Capone, the film previously known as Fonzo has a new title, trailer and a release date for Video on Demand. In 2016, director Josh Trank and star Tom Hardy were announced to be teaming up for Fonzo, a biopic of Al Capone, one of the most notorious criminals who ever lived. Set during his final days, the gangster film will explore Capone's descent into syphilitic dementia as he relives memories and guilt over his unrepentant life of crime, all while the FBI slowly builds a case against the infamous gangster.
The movie was shot in 2018, but it was unclear when the provocative new twist on the 'mafia biopic' film would get released. Compared to other movies of its ilk, there was a lot of attention on Fonzo thanks to the advanced makeup techniques used to transform Tom Hardy into an old Al Capone, as well as the involvement of director Josh Trank, The director's previous film, Fantastic Four, was fraught with behind-the-scenes tension, with the filmmaker frequently fighting for creative control against the studio, 20th Century Fox. The result was one of the most poorly-received superhero movies of the modern era, and a major financial disappointment.
In a surprise announcement on Twitter, director Josh Trank revealed a trailer for the film, which has now been retitled Capone, as well as the reveal that it is skipping theatrical distribution. It will instead go straight to Digital and Video on Demand, courtesy of Vertical Entertainment. The 90-second trailer shows Tom Hardy's Capone in extreme makeup, with the handsome actor nearly unrecognizable as the nigh-deranged gangster.
Trank's tweet is short, but to the point, and ends with a cheeky reference to his oft-maligned Fantastic Four film. He writes, "Different title. My cut." While a statement of pride that Capone is, indeed, Trank's personal cut of the film, it's also a thinly-veiled jab at Fantastic Four, which was decidedly not the director's intended vision for the film. Just before the movie's release, Trank tweeted a statement that the film shown in theaters would not be his preferred version of the superhero reboot. Trank's tweet would prove highly controversial and set off a firestorm of articles about the tumultuous development of the doomed movie.
If all goes well, Capone will be a hit and return Trank to Hollywood's good graces. With big budget blockbusters on indefinite hold thanks to the coronavirus pandemic, high-quality Video on Demand films have the potential to break out and reach a much wider audience than they otherwise might have, all without the expensive risk of bringing a film to cinema screens. Audiences will get to see for themselves when Capone releases on May 12.
Source: Josh Trank