Beaks here...
Fox execs are reportedly keen to hire twenty-six-year-old Josh Trank to direct the studio's reboot of THE FANTASTIC FOUR. It's practically a done deal! According to Variety, the job is Trank's provided his debut feature, CHRONICLE, doesn't bomb when it goes into wide release over Super Bowl weekend. If it stiffs, I guess they'll blame the young filmmaker for not opening a movie they liked internally but failed to sell to teens and twentysomethings?
That part of Variety's story doesn't make sense. If Fox is likes Trank based on CHRONICLE, they're going to offer him the film regardless of what CHRONICLE does at the domestic box office - unless someone cheaper and more promising comes along. Michael Green, who created NBC's well-received KINGS and grabbed a credit on GREEN LANTERN, is currently writing the screenplay. Akiva Goldsman was originally set to produce the new FANTASTIC FOUR, but he's evidently too busy fucking up other studios' projects, so he has moved on.
I do not know the work of Josh Trank, so I have no opinion on this hire. I hope that he is talented. I also hope that Michael Green has an Oa-sized chip on his shoulder after GREEN LANTERN and turns in a spectacular screenplay. After X-MEN: FIRST CLASS and RISE OF THE PLANET OF THE APES, I feel like Fox has turned a corner with their franchise films. We shall see.
