The Fantastic Four were once the flagship property of Marvel Comics, but of the three attempts to bring them to the big screen, each has been a unique failure. The most interesting of those failures, however, is undoubtedly the 2015 attempt which fell flat in a variety of ways for a variety of reasons.
The film was directed by Josh Trank, then a promising up-and-coming indie director after his hit superhero drama Chronicle. The film is the third, and evidently final, take on the superhero team to come out of 20th Century Fox, and the filmmaker and studio seemed to be the lethal combination that killed the film.
Trank was the youngest director to have a film open at number one at the box office, and after that level of success, especially with a new property, big studios were lining up to sign him on. He was in talks for a Star Wars film, a Venom movie, and Sony reportedly approached him about directing an adaptation of Shadow of the Colossus. For various reasons, none of those projects went forward with Trank. The project he did settle on was Fantastic Four, after which he promptly took half a decade off from filmmaking. He has only released on film since, a straight to VOD biopic about Al Capone. Working on Fantastic Four seemed to change him.
With the promising director signed on, the film also put together an impressive cast for the titular team. Miles Teller, star of Whiplash portrayed a young nerd take on Reed Richards. Kate Mara played Sue Storm, in a more quippy and sarcastic tone then the character is used to. Jamie Bell plays The Thing as a strong-willed big brother type. Michael B. Jordan took on the role of Johnny Storm, bringing his trademark charisma to The Human Torch. Numerous changes are made from the comic book presentation of the characters, the group is now all near the same age, much younger than their comic counterparts. Johnny is probably the closest to his typical style, but the whole team is presented with a new spin. Dozens of other actors were auditioned for the role, including a bizarre incident with Mads Mikkelsen wherein he walked out partway through.
A decent cast, a promising director, and a sequel scheduled before the film even hit theaters, but things behind the scenes were not going well. After the film’s release and its terrible flop, the story of the disaster is a tangled web. Trank has one version, some of the actors have made public statements, elements of stories have changed, but ultimately, the story is one of creative conflict. Jeremy Slater, currently the head writer on Moon Knight, was the original screenwriter tapped for the project, but he and Trank disagreed on every aspect of the narrative. Slater has stated that very little of his work actually made it to the screen between Trank writing his own script and Mr. & Mrs. Smith writer Simon Kinberg brought in to co-write. Three discrete takes on a film’s screenplay, none of which gel together.
Trank had a particular vision for the film, one very distinct from the one the studio had in mind. Both Slater and Fox seemed to want something in the vein of Marvel’s immensely successful Avengers franchise, but Trank was picturing something darker. He routinely referenced body horror classics like The Fly or compared the film to Tim Burton’s works. Clearly, the studio disagreed, because Trank’s first two edits were denied. The film began reshoots, identifiable on sight due to a comically awful wig worn by Kate Mara, to reach a more agreeable tone. Avatar editor Stephen E. Rivkin made the final cut of the film, evidently after numerous scenes were left unfilmed, dashing any hope for a Snyder cut-style reissue.
While anyone who has watched the film can identify the degree to which it’s been hacked to bits in editing, Fox representatives have argued against Trank’s account of the events. Representatives have pointed to erratic behavior from Trank, who was allegedly difficult to work with, and argued that he was fully supported by the company. Actors who worked on the film have differing takes. Kate Mara has spoken out about the difficulty working on the film, citing alleged misogyny on set without naming names. Toby Kebbell, who portrayed the film’s awful take on Doctor Doom, lamented that Trank’s version of the film would never see release, claiming that he’d made something great.
Most of the chaos surrounding this film’s production came from Josh Trank, considered either a visionary auteur who couldn’t escape studio meddling or a selfish hack who refuses to work with others. The experience of working on this film clearly sent him away from big-budget filmmaking for many years. Alongside the difficulties with studios and coworkers, the fans treated Trank horribly. The director reportedly received countless death threats after deciding to cast Michael B. Jordan as the traditionally white character Johnny Storm. This was just another element of pressure put on a film already struggling to be released.
When Fantastic Four finally released, it flopped at the box office and was not well-received. With everything that went on surrounding the film, it seemed like a guaranteed failure. Ultimately, it’s a product of writers, a director, a studio, and a fanbase that are each dragging the project in radically different directions Though the story is not clear, the awful film stands as a monument to how disastrously behind the scenes drama can play out on the big screen.
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