Josh Trank Leaves Star Wars Anthology

Josh Trank, the director of Chronicle and the new Fantastic Four film, has departed his upcoming Star Wars Anthology film. The film was meant to be the next standalone Star Wars film after Rogue One, but no other details are known about the project - at times it's been rumored to be an origin story for Boba Fett, or a Princess Leia film, but now that Rogue One is revealed to be none of the things it was rumored to be, all of those bets are off the table. No real word was given as to why Trank left, except that he wanted to pursue his own original creative works. It's entirely possible that he was simply burnt out after making Fantastic Four and going straight into another major blockbuster. His full statement, and Lucasfilm's response, after the jump.

Geekly Roundup, April 19th: All The Movies Edition

On this week’s Geekly Roundup, Mark, Lauren, and Jim tackle the possibility of a Sailor Moon video game, round up some of the latest news in movies including Wonder Woman and Star Wars, and discuss the animated insanity that is Ethan Nicolle’s masterful Axe Cop — check it out for yourself and pair it with the lovely selection of links below!

Wonder Woman Director Shakeup!

The Hollywood Reporter is reporting today, only a week after the departure of highly regarded director Michelle MacLaren's departure from the Wonder Woman film, that Warner Bros had already replaced her. Thankfully, it's still a female director - Patty Jenkins, who wrote and directed Monster, starring Charlize Theron in an Oscar-winning role. Jenkins was once attached to Thor: The Dark World, although that film ended up being directed by Game of Thrones' Alan Taylor.

While director shakeups are not entirely unheard of, one that happened this quickly on a film of this size is slightly worrying - even more so because the official statement from Warner Bros stated that MacLaren left due to "creative differences." Jenkins is incredibly talented and a great replacement, but with Warner Bros' propensity to play around with these adaptations, I'm officially only cautiously optimistic.

"Ready Player One" Gets Absolutely Perfect Director

If you haven't read Ready Player One by Ernest Cline, you're missing one of the greatest stories told in the last decade. Seriously, go read it right now, we'll wait.

Still waiting.

God, how long does it take you to read a book?

Anyway, Cline's fantastic semi-dystopian vision of the future has been optioned into a feature film since pretty much the moment it was published. And while names like Edgar Wright have been bandied about before, Deadline has finally confirmed the choice of director, and it's a doozy.

Rian Johnson to Write and Direct Episodes 8 and 9?

Deadline is reporting that Brick and Looper director Rian Johnson is in talks, or possibly even confirmed, to take over the main Star Wars franchise after JJ Abrams' stab at Episode 7. Rian would both write an direct the last two installments of the trilogy, bringing the nine-film saga finally to a close. (Well, a close until Disney's stand-alone films by folks like Godzilla's Gareth Edwards and Chronicle's Josh Trank come out.)

It's an interesting choice, to be sure. Johnson's films are known for a dark, gritty style, that doesn't necessarily seem to fit the Star Wars mold, and he has no proven experience with the kind of giant set pieces these films will require. Still, if Brick is any indication, he knows how to have fun with a concept. I'll be interesting to see what he develops for the future of Star Wars.

UPDATE: Adorably, Rian just tweeted this video in response to the news: