My thoughts on Edgar Wright no longer directing Ant-Man

[transemacabre]

The news broke that, due to "differences in their vision of the film", Edgar Wright and Marvel have parted ways on the Ant-Man movie. On the surface, this doesn't seem like that big a deal -- except that Edgar Wright has been working on this movie for over eight years and he was the driving force behind it getting greenlit in the first place. Moreover, Marvel is still planning to use his script and keep the release date, which is in summer of next year.

Shocking! I wonder when Edgar Wright will go on a twitter rant and spill the beans about what happened. Personally, I don't know if its even feasible to make the movie at this point -- Marvel will have to find a director in the next few weeks and that director will only have about 6-7 months to get the movie out in time for editing, marketing, and making the release date. That's a tall order!

If it were up to me, I'd probably scrap the project altogether, but can they even scrap it without screwing up their plans for other MCU movies? We know so little about the Ant-Man movie, but it may be integral to Marvel's plans for its cinematic universe. About the only thing that can be said is that Wright's firing makes it all the more obvious that Marvel is willing to ditch anyone who won't cooperate with them, no matter how many years they'd put into the project. Don't squabble with Marvel over paychecks, don't blab secrets, and sure as hell don't try to commandeer a project from Marvel or you WILL be eliminated with extreme prejudice. It happened to Terrance Howard, to Edward Norton, Patty Jenkins, and now Edgar Wright. As far as Marvel is concerned you are replaceable. On one hand I'm like "damn that's cold" but on the other hand I have to think that's why all the movies have been so cohesive so far.

Comments

[theladyscribe]

Yeah, as Amy was saying on tumblr, "What's the excuse for no Black Widow movie going to be now?"

I am curious to see what happens with Ant-Man. On the one hand, I agree they should probably scrap it or swap release dates with something else. But on the other, I suspect they'll want to save face/keep up brand confidence, because losing the creative mind behind a pet project can be the mark of a bubble about to pop.

[transemacabre.livejournal.com]

News broke that Drew Goddard is off the Netflix Daredevil series and has been replaced by Steve DeKnight (he's one of Whedon's homies; worked on Dollhouse, Buffy and Angel, as well as the ridiculous Spartacus series on Starz). Some drama is going down internally at Marvel Studios, y'all.

My suspicion is that Marvel has invested so much into the Ant-Man project that they've passed the point of no return and they're determined to see someone come of it, goddamnit. Rumor is that Wright got dumped because of the project going over-budget (after eight years in pre-production, ya think?).

I don't really expect to see a Black Widow movie start filming until after ScarJo's had her baby, since she's filming Avengers 2 right now and will probably want to chillax a bit when she gets gigantically pregnant. Hopefully that doesn't result in its momentum sputtering out.

[theladyscribe]

Urk. Using Whedon's buddies does not inspire a whole lot of confidence in me. (Thank god Markus & McFeely are pretty much locked in for Cap 3, because I really don't want Whedon any closer to my babies than he already is.)

I WANT A BLACK WIDOW MOVIE SO BAD. But I agree, it definitely won't happen until ScarJo's had some (well-deserved) mom time. It'd be awesome if we got both Cap 3 and Black Widow in the same year, but I doubt that will happen. *crosses fingers for a 2017 release*

[transemacabre.livejournal.com]

Well, Drew Goddard was another Whedon Homeboy (he directed Cabin In the Woods, wrote for Buffy and Angel) so replacing him with DeKnight is just more of the same. It doesn't surprise me that having Whedon as your reference on your resume can get you a job at Marvel Studios.

The only movies we know are a lock are Avengers 2, Cap 3, Dr. Strange, and Thor 3. I have a hunch Marvel is waiting to see how Guardians of the Galaxy does before greenlighting anything else. GoTG is their riskiest movie so far; it's an ensemble space romp without any mega-name actors. If it proves it can do business, I bet Marvel will announce several more projects in short order.