“Star Wars”: Why Josh Trank Was Fired

It’s hard out there for a reboot director.  Apparently.  Ok, for some it’s downright impossible, mostly because they are difficult to work with.  I’m talking of course about the upcoming Sony Fantastic Four reboot and it’s director, Josh Trank, and the report of his leaving his Star Wars standalone film due to “creative differences”.

Fantastic Four has been plagued by issues, mostly stemming from fan’s reactions to reports that Trank was moving SO FAR away from the source material comics, that he urged the actors/actresses not to read them at all.  I dunno about you guys, but that certainly raised my eyebrows.  The retconning of the ages, personalities, and way in which the heroes gain their abilities also was cause for a good amount of questioning looks.

Reports from the set of Fantastic Four haven’t been so great either.  Almost a week’s worth of reshoots were called for, causing Miles Teller, Kate Mara and Michael B. Jordan to have serious conflicts due to contractual obligations with other films.

Producers Hutch Parker and Simon Kinberg were by all reports “heavily involved in those re-shoots”, pulling them away from the set of X-Men: Apocalypse up in Canada which they are also producing.  The big news this week was that Trask has parted ways with LucasFilm, reportedly under his own steam.

The Hollywood Reporter states that Kinberg, who is producing the second Star Wars standalone project (that Trask was going to direct), is said to have communicated his displeasure with Trank to Kathleen Kennedy and the team at Lucasfilm. As the Star Wars brain trust heard more about Trank’s behavior and working style, they became less confident in handing over the film to him.

The thing to take away from this, aside from Trank’s inability to stick to a set schedule, is we may have dodged a bullet with him being no longer involved with Star Wars.  We’ll let you know when they announce the replacement director.