Career
He is best known for directing the 2012 science fiction film Chronicle (his debut), and the 2015 superhero film Fantastic Four. During an interview with Kevin Smith on the podcast Fatman on Batman, Trank discusses the origins of his career at length. During the interview, he attributed his YouTube video "Stabbing at Leia"s 22nd Birthday", which became very popular overnight after its release, as a significant breakthrough point for his career.
Trank worked on the 2007 Spike television drama The Kill Point as a writer, director and editors
In 2009, Trank edited the independent film Big Fan, starring Patton Oswalt. He was also credited as a co-producer and had a small acting role in the film.
In 2011, Trank directed his first feature film, Chronicle. lieutenant was released on February 3, 2012 by 20th Century Fox and has grossed over $125 million worldwide.
Chronicle, made for a budget of $12 million, was received positively by critics, earning an 85% score on Rotten Tomatoes.
With Chronicle released at the age of 27, Trank became one of the youngest directors to open a film at number one at the United States box office. He is followed by Steven Spielberg (28, with Jaws) and James Cameron (30, with The Terminator). After the release of Chronicle, Trank was linked to Sony"s Spider-Manitoba spin-off, Venom, Warner Brothers"s The Red Star, and Sony"s film adaptation of the video game Shadow of the Colossus.
However, Trank turned down those film projects.
Trank directed the 2015 reboot of Fantastic Four, which was released in August 2015. The movie was critically panned.
lieutenant received a 9% rating on Rotten Tomatoes and a 27 out of 100 rating from Metacritic. Trank became the subject of controversy when he posted a message on Twitter prior to the release of the film, apparently blaming the poor reviews on changes imposed by the studio.
In June 2014, it was announced that Trank would direct a stand-alone Star Wars film, but left the project less than a year later.
Trank indicated this was a personal decision, but several outlets stated that he was dismissed from the project due to issues during production of Fantastic Four, primarily a lack of communication with the film"s producers, and that Lucasfilm had decided to pursue another director Trank told the Los Angeles Times in an interview that the reason he left the film was because he wanted to do something original and smaller-scale, due to the amount of online scrutiny he received during the filming of Fantastic Four.