Josh Trank on Fantastic Four failure: "I was absolutely responsible. But so was everybody else"

Remember Josh Trank's Fantastic Four? While the superhero flick may have been forgettable, the drama surrounding its release was anything but. 

Just a few days before the superhero movie's release, Trank claimed on Twitter that there was a superior version of the movie that had been edited by the studio into the final theatrical version. “A year ago I had a fantastic version of this,” the director tweeted. “And it would’ve recieved [sic] great reviews. You’ll probably never see it. That’s reality though.”

Now, though, Trank takes more of the responsibility for the movie's failings – but not complete blame. Speaking to Variety, the filmmaker said that, while the media had mischaracterised the situation, he did accept that the Fantastic Four being a mini-disaster was somewhat his fault. 

"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," he said. "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 figurehead for the Fantastic Four's failings, with everyone able to pin blame on the firster. "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," he explained. "They said I wasn’t communicating with people and didn’t want to play by the rules."

"What I remembered was I was being overly communicative," he continued. "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."

The stories of Trank being difficult to work with cost the young filmmaker various opportunities, including directing a Star Wars spin-off about Boba Fett. That project was later moulded into The Mandalorian. 

Since Fantastic Four's release in 2015, Trank has continued to make movies, with Capone – about the infamous gangster Al Capone – coming out May 12. 

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