It’s hard not to feel some measure of sympathy for Fantastic Four reboot director Josh Trank. His name has been dragged through the mud following his firing off the Star Wars spin-off and now a new rumor making the rounds suggests X-Men: First Class director Matthew Vaughn recently shot a round of reshoots.
Trank remained quiet while the first round of accusations flew, probably the best decision if he doesn’t want to stir the Hollywood pot too much, but he did take to Twitter to deny the Vaughn rumors stating he’s never met Vaughn in person and that there’s only ever been one director on Fantastic Four, himself. He also denies reports of poor test screenings that resulted in the rumored Vaughn-shot reshoots.
“Next time you read an article, whether it’s Hollywood Reporter or SuperheroNews,” Trank added in one final tweet. “[I]f they aren’t naming sources: it’s probably bullshit.”
From my perspective, I believe Trank when he says Vaughn never came on for reshoots. I don’t believe there haven’t been any test screenings and as for all the earlier reports, well, where there’s smoke there’s usually fire, but many of the finer details are most likely embellished or only half-truths.
What I can say for certain is I saw a full trailer for Fantastic Four for the first time in front of Mad Max: Fury Road and it doesn’t look half-bad. I’m most likely intrigued by the casting of Michael B. Jordan, Kate Mara and Miles Teller as three of the four titular leads. Jamie Bell as The Thing doesn’t move the dial, but those other three seem reason enough to give this one a shot, even if comic book movies aren’t your thing.
That said, a pair of new trailers surfaced recently, the first an international trailer and the second a trailer showing off the powers of the title characters for MovieTickets.com. Fantastic Four hits theaters on Aug. 7.
