Once Marvel heads into Phase Three of its ever-expanding cinematic universe, we’ll start seeing the studio take even bigger risks with lesser known characters headlining their own films, like Ant-Man and Doctor Strange. Both movies have been talked about for years, but have only really been making waves in the news cycle lately thanks to some pretty major director and writer updates for both.
As I’m sure you’re well aware of by now, Ant-Man went through a pretty extensive director search when Edgar Wright, who had been working on the film since before there even was a Marvel Studios, dropped out due to “creative differences” and some pretty major script changes. Doctor Strange, on the other hand, has merely been on Kevin Feige’s wishlist since the beginning of the MCU, but the project is finally taking shape with director Scott Derrickson and writer Jon Spaihts.
Feige recently talked to Total Film about all things MCU, like Guardians of the Galaxy, the Marvel shows headed to Netflix and Thanos. However, it’s the things he said about the miniature Avenger and the Sorcerer Supreme that really piqued our interest.
We’ve already heard from the likes of Joss Whedon, James Gunn, Simon Pegg, and Michael Douglas about Wright’s departure from Ant-Man, but Feige has remained silent about what happened and how it’s effected the film. Many of us wondered if it would still be able to make its summer 2015 release date now that Peyton Reed has signed on to direct, with Adam McKay on script-fixing duties. According to Feige, things are still headed in the right direction, with production expected to begin in a little over a month:
“Ant-Man is still going to come out on 17 July [2015], we start filming this August. Edgar Wright, who I’ve known for many years, who wrote the draft with Joe Cornish – much of the movie will still be based very much on that draft and the DNA of what Edgar has created up to this point, but Peyton Reed has stepped in [to direct].”
“Adam McKay, a very good writer is reworking parts of the script – not the entirety of the script, but some of it – and it’s going to, we believe, come to life in the best version of Ant-Man that we could possibly make. Again Ant-Man is a very important character for us. We like that people don’t necessarily know what it is, we like that it sounds sort of strange when you first hear the notion of Ant-Man, or a hero that can shrink, but he’s a very key Marvel character: he’s a key Avenger. He’s an important character we want to bring into our universe and Paul Rudd, Michael Douglas and an amazing cast all set to start in August, we believe that we’re on the road to the best version of Ant-Man that we could have.”
Fans will likely have things to say about his belief in the “best version” of this film now that Wright isn’t at the helm, but we’ll have to wait until it comes out before we start daydreaming about what could have been. As I said when Reed got the job, he’s an interesting and inspired choice and really has the opportunity to knock our socks off. And I sincerely hope he does.
