(UPDATE: After a few weeks, the search for Wright's successor has now come to an end. Peyton Reed ('Yes Man') has been hired to direct the film and although Adam McKay had dropped out of directing the film, he is still on as one of the screenwriters... thank god this mess is finally over!)
There have been plenty of films that have had a fairly nightmarish
production, including ‘Apocalypse Now’, ‘Cleopatra’, and ‘Waterworld’… and
that’s just to name a few. As for the major reasons why a film production can
run into trouble, there can be plenty of ways that could happen, like a change
in director halfway through the shoot (e.g. Richard Donner with ‘Superman II’),
location problems (mostly weather-related), or even some hot-headed actors. But
at this moment, Marvel Studios is enduring probably one of the messiest
‘production nightmares’ of all time, or at least in recent memory… and the
irony is that the film in question hasn’t even started shooting yet. I am of
course referring to ‘Ant-Man’, which is currently set to be released in July
2015. However, due to some recent controversy surrounding the film, it’s
starting to look like the film won’t be able to make that release date. That is
mainly due to the fact that Marvel’s original choice to direct the film
recently left the project recently left the project due to complications surrounding
the script and right now Marvel is currently looking for someone to take over
as director of the film. However, they haven’t been so lucky yet in regards to
finding a successor, so much so that it’s almost like this troubled production
is actually cursed in the wake of the original director’s departure.
It all started in 2006, before the Marvel Cinematic Universe
even got started, when the then recently formed Marvel Studios hired Edgar
Wright, fresh off of ‘Shaun of the Dead’ and before he did ‘Hot Fuzz’, to write
and direct a film adaptation of the character Ant-Man. Wright co-wrote the
script with Joe Cornish and after going through a few re-writes, partially done
in order for the film to fit into the continuity of the MCU, it seemed like
things would be going smoothly. Michael Douglas and Paul Rudd were cast in the
roles of the first two characters from the comics that adopted the Ant-Man
persona, Hank Pym and Scott Lang, respectively. Other additions to the cast
were made, including Michael Pena, Evangeline Lilly, and Patrick Wilson and
soon the film was set to go into principal photography… then on May 23, 2014, a
bombshell was dropped as it was revealed that Wright had left the project due
to ‘creative differences’ with Marvel Studios. It was later confirmed that
Marvel was unhappy with Wright’s vision for the film and had ordered rewrites
done without Wright’s involvement. Obviously, Wright wasn’t too pleased with
these new developments so he decided to leave the project.
Ironically, barely just 24 hours after the announcement of
Wright’s departure, another key director stepped down from an upcoming MCU
project; Drew Goddard, who was set to be the show-runner for the first of
Marvel’s Netflix TV shows, ‘Daredevil’. However, in his case, it wasn’t due to
‘creative differences’ but because he would have had scheduling conflicts with
the other superhero property he was tapped to direct, Sony’s ‘Sinister Six’
film. Almost immediately after his departure, Marvel announced that Steven S.
DeKnight (‘Spartacus’) would take over Goddard’s duties as show-runner.
However, in the case of ‘Ant-Man’… they’re still looking for a replacement for
Wright. Adam McKay (‘Anchorman’, ‘Talladega Nights’) was reported to have
entered negotiations to direct, but ending up pulling out. Then the next top
candidate was Rawson Marshall Thurber (‘Dodgeball’, ‘We’re the Millers’)… he
too dropped out of the running. There have been numerous names thrown out as possible contenders for the job, including Ruben Fleischer ('Zombieland'), Nicholas Stoller ('Neighbors'), and Michael Dowse ('Goon'), but there have been some reports claiming that some of these directors have either passed on the job or weren't even considered to be begin with so overall you're going to have to take these bits of news with a grain of salt.
All of this recent controversy has led to some debate in
regards to the state of Phase Three of the MCU and some believe that Wright’s
departure is going to result in a drop of quality for the films past ‘The
Avengers: Age of Ultron’. Heck some are even saying the studio lost all of
their good will because of this whole debacle (which for the record I think is
B.S., but that’s beside the point). Really, I’m not too worried about Marvel
Studios right now, and no it’s not because I’ve pretty much made it clear that
I’m a big fan of their films. The point is that I feel that at this point in
time, Marvel Studios has done such a good job at establishing their Cinematic
Universe and to date have not made a bad film that I think that ‘Ant-Man’ is
going to turn out okay, even if it will probably not turn out as good as it
could have been under Wright’s direction. And yes, it does suck so much that
Wright’s no longer attached to the film and the fact that all of the hard work
that he put into it these past eight years is now going to waste is very, very
depressing. But regardless of the sad truth, Marvel has to move on from this
and I believe that they will. From the list of directors they’re pursuing to
take over the film, it’s clear that they’re looking for a comedic director and
that’s fine. After all, if the Russo brothers could come from a comedic
background and end up making the best solo film in the MCU to date (yes, I
think ‘Winter Soldier’ is even better than ‘Iron Man’), then I think that
whoever takes over ‘Ant-Man’ is going to turn out a good film… but again, the
film hasn’t even started shooting yet so we’re just going to have to wait and
see about that.
As much as they might try to deny it, the studio is
technically to blame for this as they were the ones who did the rewrites of the
script behind Wright’s back. All I’m going to say about that is that I hope
that this is not a sign that Marvel is trying to ‘play it safe’. Of course,
this is coming after the release of ‘Iron Man 3’. Sure, the film grossed a
billion dollars at the box office and got pretty solid reviews from critics but
the whole controversy surrounding the infamous Mandarin twist definitely cast a
dark shadow over the film, which is really sad considering that, as I’ve noted
before in my review of the film, the twist actually did work. But regardless,
it still pissed off a lot of fans and I have a bad feeling that this might have
influenced Marvel’s recent actions. Now, I’m not saying that this influenced some
of the other films in Phase Two, though ‘Thor: The Dark World’ definitely felt
more like it was playing things safer. But anyway, this whole idea of Marvel ‘playing
it safe’ is also part of why some fear that the quality is going to drop. Maybe
it will, but I won’t be that worried about it and really, even if Marvel
Studios ends up making a bad film sometime soon, so what? After all, in
Hollywood nothing’s perfect and while I would hate to see it, I have the
feeling that one bad MCU film will happen sometime in the future. When it does,
I don’t think it’ll be that big of a deal because it was bound to happen sooner
or later.
But with all that has been said here, going back to the
whole ‘Ant-Man’ debacle, I believe that Marvel Studios should do the following.
They should postpone the film until they can get things settled. I know that’s
probably not what Marvel wants to do right now but at this point I doubt that
they will be able to make their proposed July 2015 release date, at least at
this rate. I mean, even if they do find a director in the next few days, the
film is still set to start shooting mid-2014, which is technically any day now.
Whoever this new director will be should at least have some time to prepare
before he starts filming it. After all, there’s no greater example of when a
director had little time to prepare for a film than in 1992 when David Fincher
was hired to direct ‘Alien 3’… and we all know how that one turned out. So
overall, I think that Marvel should probably postpone the film at least back to
their previously scheduled release date of November 6, 2015. Maybe that will
give Wright’s successor enough time to prepare before the film starts shooting.
But right now, Marvel is still (emphasis on ‘still’) looking for that successor.
While I’m guessing that the final product won’t turn out as good as it would
have been under Wright’s direction, I’m still going to stay optimistic about
this whole scenario and I don’t think that this will have an extremely negative
effect on the future of the MCU. I mean, at this point, just one film can't hurt this studio's incredibly good reputation that much.
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