Memorial Day has come and gone and the reverberations of Edgar Wright‘s exit from “Ant-Man“ are still being felt. It’s one of the first major stumbles from Marvel‘s so far very well-oiled machine, and it still has fans reeling, wondering if the comic studio who are bringing this summer’s “Guardians Of The Galaxy” will ever try such a risky move again. Indeed, Wright’s hire — he’d been working on the movie since 2006 — initially seemed like a vote toward stepping outside the formulaic box of most Marvel movies. But with a rewrite changing the creative direction — allegedly a “shock” to the filmmaker — and in turn snuffing out Wright’s interest, it has left a lot of questions up in the air, and the most key of them right now: can “Ant-Man” make its July 15, 2015 release date next summer?
THR reports that the “release date in question” with Marvel apparently now searching for a director (though in a press release last week, the studio has said they are sticking to their plans). But that contradicts earlier trade news that had said Marvel already had someone waiting in the wings. Whatever the case, there’s a lot more than just getting someone behind the camera. This is a project that has now seen two production bumps — it was originally slated to shoot on June 2nd, but was stalled until July 28th so rewrites could be done. When that date wasn’t shaping up, crew members started bailing and it’s not clear when the movie might shoot, though a new team is being uh, assembled.
“Kevin Feige [and his top lieutenants] run Marvel with a singularity of vision, but when you take a true auteur and throw him into the mix, this is what you get,” a source told THR explaining the split. “They don’t want you to speak up too much or have too much vision. People who have never worked there don’t understand how they operate, but if you trust them, they have an amazing track record.”
This is not the first Marvel hiccup. As noted by the trade, Patty Jenkins left “Thor 2” over creative differences, Terrence Howard was essentially let go from the “Iron Man” series and so-forth. What will happen is unclear. but for now, Wright’s since deleted Twitter response says it all. And or, while we wait to see what happens, check out this awesome “Edgar Wright – How to Do Visual Comedy” video esssay.
