During an interview with
Kevin Smith on the podcast
Fatman on Batman, Trank discussed the origins of his career at length. 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. Following this, Trank wrote and directed spin-off webisodes for the 2007
Spike TV drama miniseries
The Kill Point. 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. It was released on February 3, 2012, by
20th Century Fox and 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 the release of
Chronicle, Trank became the youngest director to open a film at number one at the US box office, at age 27. 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-Man spin-off
Venom,
Warner Bros.'s
The Red Star, and Sony's film adaptation of the video game
Shadow of the Colossus; however, Trank turned down those film projects, despite turning in a pitch of a
R-rated film of Venom in the vein of
The Mask that he wrote with his mentor
Robert D. Siegel. Trank directed the 2015
reboot of
Fantastic Four, which was released in August 2015. The film
flopped at the box office and was critically panned; it 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 and quickly deleted a message on Twitter prior to the release of the film, apparently blaming the poor reviews on changes imposed by the studio, claiming to have originally cut a completely different film which would have been much better. Equally dissatisfied with the final film, actor
Toby Kebbell, who worked with Trank on the film, supported Trank's claim. However, in early 2020, Trank stated that there were several scenes he was unable to film, making a
director's cut highly improbable. but he 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. In 2020, following a five-year hiatus from directing, Trank wrote and directed his original
Al Capone biopic
Capone, with
Tom Hardy starring. It was released through
video on demand on May 12, 2020, receiving mixed reviews from critics. In May 2020, it was announced that Trank was developing a television series about the
CIA, with Hardy starring. In March 2025, it was announced that Trank will be directing a
horror-
thriller film,
Send a Scare, with
Victoria Justice,
Robbie Amell,
Noel Fisher, and Mackinlee Waddell set to star in. ==Style==