If you are a lover of Hollywood gossip than it really doesn’t get much better than this. Bad reviews, finger-pointing, blame shifting and a loss that will run to an estimated $60 million. It’s the cinematic equivalent of Spider-Man: Turn Off The DarkĀ (If you don’t get it click here. Makes a great read!). Entertainment Weekly is now shining a new light on what has to be the biggest disaster movie of the summer.
According to EW‘s sources, there was more than enough blame on both the sides of Trank and Fox for this awful film. But we will get to that in a minute. Studio meddling was earlier insinuated by the director of Fant4stic in a tweet that was swiftly removed. Due to the timing of this however, this being said on the opening night of the film no less, analysis is now showing that it could have cost 20th Century Fox between $5 million to $10 million.
But did Fox really cause major problems in production? EW says yes. Their sources claim that Trank had to deal with upheaval right up to the night before filming and that these problems included casting arguments, last-minute pushes to change the script and major changes to budget.
“[Fox] delayed casting and script approvals, slashed the budget by tens of millions from what was originally promised, and tried to force last-minute changes to the film just as principal photography was beginning.”
This would have been difficult for any seasoned director to deal with and, it wouldn’t be the first time that Fox has (through use of similar tactics) supposedly crashed a movie. X-Men Origins: Wolverine director, Gavin Hood, claimed that Fox forced changes onto his movie at the last-minute and that this was in part why it was so poorly received by fans.
Back to Trank then, this is the reason why it is now believed he behaved so poorly on set. Apparently stressed caused by Fox’s last-minute changes and disagreements over the casting of Kate Mara caused him to be prone to outbursts on set.
“hemming and hawing on approvals for the final script, it stalled crew workers who were trying to build sets, make costumes, props, and prep the movie. This created confusion and stress from the get-go that often boiled over among department heads trying to put together pieces of a movie that was still in flux.”
Of course much of this is hearsay and not reliable in the absolute but it would explain his rumoured behaviour. The director is thought to have caused up to 20 thousand dollars of damage to the house he was staying in after a disagreement with the home owner. Among other things, Trank also frequently argued with his cast and in particular Kate Mara who he had not wanted to hire as Sue Storm.
Whatever the cause of the problems we can all agree on the end result. Fant4stic was a total box office disaster. After all, the movie only exists to keep the rights to the characters from reverting back to Marvel. Fox have done great work of late with their X-Men movies under the watchful eye of Bryan Singer and so this movie certainly did not have to fail. TiCGN reviewed Fant4stic this week so head on over and read that for more info on the finished product.
What do you think about the rumours surrounding 20th Century Fox and Josh Trank’s behaviour? Do you want to see a sequel to Fant4stic in 2017? For more movie, TV and gaming news stick right here on TiCGN!