THR has some more details about why director Edgar Wright decided to leave Marvel’s Ant-Man project, and they’re not all that surprising considering the history Marvel has with more offbeat actors and directors. While Wright and the studio released a joint statement last week, sources close to the project have reported that the main reason Wright decided to part ways with the film was after the studio ordered rewrites of the script without his input. From THR:
Originally set to begin shooting June 2, the production had been put on hiatus while Feige ordered revisions of the script that was co-written by Wright and Joe Cornish. According to sources, Wright had been willing to make revisions earlier in the process. But the new rewrites took place without Wright’s input, and when he received Marvel’s new version early during the week of May 19, he walked, prompting a joint statement announcing his exit “due to differences in their visions of the film.”
Wright had been attached to Ant-Man since 2006 before Marvel became the possessive powerhouse studio it is today, and THR also cites Kenneth Branagh, Joe Johnston, Patty Jenkins, and Edward Norton as past examples of Marvel clashing with filmmakers with “strong points of view.” While the studio insists that Ant-Man is on track for its July 2015 release and Paul Rudd is reportedly still attached to star, this news is pretty much confirmation that Marvel’s icy creative grip on its movie universe most likely won’t be loosening in the near future for innovative and unique directors like Wright – and the final script of Ant-Man will be nothing like he originally intended.
