The bad news continues for Marvel Studios’ troubled superhero comedy.
Update II: While overnight industry reports seemed to think it was a sure thing, Saturday afternoon Anchorman director Adam McKay confirmed that, while he did meet with Marvel about Ant-Man (the first director believed to have done so), he has decided to pass on the project.
The production of Ant-Man (who has the power to change his size at will and communicate with insects) was thrown into jeopardy by the surprise eleventh hour departure of longtime would-be helmer Edgar Wright. The producers are still determined to have the film in theaters for its scheduled July 17th 2015 release.
That means finding a new director to bring the mostly-completed pre-production (the film was already cast, storyboarded and planned out with many major action scenes pre-visualized) left behind by Wright into line with the still unknown script changes Disney is reported to have imposed on the project. With McKay (reportedly the first choice, owing to familiarity with lead actor Paul Rudd) now out of the running, the remaining prospects are said to be We’re The Millers’ Rawson Marshall Thurber and Zombieland’s Ruben Fleischer. Fleischer is also on tap as a potential director for the similarly-troubled Ghostbusters 3.
