During Star Wars Celebration in mid-April there was to be a panel featuring directors Gareth Edwards and Josh Trank, both of which were set to direct spinoff films in the new Star Wars Anthology — Edwards directing Rogue One, releasing next year, and Trank directing a yet-to-be-titled feature. While that panel took place, Trank was a no show, the reason given that he was sick. Well, it turns out it was more than just a sickness.
Announced this evening, Trank released a statement on the official Star Wars website saying:
After a year of having the incredible honor of developing with the wonderful and talented people at Lucasfilm, I’m making a personal decision to move forward on a different path. I’ve put a tremendous amount of thought into this, and I know deep down in my heart that I want to pursue some original creative opportunities. That said, the Star Wars universe has always been one of my biggest influences, and I couldn’t be more excited to witness its future alongside my millions of fellow Star Wars fans. I want to thank my friends Kathleen Kennedy, Kiri Hart, Simon Kinberg, and everyone at Lucasfilm and Disney for the amazing opportunity to have been a part of this. May the Force be with you all.
Hart, head of story and VP of Development at Lucasfilm, also released a statement saying:
It was a privilege to collaborate with Josh. We are grateful for the energy and love of Star Wars that he brought to the process, and we wish him all the best.
https://twitter.com/joshuatrank/status/589895842321932290
Obviously this is all a bit of smoke and mirrors and glad-handing as I have a hard time believing it was all this pleasant behind-the-scenes considering it has taken this long since Celebration to make the announcement. Announcing on a Friday evening is also a tried and true way of softening the blow, hoping to avoid as much coverage as possible over the weekend.
The Hollywood Reporter adds a little more fuel to the fire saying it was Disney executives that asked Trank not to attend Celebration, and producer Simon Kinberg, who worked with Trank on the upcoming Fantastic Four at Fox, “was getting cold feet about working with Trank again.”
What kind of behavior could they possibly be talking about? Well buzz started spreading from a Louisiana State University message board back in November 2014 and comments such as “He trashed the house the production company rented for him. From what I’m told he did a couple hundred grand worth of damage,” are now ringing true with THR citing $100,000 worth of damage courtesy of Trank’s several small dogs who were left in the rented house.
The messages go on to say “Trank showed up to set late or so high he couldn’t speak almost everyday” and another saying he “heard he was fired after wrapping and other are working on it post production.” That last bit is an odd one until you read THR’s account saying “the production added Stephen Rivkin (Avatar) to help pull the film together.”
Yikes, while the Star Wars train will merely roll forward, the press junkets for Fantastic Four should prove interesting.
THR says producers on Fantastic Four are said to have “faced great challenges pulling the film together given behavior described by one insider as ‘erratic‘ and at times ‘very isolated.’ Trank did not offer clear direction, this person adds, saying, ‘If you’ve got someone who can’t answer questions or who isn’t sure or is in hiding, that’s not good.'”
One comment specifically captures my attention, citing one source that says Trank, coming off of his success with the low-budget feature Chronicle, seemed “like one of these kids who comes to the NBA with all the talent and none of the character-based skills to handle it. There’s equipment he doesn’t yet have.” This isn’t surprising in the least and I think we have examples such as Marc Webb‘s work on The Amazing Spider-Man and its sequel and we’ll soon see with Colin Trevorrow on Jurassic World how they handle the move from a lone indie hit to playing with the big boys in Hollywood. Edwards pulled it off, following up Monsters with Godzilla, but Godzilla is hardly a studio franchise a la Star Wars, Spider Man and Jurassic Park.
