Josh Trank on FANTASTIC FOUR's Failure - "I Was Absolutely Responsible. But So Was Everybody Else"

I know that some of you are getting tired of these Josh Trank articles, but I personally just find it fascinating. This guy made a great film with Chronicle and he was given the opportunity to take his career to an epic level of awesomeness with Fantastic Four. Instead, he pretty much killed his career. Getting some insight on the director has been eye-opening. It’s like watching a train wreck and you just don’t want to look away.

This will most likely be my last article on Trank for awhile. But, I just wanted to share it because it’s funny how he takes the blame for the Fantastic Four’s failure by blaming everyone else.

During a recent interview with Variety, Trank does take some responsibility for the film’s failings, but then points the figure at everyone else involved.

"As far as my own level of responsibility in the film turning out to be a disaster and not working, I was absolutely responsible. But so was everybody else. When I was in the middle of the situation, it was very clear that everybody was doing the wrong thing."

Trank went on to explain that he became the fall guy for the Fantastic Four's failings, with everyone pinning blame on the young and new upcoming filmmaker:

"You’ve got all of these professional adults who worked on a lot of movies and all these well-established industry insiders who have been making these types of movies for a long time, and here’s this young, relatively inexperienced filmmaker being described as in over his head. They said I wasn’t communicating with people and didn’t want to play by the rules."

He continued:

"What I remembered was I was being overly communicative. I have no problem communicating, and I’ve never had a problem communicating. That’s why I got Chronicle greenlit when I didn’t have much work to my name. The problem was I was communicating ideas that didn’t mesh well with everybody else’s. That’s not their fault and it’s not my fault. It was the wrong combination of people to get together and make something creative."

I’d say the majority of the people on the set of the film would disagree with him. In the end, it seems the biggest mistake made at the studio was hiring Trank in the first place to direct the movie.

I don’t know, it seems like a crappy situation for everyone involved. Put him continuing to blame everyone else isn’t going to help his career. His upcoming film Capone is the movie that will give Trank a second chance to prove himself. I haven’t seen the film yet, but it looks like it’s been getting mixed reviews.