Ant-Man Replacement Directors Shortlisted
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- June 1, 2014
By Danny F. Santos (doddleNEWS)
And we’re back with more Ant-Man news so let’s quickly recap what’s been going on for the past week: Edgar Wright has been championing Ant-Man for over 8 years, only to abruptly leave the project last week over creative differences with the heads at Marvel. Fellow Marvel directors Joss Whedon and James Gunn both payed tribute to Wright, but the film is now directorless.
The reason Wright left was because Marvel was unhappy with the rewrite he and fellow co-writer Joe Cornish turned in. Marvel takes the screenplay to two low-credit writers who rewrite the script, and when Wright sees it, he walks because it’s no longer the movie he wanted to make.
Now the question is, who’s going to replace him? I’ve made my share of recommendations and my personal favorite director to replace Wright is Gareth Evans of The Raid: Redemption films. Sadly, he didn’t make the cut and probably wasn’t considered, which is too bad but Marvel has shortlisted 3 directors.
According to THR, Rawson Marshall Thurber (We’re The Millers), Adam McKay (Anchorman, Step-Brothers), and Ruben Fleischer?(Zombieland), are the finalists to replace the departing Wright. Interesting choices since Thurber and McKay are well known for their comedy films but I don’t think they’ve really made anything that action packed. McKay has worked with Ant-Man star Paul Rudd before on Anchorman, that may give him an upper hand but is also busy running his own production company.
In fact, this weekend saw negotiations flying fast between McKay’s reps and Marvel, but it appears the director is bowing out, especially in light of this tweet he sent out:
Thurber is pretty in demand these days, now that We’re The Millers was a hit at the box office. He’s in talks with Disney to direct a movie called Overnight where a father and child spend a night in a giant toy store. TheWrap is saying Thurber is the front-runner, especially with McKay appearing to walk away.
Fleischer, on the other hand, has Zombieland under his belt, and his comedy style is much quirkier than the other two — he’s my favorite pick by far. At first glance, the helmer may have the opening in his schedule to tackle Ant-Man, but now TheWrap (via /Film) is saying Fleicher may jump into Ghostbusters 3, since Ivan Reitman walked away.
Thurber could end up being the director of Ant-Man, considering McKay and Fleischer’s schedules, and McKay backing out of talks.
Of course, Wright has already worked out the previs for the set pieces in the film, so the new director being brought on board really doesn’t need to start from scratch, unless the new writers changed the set pieces as well… though I doubt it, since the studio is holding firm on that July 2015 date. No matter who Marvel chooses to go with, it seems that we’ll still get some of Wright’s fingerprints left on the project.
Ant-Man is due in theaters July 17, 2015.
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