Steve sat down with 20th Century Fox CEO recently at CinemaCon in Las Vegas, and we’ve been bringing you highlights from their wide-ranging conversation. We already shared what Rothman had to say about a New Mutants movie and the rating for Prometheus, the Rise of the Planet of the Apes sequel, and now we wanted to share the CEO’s updates on a few highly anticipated Fox properties. Rothman talked about the status of the studio’s Fantastic Four reboot, Daredevil, and a sequel to this year’s hit superhero pic Chronicle. Hit the jump for what he had to say.
Back in early January, before Chronicle even opened, we learned that Fox was incredibly keen on having director Josh Trank take over the Fantastic Four franchise based on having seen early cuts of the found-footage superhero movie. Chronicle finally opened and struck a chord with both audiences and critics, and now Rothman confirms that Trank will be working on Fantastic Four:
“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.”
While Trank is definitely working on the Fantastic Four in some capacity, Rothman was remiss to confirm that he’s 100% directing it:
“Well, I think there’s a possibility of [him directing]. I mean he’s gonna develop it now, and then it depends on the script.”
Trank is most likely inundated with offers coming off of Chronicle (he’s been linked to Venom and an adaptation of The Red Star), but I’d love to see his take on Fantastic Four. Fox’s previous two film versions of the comic book series weren’t exactly awe-inspiring, so I’m anxious to see what direction Trank would take the franchise.
Speaking of Trank, it was announced in March that original writer Max Landis had been hired to pen a sequel to Chronicle. Rothman had encouraging news on that front:
“[Chronicle 2] is in very active development. I think you’ll see that sooner rather than later.”
There’s still no word on whether Trank would return as director for Chronicle 2, but it’s encouraging to know that the follow-up is in the hands of the man who created the characters in the first place.
Additionally, Rothman spoke briefly about the Daredevil reboot that has David Slade (30 Days of Night) attached to direct:
“It’s in development; we’re working on the script.”
This is basically the same thing we heard in December, but hopefully they’re just taking the time to really nail the script. Fringe’s Brad Caleb Kane came aboard the project last summer to pen a script based on Frank Miller and David Mazzucchelli’s classic 1986 arc (spanning issues #227-233) “Born Again”. Be sure to check back here on Collider soon for more updates on upcoming Fox projects from Steve’s conversation with Rothman.
New Trailer for Sofia Coppola’s THE BLING RING Starring Emma Watson
Neal Moritz Talks 21 JUMP STREET Sequel; Confirms the Story Takes Place in College, Ice Cube Will Return, and Phil Lord and Chris Miller Attached to Direct
Over 30 Images from the THOR: THE DARK WORLD Trailer
New Japanese Trailer for THE WOLVERINE
First Trailer for THOR: THE DARK WORLD Starring Chris Hemsworth, Natalie Portman, Christopher Eccleston, and Tom Hiddleston
Thanks. These are good talks. Anything on “Planet of the Apes”? 2013 (the 50th anniversary of the book)?
How long does Fox have to get either another FF or DD film into production before the rights revert to Marvel? That is the question.
And I thought Trank denied being involved with FF when the rumor of it first hit.
The funny thing is that if they did Daredevil right the first time it might have taken some of the thunder away from Nolan’s Batman. I always pictured Daredevil as the Marvel equivalent of Batman. They had the chance to make a dark gritty movie and failed miserably. Thanks Ben Affleck & Jennifer Garner.
Hopefully 20th Century drops the ball on Daredevil so that it can revert to Marvel and they can do it right. Plus it would be nice to have a Marvel DD movie that would be able to have Black Widow in it and connections to The Avengers since DD is a member of the Avengers in the comics currently.
Michael C. Hall as Matt Murdock. Please!
I never even thought of him as DD… Brilliant!
Not gonna happen, but my dream project would be an ongoing DD tv series on HBO , with Joss Whedon as head writer/showrunner.
This is really unfortunate news. Fox doesn’t have a clue as to what to do with these characters especially the Fantastic Four. They’ll never get it right. Have they seen the Avengers??? When are they going to wake up and work more closely with Marvel on what they’re doing. They’re going to run these characters into the ground. They should be sued for character assassination and have the rights stripped accordingly.