One week ago today, "Fantastic Four" opened in theaters and the news was not good. Director Josh Trank had already fired off his tweet that effectively disowned the movie, the reviews were savage, and the behind-the-scenes drama was starting to surface. In the seven days since the superhero movie opened, more and more dirt has been flung about what really went on during the production, and the latest print edition of Entertainment Weekly has even more about the tentpole fiasco.
READ MORE: "It Was Chaos": More Behind-The-Scenes Tales From ‘Fantastic Four’ Emerge
It seems that even before cameras rolled, there was a serious disconnect about the direction the comic book movie should take. Trank apparently had trouble forming his ideas into a singular vision, unable to decide on the extent of Doctor Doom’s powers, and how to incorporate things like the robot H.E.R.B.I.E. or the Fantasti-car (though as b-roll footage shows, the latter was included at some point during the production). Producer Simon Kinberg was brought in to work with Trank on a new script that was then polished by Scott Frank ("Get Shorty," "The Lookout," "Dead Again"). Fox chief Emma Watts was happy with that version, but Trank felt his story was getting lost, so he wrote yet another draft with more of his ideas put back in.
READ MORE: Will We Ever See It? Scenes And Footage Cut From ‘Fantastic Four’
This was the reported cause of delays, and things were further complicated when the budget was slashed by $30 million, leaving Trank feeling that he would be unable to deliver the action required for the movie for a $120 million. So, sequences such as The Thing taking down a terrorist camp, were cut from the movie, though teased in the trailer — along with many more scenes that didn’t make the final cut.
All of this stress compounded on set, where Trank apparently took out his frustrations on the cast. In particular, he clashed with Miles Teller, and at one point things got so heated they were "chest to chest, daring each other to throw the first punch." Yikes. Meanwhile, the director was reportedly not too kind to Kate Mara, who was a studio casting choice, not his.
This thing keeps getting uglier and uglier, and thus far, Fox has officially remained pretty silent, though clearly they are getting their version of events out there. As for Trank, he has yet to really weigh in on his experiences, though I imagine that day is coming soon. Meanwhile, screenwriter Jeremy Slater, who also worked on the film, recently tweeted that much of his material didn’t wind up in the film.
There’s not a ton of my stuff left in the movie (mostly the 1st act), but I’ll always be honored that I got to play in such a cool sandbox.
— Jeremy Slater (@jerslater) August 7, 2015
It’s up to you to decide whether or not we succeeded. But I hope you give the film a chance. And I hope you like what you see.
— Jeremy Slater (@jerslater) August 7, 2015
At the end of the day, we tried to do something new and ambitious, something that respected the source material without being beholden to it
— Jeremy Slater (@jerslater) August 7, 2015
I grew up with these characters. Got in fights over these characters. Burned through my allowance buying every single issue that came out.
— Jeremy Slater (@jerslater) August 7, 2015
