After recent reports that director Josh Trank had stepped down from taking part in the Star Wars Anthology series, the collective jaws of the world seemed to drop open. Why would a director, already forging a great career path for himself, pull out of a role that every director ever wants to do? A massive opportunity like this does not present itself to everyone. Surely there must be a bigger story here. And as it happens there is, as news has emerged that he was in fact fired by Lucasfilm after claims of erratic behaviour on the set of his latest directorial output, the reboot of the ‘Fantastic Four’.
On Friday 1st May, Trank made a statement that appeared on StarWars.com detailing his reasons for leaving the franchise at such an early and important stage. Here’s what he had to say
"“After a year of having the incredible honor of developing with the wonderful and talented people at Lucasfilm, I’m making a personal decision to move forward on a different path … I’ve put a tremendous amount of thought into this, and I know deep down in my heart that I want to pursue some original creative opportunities.”"
A seemingly very passive and vague statement for someone throwing away this opportunity. Lucasfilm’s Vice Presdient of Development, Kiri Hart, added
"“We are grateful for the energy and love of Star Wars that he brought to the process.”"
News from the Hollywood Reporter now reveals that he was in fact fired by Lucasfilm for reports of his “erratic” and “indecisive” behaviour on the set of ‘Fantastic Four’ causing massive production problems which has lead to re-shoots taking place as recently as last month. As well as production issues, his dogs reportedly caused over $100,000 worth of damage at the property he was staying at during the ‘FF’ shoot. Lucasfilm had got wind of these problems which lead to Trank’s absence at last months Celebration, citing illness to cover his absence as they were forced to reconsider his collaboration. There was a lot of talk about him from Lucafilm representatives at Celebration, even going so far as to have a working title of ‘Tin Can’ for the movie, so this news comes as quite a surprise to everyone.
There’s no offical comment from Disney as of yet so there’s a chance more details may emerge soon to cover the full story. He certainly didn’t arrive with a lack of talent either, as ‘Chronicle’ proved a huge success with critics and he almost certainly wouldn’t have been chosen by Lucasfilm is they didn’t believe he could bring something exciting to the Star Wars universe. And now that the space is open, who can we expect Lucasfilm to fill the chair? We at Dork Side have our speculations but let us know what you guys think in the comments below.
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