He's busy now working with Fox on the Fantastic Four reboot at the moment, but very soon Josh Trank will head over to Lucasfilm for one of the planned Star Wars standalone films, joining Godzilla and Monsters' Gareth Edwards in the ranks of impressive young directors heading to a galaxy far, far away.
"We’re thrilled to welcome Josh into the family," says Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy in a press release. "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 of Episodes I through IX.”
"The magic of the Star Wars Universe defined my entire childhood," Trank himself adds. "The opportunity to expand on that experience for future generations is the most incredible dream of all time."
Details are thin on the ground, but we do know that at least three spin-offs are planned to keep the **Star Wars **pipe full between Episodes VII, VIII and IX. Everything else about them is a mystery besides the fact that X-Men: Days Of Future Past writer/producer Simon Kinberg and **Episode VII **co-writer Lawrence Kasdan have been overseeing their development and The Book Of Eli/After Eart****h's Gary Whitta is specifically on board to script the film that Edwards will direct. Whitta's previous credits give us pause, but we'll look at his work off the big screen and keep our fingers crossed.
S****tar Wars: Episode VII, which has just kicked off shooting in Abu Dhabi with J.J. Abrams calling the shots, is out on December 18, 2015. You can bid for a walk-on role in the film via a charity appeal here.