14 DAY TRIAL // Last Friday, 20th Century Fox brought the “Fantastic Four” franchise back in theaters in the US and other territories, in the hope of rebooting it. The premiere was preceded by months of speculation on what was believed to be a very troubled production and at least a couple of weeks of very negative media attention.
The fact that director Josh Trank tweeted, just days ahead of the film’s opening, that the movie critics were trashing and audiences will most likely hate wasn’t the film he wanted to make only added fuel to the fire. Trank, whether he aimed to do so or not, probably killed whatever chances the film still had at the box office.
“Fantastic Four” disappoints critically and commercially
Though a new arrival in theaters, “Fantastic Four” wasn’t able to dethrone Tom Cruise’s “Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation,” according to figures from Box Office Mojo. Not opening at number 1 is always a bad sign for wannabe tentpole franchises, because grossing tends to drop after the first week.
“M:I” made another $29.4 million (€26.6 million), while “Fantastic Four” grossed a little over $26 million (€23.5 million) in its opening weekend. Again, that’s not pocket change for any other movie, but it’s quite disappointing for a superhero / action book-based movie that is supposed to get a sequel too.
It’s even worse if you consider this recent report from Entertainment Weekly: “Fantastic Four” cost over $122 million (€105.5 million) to make, and that’s not even including the tens of millions spent on marketing. In other words, Fox will be lucky if it gets to make this money back by the time the film completes its theatrical run.
So when Trank briefly popped up on Twitter last week to basically lay the blame at the door of the studio for making a movie that critics were already taking great pleasure in trashing, he seemed to deliver the death blow to this ill-inspired reboot.
Josh Trank, a talented director who got way in over his head
As the same EW report notes, it would be highly unfair to say that Trank is solely responsible for the mess that “Fantastic Four” turned out to be, because in a situation of this kind (involving a beloved franchise, a lot of money and a studio desperate not to lose the rights to the franchise back to Marvel), there are too many people with their hands on the wheel to pinpoint just one guilty party.
However, Trank certainly didn’t make it easy on himself, as various studio sources reveal. He shot to fame a few years back with the hit indie “Chronicle,” and “Fantastic Four” was his first time directing a big-budget studio film. This was his “big shot,” because Fox had taken a chance on him.
He blew it, kind of. According to reports, he clashed not only with writer/producer Simon Kinberg, but with everyone else involved in the production, from studio bosses, to the other writers and the actors. He hated the decisions the studio made on his behalf (like the casting of Kate Mara) and he acted out on that frustration (like, for example, treating her badly on the set).
He was indecisive and, when he did know what he wanted, he couldn’t make himself heard and get others to listen to him.
Trank lost control over “Fantastic Four” shortly after it went into production, both because it was taken from him by the studio and because he lost it through his own actions. By the time the film went into reshoots, he was no longer involved in it. Ironically, writers were still working on the script even as reshoots were being scheduled, which meant that no one really knew the direction it would take.
“Fantastic Four” was a mess from the get-go, but Trank didn’t help. He was unprepared and unsuited for the job, and proof of that is the tweet he sent out in which he disowned the cut shown in theaters altogether.
BuzzFeed calls what happened with “Fantastic Four” an important “Hollywood cautionary tale.” They’re not wrong.
