It’s legal mumbo jumbo time! I promise if you follow the thought process this will likely be the most interesting Marvel property news of the day.
We know that late-20s Josh Trank directed ‘Chronicle’ a found-footage superhero movie and it performed well for what it was, rocketing Josh Trank into a category of possible directors for the next wave of superhero films. “This guy knows how to make movies that connect with the young audience,” said the faceless guy in a suit I picture as making summary judgements for the Amalgamated Hollywood Studio System.
When a young guy gets heat like that (plus a box office like ‘Chronicle’), everyone wants to gobble up his future time, and this was no different. Sony said he was directing a ‘Venom’ movie, Warner Bros said he was going to direct a comic book movie called ‘The Red Star,’ Fox said he’d be back for a ‘Chronicle’ sequel, Sony wanted him for ‘Shadow of the Colossus,’ and Fox realized they needed to relaunch ‘The Fantastic Four.’
Head spin!
‘Venom’ looks like it’s awhile away, ‘Colossus’ doesn’t have a writer yet, no one seems that interested in a ‘Chronicle’ sequel and screenwriter Max Landis doesn’t really expect Trank to be back for ‘Chronicle 2.’ In summation, ‘Venom’ ‘The Red Star’ ‘Colossus’ and ‘Fantastic Four’ are still, technically, Trank’s for the taking.
Fox lost David Slade and lost its ‘Daredevil’ reboot, putting them in a position where they need to get ‘Daredevil’ off the ground by the Fall if they don’t want to see the rights to the character revert back to Marvel. The last movie with the Daredevil characters was 2005’s ‘Elecktra’ which was released two years before the ‘Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer’ which would suggest that Fox is also two years away from seeing the Four revert back to Marvel.
While Fox scrambles with anything ‘Daredevil,’ they’ve been keeping an eye on their other Marvel properties, gearing up production on the ‘X-Men: First Class’ sequel and Trank’s ‘Fantastic Four’ directly afterwards, which would put FF’s production in the latter-half of 2013.
That timing seems like a problem considering Warner Bros has supposedly announced that they’d like ‘The Red Star’ by 2014 (I was unable to find the initial news story where this date was named, if you can, please put it in the comments) and we know the Jason Rothenberg (scribe of the recent Twilight Zone movie in the works) draft of the screenplay exists. In contrast, ‘The Fantastic Four’ needs to start production a scant few months after ‘The Red Star’ to keep its home at Fox and screenwriter Jeremy Slater may not even have a draft of that flick ready to go yet.
Basically, we’re going to get a Warner Bros Vs. Fox showdown if ‘The Red Star’ suffers ANY delays. I mean ANY – no rain days, no reshoots, no ‘Director’s cut’ editing days – ‘The Red Star’ needs to move like clockwork to avoid a production delay on Trank’s ‘Fantastic Four.’
More than likely, if this comes to a standoff between Warners and Fox, Fox is gonna balk. They’ll give up Trank long before they give up one of their precious Marvel properties.
Things don’t go like clockwork in the real world, so I’m joining CBM in my: “Josh Trank might soon be off ‘The Fantastic Four’” hypothesis.
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