By UPDATE 2: According to THR, Marvel was unhappy with the state of Ant-Man for a few weeks. After halting it’s June production for script rewrites (without Wright’s knowledge), significant changes were made to the film and Wright walked off. THR’s sources also note that Marvel fears it might be sticking its neck out too far with the weird Guardians of the Galaxy. It’s a shame.
UPDATE: We’ve been waiting for an officially “official” statement from Edgar Wright over his departure, or at the very least, some reaction that wasn’t steeped in rumors. An article over at Latino-Review (thanks, OhBollocks!) may have cleared up some things if true (Wright left over massive script rewrites), but we were holding out for one last thing, and we got a little something.
After a few mysterious responses from James Gunn and Joss Whedon (who want to support their director friend, but don’t want to rattle the Marvel cage), Wright tweeted a photo but then immediately deleted it. According to CBM, he tweeted a photo of Buster Keaton (holding a Cornetto cone as a “selfie”), an actor who worked on films independently before signing to MGM, citing the whole ordeal as “the worst mistake of [his] career.” Since Wright immediately deleted the tweet, maybe the situation is more harsh than it appears. We’ll keep an eye out for more details. Original story below.
Edgar Wright’s directorial take on Marvel’s Ant-Man film was something I had been looking forward to for awhile. He co-wrote the script with Joe Cornish, and had been slightly reworking it for years trying to get it off the ground. Paul Rudd, Michael Douglas, Evangeline Lilly were cast, and at the time, it seemed liked we were finally going to get a different type of Marvel movie. Looks like that may not be the case anymore.
According to Marvel, Edgar Wright has parted ways with the studio over creative differences. Here’s the official statement:
Marvel and Edgar Wright jointly announced today that the studio and director have parted ways on ANT-MAN due to differences in their vision of the film. The decision to move on is amicable and does not impact the release date on July 17, 2015. A new director will be announced shortly.
So. Wow. Has this happened to Marvel yet? I’ve got a lot of respect for the man and his vision, and it takes quite a lot of hutzpah to walk away from the Marvel juggernaut. I’m also a lot more worried over the state of the film if it caused something like this. Was it the producers? Were there demands? This is just a big bummer.