Looks like there’s trouble in the Paradise Snare: Josh Trank, slated to helm an untitled Star Wars standalone film sprouted from J.J. Abram’s upcoming The Force Awakens, has left the project, THR reports.
Trank gained recognition for his clever work on the sci-fi found-footage flick Chronicle, which managed to take the tried subgenre and inject it with some much-needed vitality. He displayed a keen awareness of how to use special effects sparsely but effectively, making him an ideal choice for a franchise film that needs a lot of bang for its buck. Enter Marvel and its Fantastic Four reboot, on which Trank recently wrapped production. The film, which opens July 30 and stars Miles Teller, Kate Mara, Jamie Bell, and Michael B. Jordan as the superheroic quartet, looks literally and figuratively darker than previous iterations of Stan Lee’s comic. (I’m personally hoping there’s a Gang of Four dance number, a la James Gunn’s credits for Guardians Of The Galaxy, but it looks doubtful.)
But rumors of trouble during the Fantastic Four shoot have persisted. Producers Simon Kinberg and Hutch Parker are credited with holding the production together, though Trank is still credited as having directed the film and all of the reshoots, as per Directors Guild rules. Trank’s work on Fantastic Four was “erratic” and the director became at times “very isolated,” according to THR’s sources. Some sources also claim that Trank has the talent, but he just isn't ready to play ball with a big, controlling studio.
The most entertaining and unusual story to pop up during all this hearsay melodrama is that Trank kept a gaggle of dogs in an apartment while filming took place in New Orleans, and the dogs allegedly caused $100,000 of damage. I think we can all read between the lines and ascertain what kind of dogs Trank had with him.
At Star Wars Celebration Day, Trank was supposed to have attended a panel with Godzilla director Gareth Edwards, who’s manning the battle stations of Star Wars: Rogue One. But Trank didn’t show, telling Twitter he woke up feeling unwell, with a sad face emoji. Whispers and cries of the most morbid and destitute kind quickly cropped up on Twitter, with fans wondering if Trank had a falling out with Disney, or dropped out of the film, or fell into a Sarlacc Pit, or whatever. As Han so eloquently put it, we had a bad feeling about this. Now we know we were right.
No word yet on who’ll replace Trank, but for what it’s worth, I vote for Duncan Jones, though he might be literally insane by the time he finishes the 20-month post-production on Warcraft. Meanwhile, you can read our own Keith Phipps say smart things about Star Wars for his Laser Age column.