its bad reviews (read ours here and here), it’s Thursday box office tracking was poor, and it’s only looking to make $25 million on by Sunday. Not only that, but Trank himself has already blamed 20th Century Fox for the movie’s poor reviews in a tweet he deleted.
Following Trank’s comments, some sources within Fox have told Entertainment Weekly that the director is actually to blame for the film’s failings.
“Several high level sources close to Fantastic Four – spoken to independently of each other – have told EW the rift on set was not about creative differences but rather combative behavior Trank demonstrated toward the crew, producers, studio and even the stars.”
Trank was set to direct a Star Wars Anthology movie, but left the project due to creative differences. There were several stories that floated around at the time that the director’s attitude was the reason he left, but Trank denied those rumours shortly after.
Some filmmakers have jumped to the defense of Trank, including Max Landis (who wrote Trank’s directorial debut Chronicle) and Joe Carnahan, who nearly directed M:I:3 before having issues with Tom Cruise.
Nice to know that those vigilant online trolls can copy & paste & make Josh Trank pay dearly for any unfortunate faux pas. Thank you cunts.
— Joe Carnahan (@carnojoe) August 7, 2015
I just think of myself at roughly Trank’s age on MI3 & if Twitter had been around then, I would have been a dead man with no career. — Joe Carnahan (@carnojoe) August 7, 2015
The trolls had it in for Trank. If someone like Nolan had been behind FF, they couldn’t get on their knees to felate that film, fast enough.
— Joe Carnahan (@carnojoe) August 7, 2015
Fantastic Four sees Josh Trank (Chronicle) directing a cast that includes Miles Teller (Whiplash) as Reed Richards/Mr. Fantastic, Kate Mara (House of Cards) as Sue Storm/The Invisible Woman, Michael B. Jordan (Fruitvale Station) as Johnny Storm/The Human Torch, Jamie Bell (Nymphomaniac) as Ben Grimm/The Thing, Toby Kebbell (Dawn of the Planet of the Apes) as Doctor Doom, Reg E. Cathey (House of Cards) as Dr. Storm, and Tim Blake Nelson (The Incredible Hulk) as Harvey Elder/Mole Man. Listen to the Flickering Myth Podcast review of the movie using the player below:
Originally published August 8, 2015. Updated July 2, 2023.
