Fantastic Four Still Moving Forward As Planned, According to Fox

Earlier today, ComicBook.com reported on rumors that Fantastic Four director Josh Trank, his script and cast would all be sacked in favor of trying to get a new version of the film in front of cameras before the rights revert to Disney in six months. The original report came out of Bleeding Cool, who have a fairly solid record with this kind of thing in the comics industry, and have scored some other-media coups as well, particularly regarding the "lost" episodes of Doctor Who which surfaced last year. Since the report went wide online, though, studio representatives for Fox have been making the rounds, telling Comic Book Resources, ScreenCrush and others that there's no truth to the report, and that the film will still begin production in April with Trank behind the camera. Bleeding Cool, upon having their big scoop challenged by the studio, shot back that "Bleeding Cool suggests that if Fox really would like to stomp on the rumour, they stop approaching folk to replace the director." ComicBook.com reached out to a source with knowledge of the situation, who said that the truth lies somewhere in the middle and that while Fox isn't happy with the current trajectory of the film, "They are not, to my knowledge, looking to start over from scratch." Trank has been hugely in-demand since his low-budget superhero film Chronicle debuted in 2012, and was attached to Venom at Sony at one point before seemingly becoming Fox's full-time Fantastic Four guy. The film is expected to start shooting in late April for a summer 2015 release.