Fox are really having a tough year aren’t they when it comes to their superhero projects? Despite most people being fairly excited for their upcoming X-Men: Apocalypse and Deadpool movies, it’s their other comic-book projects that are hugging the headlines this year. The Josh Trank helmed reboot of Fantastic Four was critically panned as one of the worst superhero movies of all time and just a few weeks ago Gambit lost its director Rupert Wyatt.
Wyatt’s departure was citied to scheduling difficulties after production on the project was shifted back to March 2016 but now a new report from THR claims the real reason he left was, surprise surprise, because of a distinct difference in vision of the character and world in which he lives in.
THR say that Fox “began to question whether Wyatt was in fact committed to moving ahead on the project.”
Despite the similarities to the Josh Trank situation on Fantastic Four, a studio executive for Fox admitted that Wyatt “is not a tortured guy…I think he’s a very principled guy. He wants to make the best version of something, and he’s so desperately afraid of making something not good that it’s easier to walk away than be pushed by committee.”
This isn’t the first time Wyatt has walked away from a project. He was due to direct Dawn of the Planet of the Apes – the sequel to his big break feature Rise of the Planet of the Apes – but dropped out and was replaced by Matt Reeves after he wasn’t allowed to rework the original script. He then went to work on The Equalizer with Denzel Washington but again walked away after butting heads with the studio on the vision of the movie.
Wyatt’s agent Brian Swardstrom was quick to mitigate any negativity surrounding his client’s attitude, admitting that directors leaving projects happen all the time, “The studios, with these big movies, have very specific visions of what they want. They don’t necessarily want an auteur who’s going to try to reinvent the franchise. Of course the studios would love it if a director did what they want, when they want, but it doesn’t always work out…Many have ended up in director’s jail when they didn’t walk away and perhaps they should have.”
Fox are still looking for a director but an announcement is likely to happen before the end of the year.
