Ask and ye shall receive. Last night, after someone passed along a link to the “story” that director Josh Trank had trashed the set and/or his living quarters while filming Fantastic Four in Louisiana, I pondered to the masses – What the crap is happening with this blasted Fantastic Four reboot? Basically, silence from both Fox and Trank, not only about the “hundreds of thousands of dollars in damage” but just the reboot in general, has been causing the rumor mill to go bananas over the last few months, and with the trailer supposedly hitting theaters with The Kingsman next month, it’s really bizarre that the only images we’d seen had come from a purported studio employee’s Reddit thread that has since been deleted.
Well, today we have a new idea of how Trank’s vision will turn out, and it’s not exactly good news. While Trank has not been fired, as those message board rumors had suggested, he is on his way back to Louisiana for at least a month of reshoots, according to Bleeding Cool’s Rich Johnston. Additionally, despite Matthew Vaughn’s bland review and Mark Millar’s equally “meh” word, Johnston’s source doesn’t inspire any hope.
One well-connected senior executive described it to me as “a mess”. And multiple sources are telling me about major disquiet at Fox regarding the state of the movie.
A year ago, I was directly told by primary sources that Fox were approaching other directors and writers to take on the project and start from scratch, though they didn’t find anyone willing. Fox denied this at the time.
As it stands, I’m told that reshoots are now being demanded, that millions of dollars are being freed up for the purpose and sets are being rebuilt in Louisiana. (Via Bleeding Cool)
Badass Digest’s Devin Faraci, whose previous Tweet about FF has been linked to Trank’s alleged rock star behavior, “confirms” the reshoot story, but he writes that this has been planned for months. That’s obviously not an indication that all is well, but it’s better than imagining Trank in a Star Wars t-shirt being shoved onto a private jet by a Fox exec. Regardless, I’ll keep my eye on the Tiger Droppings message board for new rumors of set trashing.
