In what has to be disappointing news for fans, Marvel has chosen the replacement Ant-Man director since Edgar Wright quit the project. The new director to helm the movie is none other than Peyton Reed. If you are confused, you have every reason to be.
Peyton Reed is the director who brought us the Vince Vaughn comedy The Breakup, Jim Carey comedy Yes Man and cheerleader movie Bring it On. Maybe Reed can bring some of the brilliance he brought to the cheerleading chick flick to the Marvel universe.
Or maybe he will just point a camera and shoot the scenes.
Here is what kills me. The reason Edgar Wright left the Ant-Man director chair was because of script problems. Wright and Joe Cornish have been working on this story for eight years. Well, suddenly this year Marvel decided it had to be “more Marvel” so Wright and Cornish took the notes and tried to adapt the script to Marvel’s instructions while not losing what made the movie unique.
Marvel was not pleased and sent it to the guy who wrote their Marvel One-Shot short films. When Wright received this version of the script, he read it over and then quit on the spot. That tells me there were script problems that Marvel just wouldn’t recognize.
After that, Marvel reached out to Adam McKay (The Other Guys) and Ruben Fleischer (Zombieland), both of which chose not to make the movie. Now that Peyton Reed has signed on to direct the movie, Adam McKay has been brought in to fix the script. This tells me there were some major script problems, which is why Wright quit. Maybe when McKay turned down the job, he pointed out how lousy the script was and Marvel realized they not only needed a new director but some fast work on the Ant-Man script as well.
What is known now is that the genius of Edgar Wright will not be making a Marvel movie but the man who directed a series of very forgettable movies will. That is just a sad day in the Marvel Universe.
What are your thoughts about Peyton Reed taking on the Ant-Man director chair? Will he do a serviceable job or will the movie really miss out on Edgar Wright’s vision? Let us know your thoughts in the comment section below.
