According to The Wrap, who quoted a Marvel press release.
That’s too bad. I love Edgar Wright’s films (especially Shaun of the Dead and Scott Pilgrim) and I’m a total Marvel films fangirl so the thought of the two together was exciting for me. Marvel hasn’t made a bad movie yet (to me) so I still have high hopes, especially since Joe Cornish, who is a god, wrote the screenplay, but it’s sad.
That blows. I like his work, too.
This could be Marvel’s first big mistake, depending on which way you look at it.
Either hiring Edgar Wright in the first place was the mistake, as many of the choices made for Phase 3 of Marvel’s development was dependent on what Ant-Man was going to do.
Or firing such a drawcard director as Edgar was the mistake, as he has been talking up this movie for literally years, angling for the job, bringing to an obscure character’s movie all his built-in fan-base. Losing access to his uncanny directing skills may be the key mistake, there’s almost nobody else out there like him.
This is a movie that would have ordinarily struggled to find an audience without Edgar Wright helming. And now it is without Edgar Wright helming. A lot of fans are rapidly losing interest, so there will have to be a lot of canny marketing and BTS moves to win them back.
I like Edgar Wright but I always thought this was an odd pairing.
Wright was one of the more mainstream choices they’ve made in the Marvel series. Jon Favreau, for example, was known for comedies like Made and Elf - he had never directed an action movie before Iron Man. Kenneth Branagh and Ang Lee are better known for prestige dramas rather than comic book movies. And Alan Taylor was pretty much an unknown indie director.
Yeah, who’d hire a director whose most famous works are fantastic adventure/comedies featuring not-entirely-sympathetic, yet still somehow likeable protagonists to direct a fantastic adventure-comedy featuring a not-entirely-sympathetic, yet somehow still likeable protagonist?
It crossed my mind that since Wright is out, Cornish might be out too, since the two are such close friends, but if Cornish is out, they’d have to get a whole new script. Since they clim the release date is not going to be affected, they’re obviously sticking with Cornish’s script. The “creative differences” wouldn’t have to do with the script, unless they’ve brought in a re-write team, which which would surely piss off Wright and Cornish.
It occurred to me that, assuming they’ve left the script alone, another director might come in and fuck with it, which would piss off Cornish. Getting Cornish to direct his own script is probably not going to happen, because that would make it too much a Cornish movie, and Marvel seems to avoid having writers and directors too closely identified with the movies, even if they’re well-known. I had even forgotten that Jon Faverau directed Iron Man (btw, everyone should see his back-to-his-roots movie Chef. It’s not only a good movie, if you like food movies like Big Night for instance, Chef will make you drool). And besides, Cornish is even weirder than Wright so he might have the same types of creative differences. If Wright doesn’t have the clout to get his vision onscreen, the obscure Cornish surely won’t. (for those who don’t know, and some might not, Joe Cornish wrote and directed my favorite film from a few years ago, Attack The Block.)
I don’t generally keep up with celebrity/movie gossip, I just saw this because it was on Yahoo’s front page. If anyone sees any articles about what might have happened, please post.
Maybe I should go read Edgar Wright’s Twitter feed.
He’s keeping quiet. All we have is this tweet from Simon Pegg, which may be interpreted in a particular way, but is just as likely transparent.
Uh oh, sounds like they tried to fuck with him and he said fuck you back. Sigh, I would see the movie anyway, but the involvement of Wright and Cornish had my expectations up way high. I should mention that I’d never even heard of ANT-MAN until I read that Cornish was writing the screenplay.
Thanks for checking GuanoLad.
I was just thinking yesterday that Joe Cornish would be good as one of the directors of the spin-off Star Wars films, as yesterday Gareth Edwards (of Godzilla fame) was given the job for the first.
I’m not sure if this development would rule that out.
I heard that ATB’s Moses, John Boyega, will be in the new Star Wars but I’m trying to stay away from spoilers, so I don’t know who he plays. I hope it’s a good role for him.
…okay: that makes sense. I saw Joss post that and it made no sense at all. Now it does. Thanks for clearing that up!
…couldn’t be anything but.
This twist will have layers. Wright isn’t a nobody. Wonder how it will be discussed. Whoever steps in will have an interesting time.
Shame. Before I heard about Ant-Man I was thinking Edgar Wright could do a great Marvel film. I’d be interested to hear the differences in vision.
Ang Lee’s movie sucked because he tried to make it too stylized. The others mentioned don’t have a signature style that is obvious when watching their films. Wright has a very specific style which I thought would conflict with the genre. I thought it would turn into more of a Wright movie rather than a superhero movie. If that were the case he would be better off doing what he was doing before. Unless Marvel wanted to do a parody which I doubt they are. They don’t want a Green Hornet. There was no way to know if my feelings were correct without seeing the finished product but it seems more likely now that I am.
An Ant-Man movie?! Seriously?!
I read this post in the Guardians of the Galaxy thread, and I must say, the idea really appeals to me:
I’d love to see a Marvel film with a lot of Edgar Wright in it, and if he’s a half-decent director he’ll be able to make something that’s clearly a Wright film without being all him.
Sure. There was a bit there when the character was sort of cool/interesting (when they introduced Scott Lang and tied him in with Iron Man). One of the interesting things about comics is when someone takes a languishing minor character or book and realizes it’s potential. The X-Men was practically dead when Marvel put two no-names on it because the company had nothing to lose; Daredevil as well. Ant-man could be a good movie in the right hands. I mean, it’s not Iron Fist…
i have no way of knowing if this is a legit scoop, or just hearsay bullshit, but there was this article this morning.