With the release of Chronicle, Josh Trank proved himself to be one of the freshest young filmmakers working today. In particular, he breathed new life into the crowded genre of "young kids with superpowers", by taking a real world approach that we hadn't seen before. Just as the film was gearing up for its big release, word broke that 20th Century Fox wanted Trank as the guy to reboot their stagnant Fantastic Four franchise. Since Chronicle proved to be such a huge hit, the director became more in demand, and now it appears Fox may have their guy, although in what capacity is unclear.
Fox CEO Tom Rothman has been a fountain of information during CinemaCon, and he spilled some details not only on Fantastic Four, but also Chronicle 2. Although Trank denied it for awhile, Rothman has revealed that he will be involved in rebooting Marvel's first family of superheroes....
Rothman: “Josh Trank who did 'Chronicle,' I think this has been reported, is gonna come on and work on a take, or a vision, that he has for it, so we’re very excited about that,”
He would go on to say that there's a possibility of Trank directing, but right now he's just developing what they hope will be a new and different take on the Fantastic Four, and from there it all just depends on the script. So we could possibly be looking at Trank merely in a producing role with story credits. I think he'll end up behind the camera, because ultimately what Fox wants is for him to do with the Fantastic Four what he did with Chronicle, which is banking huge dollars on a limited budget. The previous two Fantastic Four films, both directed by Tim Story, earned about $600M combined.
As for Chronicle 2, Rothman says it's in active development now, and may arrive "sooner rather than later". Trank has been reluctant to confirm a sequel, even as Max Landis was brought back to pen the script. Then again, Rothman doesn't exactly say Trank is directing, it's just assumed he'll be back.
All this makes Trank possibly one of the busiest guys in Hollywood, and sought for anything involving superheroes. He's signed on to direct an adaption of Image Comics' The Red Star, and is circling a project based on the Spider-Man villain, Venom. [Collider]
