Caffeinated Clint
Lucasfilm seemingly sure don’t know how to keep their hired help happy… but in this case, might they have been right to axe a creative?
Just as they parted ways with Michael Arndt on “Star Wars : The Force Awakens”, and more recently, Gary Whitta on “Star Was : Rogue One”, the Disney-owned shingle have said their goodbyes to writer –director Josh Trank, who was to direct a future standalone “Star Wars” film – due 2018.
First, a finger point at Disney and Lucasfilm.
Obviously there’s a lot of pressure on Lucasfilm, and owner Disney, to deliver something better than great with these “Star Wars” films – particularly now that they’ve planned to do so many of them outside of the three Skywalker-centric sequels. They don’t want the cinematic trampoline to rip before anyone’s even had a good jump on it. And that could be one reason why Kathleen Kennedy and co can’t seem to keep creatives onboard, and yep, it’s possible that these folks (like Trank) come up with something that the brass don’t think will hit so they politely boot them, but what’s unsettling is that these firings and hirings are happening so much. They really should have all their ducks in a row before they get going on these things, and they should especially be making sure that those ducks are checked out for behavioral issues before they even issue them a contract.
Marvel – also owned By Disney – have made a name for themselves as one of the hardest companies to work for, because they essentially manage every aspect of the production and refuse to let the writers and directors inject any of themselves into the projects, and the new Lucasfilm seems to be gaining a similar reputation – and quickly. I think it goes without saying, in the least, Lucasfilm would be a difficult company to work for. But they might have had a good reason in letting Josh Trank go.
Variety hears that Disney mightn’t be the culprit this time though (though I’m sure there’s more to the story), and it’s instead got something to do with Trank and writer Simon Kinberg’s inability to work together. The duo previously collaborated on that curious-looking “Fantastic Four” reboot (I’m still not sold on it), and that didn’t go down so well; both reportedly clashed about the direction of that movie right up until they locked picture. Kinberg apparently asked Lucasfilm to get another director for the “Star Wars” movie. If Kinberg wanted Trank off “Star Wars” because he completely derailed “Fantastic Four” then good, but if it was instead because of some personal dick-measuring contest between the two of them, then this is not on. And Disney shouldn’t break what might be working.
But if anyone was going to go it was always going to be Trank.
Kinberg seemingly has a lot more sway at Disney/Marvel than the 30-year-old filmmaker, with the former working on the “Star Wars” brand with the studio for a while now – as a creative consultant on this year’s “Star Wars : The Force Awakens” and lending his ideas to the other spin-off projects.
One rumour doing the rounds is that Trank was a pain to deal with on “Fantastic Four” – “hiding” from everyone, being “erratic”, and just generally hard to get along with – and that’s why Kinberg led the charge in having him pushed off the “Star Wars” movie. He just couldn’t do it again, they say. And that could be true. Another rumour has “X-Men” alum Kinberg having to essentially save “Fantastic Four” because Trank was unable to put together a decent flick – which would explain Disney siding with the former. And if it’s all true, fair enough. But is it? Who bloody knows – especially when Disney has the most expensive and gifted publicists in town in their pocket.
A week or so ago, “Star Wars Anthology : Rogue One” helmer Gareth Edwards appeared at Star Wars Celebration to spruik his 2016 release, and Trank – attached to a 2018 spin-off – was also expected to be present but copped out due to a bad flu (or so he told his Twitter followers). Even then, it was suspected something was up. And it would’ve been.
Disney has issued a press release, containing a quote from Trank, that basically paints a picture that will have people thinking Trank walked, and Disney did nothing. That can’t be completely true, but it does make the studio look better. Great publicist, as I said.
Trank, who got his big-break with the shaky-cam superhero flick “Chronicle”, said in a statement : : “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. That said, the ‘Star Wars’ universe has always been one of my biggest influences, and I couldn’t be more excited to witness its future alongside my millions of fellow ‘Star Wars’ fans. I want to thank my friends Kathleen Kennedy, Kiri Hart, Simon Kinberg, and everyone at Lucasfilm and Disney for the amazing opportunity to have been a part of this. May the Force be with you all.”
If “Fantastic Four” turns out better than it looks, and does well, then Trank won’t be short of work – if anything, he’ll be quickly set to get going on a sequel to the Marvel/Fox movie. If, however, the former stinks like a peed-on tennis shoe, then the young filmmaker’s career could be on shaky ground – especially if he’s a dick to go work with. Now I’m not saying he is, this is all just hearsay at the moment, but Hollywood doesn’t take too kindly to complicated young filmmakers – they usually wrap their careers fairly early. Again, all this “he was a pain to work with” stuff could just be Disney’s way of deflecting the bad PR on themselves and Trank might have been perfectly fine. Whatever the cost, a “Star Wars” movie is without a director, a filmmaker has lost a job, and there’s probably going to be heated texting between Simon Kinberg and Josh Trank over the next few days.
While it hadn’t been announced what Trank’s “Star Wars” film was going to be about, there have been rumours that it might be an origin story based on one of the original characters from George Lucas’s film series – namely Yoda or Obi-Wan Kenobi. The studio will have a replacement in no time.
