Josh Trank debuted on movie screens as a director with Chronicle, a surprisingly thoughtful and even melancholy found-footage movie about teens gaining superpowers and losing control. But there’s no way he’d try that gimmick twice, right? Apparently not, if a recent interview with Fox’s head of production is any indication.
The Hollywood Reporter interviewed Emma Watts, president of production for Fox, and when asked about Trank and his upcoming Fantastic Four movie, she had this to say:
We’re making a big bet for 2015 with The Fantastic Four and director Josh Trank. To me, the key is the originality of the filmmakers and the choices they make. Josh is another really interesting example, who is using the vision he gave us in Chronicle to reinvent a franchise he’s loved his whole life.
Will the Fantastic Four reboot have any of the same found-footage feel that Chronicle did?
It’s Josh, so it can’t not have that feel. That’s his talent, that’s what he does, and that’s what excites him about it.
So, what, Johnny has a GoPro strapped to his forehead? Ben Grimm accidentally crushes a camcorder? We’re not really sure how the whole “found footage” gimmick is going to work here. Then again, Trank did manage to have it come together logically, even in the climax of a movie with two people kicking each other’s asses across Seattle.
And hey, it could be The Reed Richards Ego Project and it’d still be a better movie than Rise of the Silver Surfer. So we’ll just keep that in mind, especially when the trailer debuts sometime this year.