Josh Trank has defended his vision for the new 'Fantastic Four' movie.

The superhero blockbuster has been released to scathing reviews from critics, but its director is insistent it's not completely his fault, claiming he had a ''fantastic version'' of the movie in mind.

Seemingly shifting blame to movie studio 20th Century Fox, he wrote on Twitter in a now deleted message: ''A year ago I had a fantastic version of this. And it would've received great reviews. You'll probably never see it. That's reality though.''

The film - which stars Miles Teller, Kate Mara, Michael B. Jordan and Jamie Bell - is the third attempt at a 'Fantastic Four' movie franchise, but early reviews have been less than generous.

The film's production was reportedly marred by production issues - with reshoots taking place in as late as April 2015, just months before the movie's release in August.

The director was hired to helm the blockbuster following the success of his found-footage movie 'Chronicle', which also starred Jordan.

However, it's been a difficult year for Trank as he has also been dropped by Lucasfilm and Disney after being briefly hired to direct one of the upcoming 'Star Wars' spin-off movies. It's thought his dismissal is due in part to reports of difficulties on-set during the 'Fantastic Four' shoot.