Details Emerge of Josh Trank’s Chaotic Behavior on FANTASTIC FOUR Set

Josh Trank is living his worst nightmare right now as details about his insane behavior on the set of Fantastic Four start to come to light. This is some major Hollywood behind-the-scenes drama! 

Telling actors when to blink and breath? Hiding in a tent while shooting? Defacing photos of the family who owned the house he rented and allegedly wrecked? These are just a few of many things that happened during the production of the box-office and critical disaster.

Remember that tweet that Trank sent out after the movie was released saying that he had “a fantastic version” that we would “probably never see”? Well, just before Fantastic Four hit theaters, Trank sent an email to some members of the cast and crew to say he was proud of the film, and told them it was "better than 99 percent of the comic-book movies ever made." 

Whoa! One of the cast members even responded to him with, “I don’t think so.” That cast member was right. As you know, the movie turned out to be worse than 99 percent of the comic book movies ever made.

After Trank sent out the tweet dissing his own movie, a lot of people who worked on it have come out to tell what allegedly happened on the set of the film. THR has the details thanks to multiple sources who were around when the madness unfolded.

Here are several points of interest:

• “Multiple sources associated with the project say the director did not produce material that would have opened the way to a salvageable film.”
• Several people within the production say he resisted help from the studio. ”He holed up in a tent and cut himself off from everybody. He built a black tent around his monitor. He was extremely withdrawn." Between setups, "he would go to his trailer and he wouldn't interact with anybody."
• “Several sources say Fox stood by Trank as he pushed a gloomy tone on young stars Miles Teller, Michael B. Jordan, Kate Mara and Jamie Bell.”
• "During takes, he would be telling [castmembers] when to blink and when to breathe. He kept pushing them to make the performance as flat as possible."
• “Trank and his dogs allegedly caused more than $100,000 worth of damage to a rented house in Baton Rouge that he and his wife occupied while the film was shooting there.”
• “Sources say now that after landlord Martin Padial moved to evict Trank, photographs of the landlord's family that were in the house were defaced.” He made a complaint to the local sheriff’s department and even filed a civil suit.
• A crew member on the film said the movie was "ill-conceived, made for the wrong reasons and there was no vision behind the property. Say what you will about Marvel but they have a vision."
• The studio was "afraid of losing the rights so they pressed forward and didn't surround [Trank] with help or fire him. They buried their heads in the sand." 
• There was some talk of firing Trank before the movie started shooting, but Fox put their complete faith in him “because he had directed the studio's 2012 found-footage hero movie Chronicle.”
• Based on that, “insiders say Fox executives thought they had found an ‘in-house director,’ a young talent who could become another J.J. Abrams.” Well, that dream is dead!
• The problems eventually escalated to the point of no return. An inside source said, "How do you ask someone to take over half of a movie shot by someone else? You either hire somebody desperate for work or you [start over], write off pretty much the whole budget and lose the cast." 

The article goes on to talk about the absolute chaos of the studio's last-minute scramble to come up with an ending for the film, shooting Teller against a green screen and using doubles for the other characters because none of the other actors were available when they shot it. Apparently Trank was there for the re-shoot of the ending, "but was neutralized by a committee." 

One central player involved in the development of this movie had this to say:

"To me, it is a classic indictment of the entire system. Give Josh Trank a $20 million movie. Groom him. But they don't make those movies anymore… Nobody should escape scrutiny on this one. Everyone should take a good look in the mirror, myself included. Even I probably did the movie for the wrong reasons."

This is going to haunt not only Trank but Fox as well for a very long time. I don’t see how the studio can even think of making another Fantastic Four film at this point. This property is tainted, and it’s no good to them anymore. It’s obviously not going to make them any money. At this point, they are losing money on it! 

Fox just needs to give the rights back to Marvel, and let them give the Fantastic Four the movie they deserve.