Also known as TRANKGATE: TRANK HARDER: ELECTRANK BOOGALOO: THE TRANKENING.
This is me just trying to compile all of the various news, rumors, and insider scoops regarding the movie. Future generations will need to know of how things went south for this production. I'm trying to keep this is approximate chronological order.
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- Fantastic Four: Rise Of The Silver Surfer is a marginal financial success for Fox, but is a critical dud overall. Plans to create a sequel to that Fantastic Four movie and a Silver Surfer spinoff are both brought up between 2007 and 2009, but neither project goes anywhere.
- Disney officially acquires Marvel for $4 billion. After Disney announced its plans to greatly expand the then-fledgling Marvel Cinematic Universe with a wide variety of properties, Fox announces plans to reboot the Fantastic Four property. However, no real progress is made on the film until 2014.
- When Fox first alluded to the casting, which was when Bruce Willis and Kiefer Sutherland were alluded as potential choices for Ben Grimm, other top picks included Adrien Brody as Mr. Fantastic, Alice Eve as Sue Storm, Kevin Pennington as Johnny Storm, and Stephen Moyer as Doctor Doom. Prospective directors included James McTeigue, Joe Carnahan, and David Yates.
- Josh Trank is hired to direct the reboot after Chronicle proves to be a sleeper hit.
- The rights for Fox to make a Daredevil movie expire. Disney offers Fox an extension for their project - which has work on it underway - in exchange for the rights of certain Cosmic Marvel characters that Marvel Studios does not own, such as Silver Surfer and Galactus. Fox callously refuses the deal to part ways with Cosmic Marvel characters (even though they do not plan to use said characters again) and Disney gains Daredevil, which they turn into a critically-acclaimed Netflix series two years later.
- Fox announces plans to create a competing Marvel Cinematic Universe with the X-Men and the Fantastic Four after The Avengers is a huge box office success.
- Rumors that the role of the Human Torch is being given to Michael B. Jordan - without anyone else being tested for the part - spread. These are eventually proven to be true. Complaints about this casting decision begin. Aside from Michael B. Jordan, the entire cast was hired mere weeks before filming began.
- Miles Teller, Kate Mara, and Jamie Bell are cast in the film as Mister Fantastic, Invisible Woman, and the Thing. Everyone and their mother criticizes these cast choices, and fans begin to express complete disdain for the reboot. However, anyone who criticizes Michael B. Jordan's earlier casting in the film - be it for the proof of simple nepotism, the unexplained relationship to Kate Mara's character, or simply not liking him in the part - is childishly labeled as a "racist" by the media, with supporters of the film following suit (and while there are some racists, that's not comic book fandom - that's just the world we live in).
- Right after the backlash against Michael B. Jordan's casting hits, Josh Trank tweets a picture of the FF's Human Torch meeting Jim Hammond, the Android Human Torch from the "Timely Comics" era. It is confirmed that the real Trank was the one who posted this.
- Word that team might not even be called "The Fantastic Four" in the movie also comes up.
- Bleeding Cool made a report suggesting that they were looking to fire Josh Trank, dump the cast he picked, and abandon his script shortly before production began. New directors were apparently sighted. Fox presumably kept going with Trank due to running short on time to reboot the property.
- Fox announces a sequel to the reboot in an attempt to silence concerns people may have for the project, even with the financial stability of the reboot left uncertain.
- The production of the movie begins.
- Josh Trank returned to Twitter in a bout of frustration. Trank tweeted out a picture of his dog's anus in response to fan backlash against the film make the rounds. The post was taken down quickly before anyone could screengrab it. Trank's Twitter account is subsequently deleted.
- Doctor Doom is announced as the film's villain, with the only major difference being that this time around, he might use the Doombots. (Oh, and Mole Man is apparently in the movie, too.)
- The "grounded and gritty, found-footage feel" approach to the film is detailed for the first time. This pisses innumerable Marvel fans off, many of which claim that this defeats the entire purpose of one of the most unrealistic Marvel franchises ever written.
- Fox's plans for a shared universe are shot dead by their own admission. Fox keeps bringing up plans to try and cross their own properties over for PR purposes, although no real evidence that Fox is going to follow up on a potential crossover is brought up at all.
- Producer Simon Kinberg expresses enthusiasm for the 3-D conversion of the film that is being planned.
- Josh Trank is hired to direct the second announced Star Wars Anthology film, which he allegedly chooses to do over returning to direct the already-announced Fantastic Four sequel. He has high enthusiasm for the project, calling it an "incredible dream". This makes his "departure" from the film more shocking when it happens nearly a year later.
- A SuperHeroHype thread brings up some early rumors about production troubles. These rumors include Josh Trank's verbal abuse toward Kate Mara and details about script rewrites from Simon Kinberg that took place on set. He claimed to find the movie as it was proceeding to be lacking, mentioned that Josh Trank didn't really have a clear vision on the set, and he thought that the movie is going to bomb, though Fox is going to try and salvage it later. He also notes that the reason the production was delayed for so long in the event that Marvel would buy the film rights to the characters back from Twentieth Century Fox.
- The conspiracy that Marvel is trying to sabotage their own properties pops up when the cancellation of Fantastic Four is brought up. Nobody considers that Marvel might be trying to promote its more successful series, given that their First Family's comic sales have been in decline.
- Kate Mara announces that not only will the movie not be based on the comics, but that the cast were told not to become familiar with their characters from the many Fantastic Four comics that have been published over the years. This statement angers a whole lot of people, many of whom plan on boycotting the movie.
- Right after Kate Mara's controversial statement, Michael B. Jordan says that the script is constantly being rewritten with Simon Kinberg present on set and decisions being made "on the fly". While rewrites themselves are not unheard of (James Gunn wrote a new scene in Guardians Of The Galaxy during filming (possibly a bar fight scene) and Edge Of Tomorrow got its dialogues constantly getting rewritten), the fact that Jordan said that decisions were made "on the fly", makes the whole interview worrisome. Later rumors seem to confirm this claim indirectly as the film is suddenly based on the Ultimate version.
- The cast of the movie take an atrocious, cringe-inducing selfie to signify the end of production.
- Doctor Doom's costume leaks out. It blows. The internet takes notice.
- Michael B. Jordan mentions that the actual team won't be wearing their iconic outfits in-movie, calling Jack Kirby's classic costumes "cheesy". (Ironically, the actual "containment suit" costumes made for the movie look pretty terrible, as people would eventually find out.) Again, people don't like hearing that what they like about the superhero team will be completely misrepresented on film.
- Complete radio silence on the film's media campaign for for months on end. Footage for Batman V. Superman: Dawn Of Justice, a movie that is set for a 2016 release, is revealed at SDCC 2014 before anything related to Fantastic Four pops up - screenshots included. The movie isn't even mentioned at the convention.
- Doctor Doom is confirmed to be reimagined as a blogger named Victor Domashev that has social issues. Many people mistake this take on the character to be an internet troll. Few take this concept seriously.
- Miles Teller confusingly says that the movie isn't made with the fans in mind, and then he quickly backpedals and claims it's being made for older fans of the franchise.
- Any press releases on the film is notably absent from a number of conventions where it could have been discussed. Fox attempts to say that they're trying to take on J. J. Abrams's "Mystery Box" method of doing things by staying quiet about the project. Many are skeptical and suspect something's up with the movie itself.
- Simon Kinberg claims that the reason that nothing - not even a poster - has been shown is because they want the movie to look right.
- People similar in appearance to the cast of the Fantastic Four reboot are seemingly blown up in the pages of The Punisher. The writer plausibly denies that it was made to make fun of the production of the film (even though it clearly was), and he states that the cast members were not killed in the exposion. Max Landis, writer of Chronicle, takes note, and takes a public pot-shot at Josh Trank - who he previously worked with - on Twitter.
- Fox was also quick to debunk a Twitter user claiming to be Josh Trank; the user was notably being civil and friendly with his audience, in stark contrast to the inflammatory picture Josh Trank posted.
- An otherwise-inconsequential Louisiana University forum (Lousiana was where much of the movie was filmed) houses a discussion of this scene in The Punisher, leading to a major leak of rumors that suggest that Josh Trank screwed up big time on the set of the film.
- According to the forum, Josh Trank's rap sheet for the movie included being absent from certain shooting days, being unresponsive to questions, possibly being drugged out of his mind, sounding unintelligible, being rude to the crew members and the talent, and trashing his rented home and the set. A Fox CEO apparently came down to the shooting location to apologize personally for Trank's questionable behavior.
- Other sources from Reddit mentioned that Josh Trank regularly made sexist remarks, was extremely egoistical and filled with unwarranted self-importance. One source even notes that Fox apparently has plans to file a lawsuit against Trank after the movie is released. Miles Teller was apparently also high while on set, and a person who apparently kicked their drug habits had to go back into rehab after partying with Trank. (Drugs were apparently delivered to the set by a shady individual.) Josh Trank's absences were noted, and at time he was said to have given instructions from a monitor, not directly interacting with the cast.
- A rumor from another source suggests that Kate Mara was verbally abused by Josh Trank to the point where she cried.
- Rumors that extensive reshoots are set to begin without Josh Trank's involvement also pop up.
- Another rumor, implying that Josh Trank stopped answering phone calls from Fox, came into the fray at this time.
- These rumors spread like wildfire on film news sites like Screen Rant, Latino-Review, and Bleeding Cool, among others.
- One of the leaked Sony e-mails allegedly featured a Fox representative telling a Sony representative that Josh Trank was bad news to work with.
- Bleeding Cool reports that a Fox representative said that the movie was "a mess" in private discussion.
- On a public level, Fox attempts to bring damage control into the situation after the rumors pop up everywhere.
- Several articles pop up about how everything is fine without actually addressing the rumors about the set. Reshoots are promised to be "only a few more days". Some sites claim that these interviews completely dismiss the rumors (they don't).
- The first Trailer for the movie pops up. It is the most disliked Superhero movie preview on YouTube in a while, but it's passable enough to renew hope in the movie for some desperate Fox shills.
- A "commentary" video on the first Trailer is posted. In it, Simon Kinberg and Josh Trank talked about the trailer. Although not unheard of, it was a rare attempt to do some form of "damage control" over the dislike of the preview. During said commentary Trank did not make eye contact with either Kinberg or the camera and seemed to be almost emotionally and physically disassociated with his surroundings, mumbling his way through the video, his voice lacking emotional resonance and leading some to think he was possibly chemically "altered" when the video was filmed.
- Josh Trank restarts his Twitter account.
- Along the way, the movie is suddenly now based on the Ultimate Marvel version of the team, despite not being based on any of the comics earlier. Toby Kebbell, Miles Teller, and Michael B. Jordan now have all suddenly read the comics in spite of being told not to. Oh yeah, and you might see the "cheesy" costumes after all (for all of five minutes)!
- Josh Trank compares his work on the movie to David Cronenberg and Steven Spielberg. Plenty of people think he sounds kind of like a pretentious d-bag.
- Josh Trank is notably absent from a number of interviews on the film, with Simon Kinberg filling in for him in a handful of discussions.
- Josh Trank is announced to appear at a Star Wars Celebration Anaheim panel. He misses out on it. It is later revealed that Disney asked him not to come behind the scenes.
- A Trailer is released on the day of Josh Trank's absence, possibly to deflect concerns. In general, the footage is received more positively by certain outlets, though it is criticized by others. It notably replaces the "see it in 3-D" message with a "see it in large format theaters" message. The "3-D" message is absent from all subsequent advertisements and posters, and is even sneakily edited out of the digital version of the first poster. People begin the suspect that the conversion was cancelled to fund the reshoots.
- The budget of the film is revealed by The Hollywood Reporter as being $122,000,000. This most likely does not include reshoot costs.
- The actors refuse to talk about the movie, even when they're promoting it, at a public event.
- Word gets out that reshoots on the film have taken months, going into May. The period of reshoots for the film officially exceeds the production time.
- Josh Trank officially leaves the Star Wars Anthology film he was slated to direct. While the official reason given is that he wanted to pursue other projects, inside sources mentioned rumors that Simon Kinberg felt uncomfortable working with Trank again after the production of this film and that Fox was disappointed with the reboot (much like how Sony was said to be disappointed with The Amazing Spider-Man 2 shortly before its release).
- Josh Trank describes Sue Storm as being a "slutty secretary" in some comics, although this has never been how she has been portrayed the the comics themselves (while the comics have portrayed her as being fragile in her earlier characterization, she was never portrayed as being promiscuous or provocative). Fans take issue with this.
- The Hollywood Reporter confirms/supports the rumors that were posited on the Louisiana forum - namely, that Josh Trank was uncommunicative, on drugs, and that he was responsible for property damage.
- Josh Trank is also said to be off of post-production of Fantastic Four as was previously reported. Max Landis snarkily tweets out "karma" shortly after news of Trank getting the shaft got out (but plausibly denies that he was referring to Trank, even though he clearly was).
- A reporter makes a tweet that Josh Trank was not around for Chronicle's post-production and that Fox hired someone else to work on editing the movie. Trank apparently physically threatened the reporter after he brought this up. (The reporter later went back on this statement around the time a number of reporters suspiciously tell other reporters not to badmouth Trank.)
- Kevin Feige mentions that he would like to use X-Men characters in the MCU if given the opportunity, dispelling rumors that Marvel Studios doesn't care about the properties it doesn't have access to.
- Josh Trank claims that he left his Star Wars Anthology movie for personal reasons. Another individual from The Hollywood Reporter continues to assert that Trank was outright fired.
- Simon Kinberg is believed to have ghost-directed Fantastic Four along with Matthew Vaughn and Hutch Parker. A number of individuals - including a few attached to X-Men: Apocalypse - had to step in to try to salvage the film in post-production. Josh Trank is the only person to deny that there might have been another director on the set of the movie.
- Josh Trank effectively calls iconic Fantastic Four writer John Byrne a Neo-Nazi over Twitter.
- On Twitter, a writer Seth Grahame-Smith mentions that he wrote the draft which changed Johnny's race - confirming that the movie apparently had at least four different writers working on it at various times in production. One of the movie's screenplay writers (Jeremy Slater) was less-than-enthusiastic about the tweet.
- Fox makes a little bit of advertising money off of the movie using fairly-obscure promotions, including a smartphone application, Crush soda, a special Denny's menu, and small keychains. Of these promotions, the one from Denny's is the most widely-advertised.
- A 4Chan thread that gives an apparent summary of early drafts of the film is posted. It is revealed to have been posted by a person working at OTOY - the company doing CGI for the movie - lists a number of issues that they had with Josh Trank's demands, noting that several special effects shots are going to look weird in terms of image quality and that the 3-D version has indeed been cancelled.
- While people are discussing the technical aspects posited by the OTOY employee, an aggressive poster joins the discussion and acts very defensive of Josh Trank. Many posit that this is in fact the real Trank, and reporter Umberto "El Mayimbe" Gonzales makes a tweet suggesting that this is the case. Multiple people post under the identity, and the nature of anonymous posting on 4Chan makes it unclear which poster was Trank, presuming that any of the posters were real.
- The Josh Trank that posted on 4Chan cited issues with Simon Kinberg, Matthew Vaughn, and the demands of Twentieth Century Fox as being among his key problems with the film. He takes issue with a number of internet news websites and the rumors about the production. He also defends his vision and claims that hardcore fans should read the comics instead.
- An image of Josh Trank holding up a card that says "F--- you!" on it is posted, implying that the poster is Trank. It is later confirmed to be a photoshop, and the real Trank posts a similar image with a different appearance on Twitter as proof that the image is fake.
- Fox censors any outlet that tries to report on the aforementioned 4Chan thread - be it Josh Trank's apparent breakdown or the plot spoilers. This strongly suggests that at least part of the thread contained information that Fox saw as damaging to the release of the movie.
