Fantastic Four Reboot to be Helmed by Chronicle Director Josh Trank?

Posted by on January 16th, 2012   Filed under: Action, Books/Comics, Remakes
Source: Variety

It was over a year ago that we first started hearing rumours about a Fantastic Four reboot. The previous two films did more than just break even at the box office but they did not fare particularly well with fans and critics… which is why Fox decided to hire Akiva Goldsman to produce a new Fantastic Four movie with a brand new cast. Things went silent on that front for a little while, but now this week we’re hearing that Goldsman has left and Josh Trank, the man behind the upcoming found footage superhero movie Chronicle, is Fox’s top choice to direct it. Word on the street is that they will wait to see how well Chronicle does at the box office before they officially hand him the keys to the franchise.

According to Variety, Fox execs are very pleased with what they are seeing in Chronicle so far and have been heavily promoting it. They even debuted exclusive footage of the film during some NFL wild-card games. It’s hard to say just how well the movie will do since it isn’t based on an existing brand or comic book property, but the trailer has been getting a ton of hits online and that seems to be a good sign.

As for whether or not Trank is what the Fantastic Four franchise needs right now, that remains to be seen. Fans were unhappy with the lighthearted approach taken by Tim Story, so they’re probably looking for something a bit darker and edgier. I can’t see Fox having the guts to apply a found footage style to a major comic book blockbuster, but maybe they’re hoping he can keep it a little more grounded in reality. More importantly, they’ll probably be asking him to put together the reboot on a shoestring budget, not unlike Marc Webb’s upcoming The Amazing Spider-Man. Are you looking forward to Chronicle? Does Josh Trank sound like a good choice for a new Fantastic Four movie?



  • Henrik

    In b4 Trosh Jank

    All for new Fantastic 4 (no pun intended).

  • phil

    Nope

    Fantastic Four is “the incredibles” in live-action. it’s always been a title full of fun, big ideas, alternate dimensions, outer space, etc.

    The title is FANTASTIC four, not gritty. Nothing realistic about this…

    I would love to see this movie pay homage to the classic Marvel style, with a Phil Hartman-sounding narrator.

    Set it in the 1960s, and have some fun with it. For instance, Reed keeps inventing things that exist in our day but they are huge and Kirbyesque. (For example: The Thing has to weat a 10,000-pound backpack with a giant satellite dish on the back)

    Johnny should have those 60s girls swooning over him like the Beatles…

    Don’t know who made this, but it’s BRILLIANT:

    http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/232/fanmen.jpg/

  • phil

    Ideal Fantastic four: What Captain America was to the 40s, this is to the 60s.

  • Wintle

    Peyton Reed (Down With Love, Bring It On) was originally supposed to film the first Fantastic Four. There was a good possibility it would have been set in the 60s. I want to live in the alternate universe where that happened.

  • Napalm

    I just don’t find the very idea of Fantastic Four interesting.

  • To be fair, I think The Incredibles is really the Fantastic Four in animation, but I’ve seen the comparison before too. Hell, the Fantastic Four wasn’t even the Fantastic Four in animation for the longest time. Fuck you, H.E.R.B.I.E….

  • Theman

    I like the look of chronical and cautiously optimistic. He may be a good choice for ff. but I agree with the common thread hear ff is very interesting.

  • Nelson

    I saw the trailer for “Chronicle”, so I am looking forward to it. I don’t know what I could hope to expect from the “Fantastic Four” franchise, at this point. So many of these Marvel, and DC, characters, for that matter, were conceived of in the 40’s, 50’s, and 60’s, and it’s just a completely different world now. 2012 is nowhere near as naive and simple a time as I perceive those years might have been. This is a different world and I, personally, really need heroes that are modeled to reflect today’s trends, values, beliefs, etc.

    If you have modern day villains that are basically willing to do anything to achieve their goals, and then you have superheroes that don’t believe in violence, of even a minor variety, I don’t see how that works.

    What I like about the Nolan Batman movies is that you see a hero that acknowledges that we live in a bad world, and he acts accordingly, equipping himself physically, financially, emotionally, and otherwise to deal with the kind of people that are out there.

    If some guy walks up to Batman and cusses him out, he’s going to get punched out, at the least; what is Mister Fantastic going to do in that same situation, or the Invisible Woman?

    I just want a mature line of Marvel movies and not just strictly PG-13 this and that. Can we pretend that there are people interested in these characters that are over the age of 13? That’s all I’m asking.