Josh Trank may have fired off his disgruntled Tweet late Thursday night, but there are things about what he said that don't sit right with me. Trank had the studio's support on this film far longer than would seem justified because Fox was so very aware of how it would look if they pushed the young filmmaker off of his movie. They made him work for the greenlight before they decided to go ahead with the movie, and whatever Trank wants to say about how he was handled, he was the one who directed the film. The studio wasn't making daily changes or forcing him to shoot material he didn't help create. They were doing everything they could to keep him on schedule and on budget, and they surrounded him with crew that they trusted. They wanted this film to work. Even when things weren't working, the studio still worked to find a way to have Trank solve those problems. He may claim that his cut a year ago was amazing, but that opinion was not shared by the majority of the people working on the film. There were internal conversations at that point about potentially scrapping everything. That's how strong the concerns were. Even so, they decided to back Trank while looking for ways to fix the movie, and the end result is the film audiences largely didn't bother to see in theaters this weekend.
Everything I've heard would indicate that the studio will move forward with a "Fantastic Four" sequel. It may not make that original 2017 date, but they're definitely planning to make it. The next filmmaker in is going to start from a difficult position, and they're going to have to work hard to create their own movie while starting with some of Trank's choices intact. For better or worse, Trank was given room to define these characters, and his signature will remain on the next film no matter who writes and directs it. The next movie will be a reaction to this one. What remains to be seen is whether or not this incident overall will test Fox's resolve to try to support their filmmakers. It would be understandable if they suddenly reverted to the way things used to be, when you did what Fox said or they would just steamroll you.