Marvel may have found the director that they want for their upcoming Dr. Strange movie, but they are still having problems getting a director locked down for their previously announced Ant-Man film.
The studio has been scrambling to find a replacement ever since Edgar Wright, who had spent eight years developing the project for the studio, walked off nearly two weeks ago. The studio reportedly had three possible replacements in mind – Adam McKay, Reuben Fleischer and Marshall Thurber. Well, McKay removed himself rather quickly from preliminary talks over the weekend and Fleischer has reportedly declined an offer in favor of potentially working on other projects.
And now it appears as if Marvel has moved beyond Thurber as well. Last night, Jeff Sneider tweeted out the following –
So Rawson Marshall Thurber already passed on ANT-MAN, the movie that no self-respecting director appears to want to adopt?
— Jeff Sneider (@TheInSneider) June 4, 2014
Aint It Cool’s Jeremy Smith jumped in with some clarification –
Rawson Marshall Thurber has not been offered ANT-MAN. Revise your stories.
— Jeremy Smith (@mrbeaks) June 4, 2014
So while the circumstances appear to be cloudy as to exactly why Thurber is now out of consideration for the job, one thing is certain. Marvel now has to come up with a new list of potential directors for the troubled project. One the key requirements now appears to be the ability to step in and pretty much be a director for hire, willing to work with what is being handed to them and perhaps forgo imprinting much of their own personal style on the material. Marvel has a script that they are happy with, even if its co-writer Wright wasn’t, and a cast ready to go. Presumably shooting dates have been scheduled, given that the film has a July 17, 2015 release date.
Unfortunately, such a mandate is making it harder to get enthused for the film. Where once we had the prospect of Wright bringing his own unique vision to Marvel’s Cinematic Universe, we are now faced with the prospect of something churned out by someone who will be managing the assembly line for the studio. Marvel will need to come up with a surprising and dynamic choice in order to restore the rapidly eroding confidence many fans such as myself now have.
Marvel Burns Through ANT-MAN Director Shortlist http://t.co/jsvtkSjaQV
Welcome to Marvel’s first train wreck.
William Gatevackes liked this on Facebook.
They must have thought when they booted Wright that there would be a million directors out there champing at the bit to take on a Marvel superhero movie. What they obviously failed to realize is that a lot of people are reluctant to pull on a dead man’s boots. And the longer it goes on, the more of a train wreck it appears to be.
Michael Martin liked this on Facebook.
This is a real big problem…….it has the smell of a death surrounding it. Part of the issue is that Wright is beloved and it was a passion project for him, he worked hard on it to fit in both of the universes it needed to fit into, Marvel and Cornetto. Now it just seems like it is sloppy seconds and directors are passing….this is the first chink but more are coming. Contracts for the actors are about to be front and center issues!
I’m not sure these producers realized how much of a fan following Wright had himself. And when they lost him, they probably lost a lot of it.
Totally agree Joe, so not only is it picking the corpse of a passion project but they like personally like Wright. Maybe it’s like a union thing going on, the word got out no scabs, lol!
I think they might have had some idea of Wright’s following. That’s why they went after Adam McKay first. They typically don’t look for directors as established as McKay for their projects. I do think this shows a little of Marvel’s hubris coming back to bite them on the ass. They never had a problem replacing someone before this, so they thought every replacement would be easy.Not so in this case.
There is hubris in Marvel’s dealings. Even when things went sour see Terrance Howard they got Cheadle and looked like they made the best decision. The hubris will come into play again with contract negotiations because I don’t think they realize how attached folks are to the actors they have in major roles!
They’ll probably do what they did with Robert Downey Jr,–Throw some money at them so they will still do the Avengers films, and hope the new properties they start like Guardians of the Galaxy and Doctor Strange do as well as Iron Man, Captain America and Thor.
ANT MAN was supposed to be one of those properties!