JOSH   TRANK   TO   DIRECT   STAR   WARS   SPIN-OFF.
We all knew that when Disney acquired the rights to Star Wars, they were never just going to make a trilogy, so the news of spin-off films between the trilogy came as no surprise to anyone. A few weeks ago news of who would direct the first spin-off surfaced with Godzilla director, Gareth Edwards, getting the gig. New news has broken that Chronicle director, Josh Trank, has signed up to direct the second spin-off. 

"We're thrilled to welcome Josh into the family," says Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy. "He is such an incredible talent and has a great imagination and sense of innovation. That makes him perfectly suited to Star Wars, and for this new slate of movies that reach beyond the core characters and storylines to Episodes I through IX".  While we still don't know what the spin-offs will centre on many have speculated that they could be about a young Hans Solo or fan favourite, Boba Fett. The director has this to say, "The magic of the Star Wars Universe defined my entire childhood. The opportunity to expand on that experience for future generations is the most incredible dream of all time." Disney seem to making the smart move of brining on talent who have a real love of the original trilogy with Trank joining Gareth Edwards and J.J. Abrams. Trank first came to people's attention with Chronicle and is currently working on Fox's reboot of the Fantastic Four.

MARVEL   to   DITCH    FANTASTIC   FOUR?

Website, Bleeding Cool, last night reported that Marvel comics are going to pull the plug on their Ultimate FF and Fantastic Four series due to the up-coming release of Fox's rebooting, Fantastic Four film. According to reports CEO Ike Perlmutter believes that any work to promote the team in the comics would only serve to elevate the reboot, taking attention away from their own Marvel Studios films. The website stated that they received the news through an email from an anonymous artist, which stated "I do a number of sketch card projects for Upper Deck and Rittenhouse using Marvel Characters. The most recent projects from both companies, one billed as Marvel 75th Anniversary, gave specific guidelines to NOT use any FF characters or supporting cast such as Dr Doom, Galactus, Surfer, Skrulls etc.." The same post was later updated with what is believed to be a photo of the memo. "All Marvel characters related to Fantastic Four are now off-limits and will be immediately rejected by Marvel", the document states.

Marvel Senior Editor, Tom Brevoot, took to his blog this morning in an attempt to defend the comic company. When one fan asked the Senior Editor to deny the rumours, Brevoot said this "My denying rumours isn't likely to keep anybody who's prone to paranoia from panicking. But really, does this even seem remotely plausible to people? Does it make any sense? Folks have a very strange idea as to the way a business is run." Another website got involved, in the form of Comic Book Resources who followed up the story with their sources, stating "CBR cannot confirm the exact future of "Fantastic Four" and "Ultimate FF", but it has been confirmed with multiple industry sources speaking on the condition of anonymity that a hiatus for the property is planned, at least as of recently. Plans can change, something that's potentially more likely now thath that the situation has been made public. The Fantastic Four characters are said to continue appearing in other Marvel titles, just not in a specifically branded "Fantastic Four" series."

As it stands now, it is difficult to know who is telling the truth but it doesn't come as much of a surprise that Marvel would want to stop the press on the Fantastic Four what with past rumours about the new film's cancellation and Fox getting Quicksilver on screen before Marvel managed to. While it is understandable that Perlmutter would not want to publish any comics that would raise the publicity of another companies' film, it seems an odd choice when you consider that they will still run X:Men comics, which are owned by Fox as well and they also still run Spider-man comics whose cinematic home is at Sony. While Bleeding Cool believe they have more news coming as soon as tomorrow, treat this news with caution.