Josh Trank claims studio meddling ruined Fantastic Four in deleted tweet

The reviews for Fantastic Four are in, and they haven't been kind. Director Josh Trank wants you to know exactly why.

Around 8:45 p.m. on Aug. 6, hours before Fantastic Four hit wide release to theaters, Trank tweeted the following tweet, memorialized by screenshot:

Screenshots are forever. #FantasticFour pic.twitter.com/0b4l3HyNXv

— Donna Dickens (@MildlyAmused) August 7, 2015

This wouldn't be the first time that we've heard about Trank and studio higher-ups not getting along. Depending on who you ask, Trank — the creator of a viral Star Wars-inspired video — bowed out of a stand-alone film in Disney's continuation of the franchise... or he was removed from the project over concerns surrounding his failure to communicate with studio producers on Fantastic Four. But it might be the most clearly Trank's communicated his version of events.

It seems unlikely that a 31-year-old director who has cited a viral video as a turning point in his career would be unaware that nothing on the internet truly disappears. We just might be looking at an attempt to have cake and eat it too.

Update: Later in the evening Fantastic Four writer and Trank collaborator Max Landis weighed in on the situation as well.

But Chronicle was a complete fluke. We had so much control because the movie was, in relation to other movies that year, TINY.

— Max Landis (@Uptomyknees) August 7, 2015

A movie like Fantastic Four, an assignment with a lot riding on it, was always going to have a tremendous amount of cooks in the kitchen.

— Max Landis (@Uptomyknees) August 7, 2015

You can read the rest of his tweets at The Verge.