Ant-Man Edgar Wright Leaves Ant-Man!! - Part 1

[Mysteryman]

Gunn did not take sides in his released statement .
He made no effort to impugn Wright's character .

 

[TheVision]

^^ Edgar didnt want to compromise his vision of Ant Man, obviously. James was just being diplomatic.

 

[Mysteryman]

Yes, he was being diplomatic because he works for Marvel.

 

[TheVision]

True! I wouldnt want to mess that up either. The idea is to be humble, make $$$ and have fun (which it sounds like hes doing esp well).

 

[Mysteryman]

Hopefully, we will all have fun watching Ant Man next year .

 

[Mike Murdock]

I'm hoping for a director soon. Once we have a director (barring someone of clearly low quality), I'll go back to my wait and see, benefit of the doubt mode. But things just seem spiraling right now. Regardless of everything else, it's clear that Wright walked away from Marvel and Marvel got caught by surprise. Otherwise, they would have had someone lined up.

 

[TheVision]

The fact certain people are praising Edgar for walking and not showing Marvel love for all theyve done for us fans since 2008 really gets me angry to be honest. Its like a "lets bring Marvel down" attitude. Im definitely against that group.

 

[Mike Murdock]

I'm not going to praise him for "showing Marvel what's what" or "bringing them down." It may have been understandable, though, that he walked. Whether it actually was understandable depends on the extent things were changed.

 

[Mysteryman]

Imagine that someone hires you to direct a film because of what you can bring to the project ,
then, they erase many of your contributions by changing the script at the last minute .
At that point , you might wonder why you were still sticking around and just go .

 

[Mysteryman]

I hope that Marvel makes an effort to get Wright back.
That solves the problem for them better than any other course of action.

 

[Mike Murdock]

Imagine that someone hires you to direct a film because of what you can bring to the project ,
then, they erase many of your contributions by changing the script at the last minute .
At that point , you might wonder why you were still sticking around and just go .

It's a little more complicated. They hired Wright and wanted him to do the project, but also asked him to address their concerns. The thing to keep in mind is that there's been an ongoing dialog for years and a back and forth to address concerns. However, deadlines started approaching. It reached the point where either someone else had to make the changes or else the other people working on the film would find work somewhere else.

It might be fair to suggest the changes were too big or that the people who did the changes instead did a substandard job, but it would be unrealistic to think there wouldn't be a back and forth. I think even Wright expected that, which is why he stayed on the project so long - he had been trying to address those concerns without compromising his vision. But either the gap was too large or it was just an inability to reach agreement timely that undid their cooperation.

ETA: I too would like Wright back. I'm just skeptical that it would be practical. The underlying cause of separation is still there and, if it could be worked out, it would need time. Time isn't what anyone seems to have right now.

 

[TheVision]

They have to work together from the start (I thought thats how they did every film). You cant dictate every last thing on a film like this even if you write/direct it.

 

[metaphysician]

You've had one director who's been working on it for eight years leave mere weeks before filming was to start, and now one of the potential replacements dropped out only 24 hours after negotiations began. It's not unreasonable for people to wonder what's going on behind the scenes.

That still doesn't narrow down the cause, though. Is the script that bad ( and if so, is it Wright's script or Marvel's script? )? Or is the production that badly behind schedule?

( or did McKay decline for purely unrelated reasons, such as being otherwise too busy to take up a "must start now" project? )

 

[metaphysician]

I think this is a great article. That being said, all the talk about the death of the "Auteur Theory" will probably last until James Gunn's Guardians of the Galaxy comes out. In reality, I think it's going to be a rebalancing where the director is no longer King, but I don't think the director is going to be a minor cog in the process either.

Honestly, I think Auteur Theory deserves the bullet to the head. The director is not and should not be the be-all end-all of movie making. A movie *can* revolve around the director, but it certainly doesn't have to.

 

[Mysteryman]

McKay tweeted that he was committed to other projects .
And, the original THR article that mentioned his name as a possibility said that he might be too busy to take the job .

 

[Tim_Riggins]

We can talk all we want about the script not being what Marvel wanted, but it's incredibly **** from Marvel to just take the script off of Edgar's & Joe's hands to give it to some nobody screenwriter, it's laughable.

 

[Mysteryman]

Maybe they thought he would have no choice but to shoot the changes because he was up against the deadline.
But clearly,
They were surprised by his reaction because they had no one waiting in the wings to replace him.

 

[Mike Murdock]

We can talk all we want about the script not being what Marvel wanted, but it's incredibly **** from Marvel to just take the script off of Edgar's & Joe's hands to give it to some nobody screenwriter, it's laughable.

If the script needed to be done by last week and the screenwriter was unable to turn in something you were happy with, what other option was there? Keep in mind that the report in question states that they did try to have him write it first - that he had been rewriting the script in response to feedback. But he was unable or unwilling to fully address their concerns, at least by their deadline. At what point do you realize that the person isn't going to address what they want by the time the film needs to be put into production and assign it to someone who will?

 

[TheVision]

INT - MARVEL STUDIOS - DAY

Edgar (licking Cornetto): Hmmm, bloody 'ell. Im not gonna change it anymore after the last rewrite, bloody change it? righty. This is a slice o' fried gold as is. dee dee deeeee...here it issssss Kevin...(snobbily leaves like he just wrote MacBeth).

FAST ZOOM IN ON SCREENPLAY

Marvel/Kevin:....Uhhh Okay, we'll definitely have to have some changes made, here you go Joe Q. Screenwriter. Edgars obviously not playing ball with us.

TITLE CARD: 2 DAYS LATER

Marvel: Hi Ed, Heres the final screenplay, we had to change some of it to fit in with the Marvel Film Universe that we established back in 2008 2 years after you were first attached to Ant Man, sorry ol bean.

QUICK ZOOM IN ON EDGARS SHOCKED FACE

Edgar (screeching): *gasp* Changed MY screenplay?! Why...Why...you Bloody bastards! Im leaving! Hmmph!

Cut To:

Edgar hops on his scoooter, puts on his helmet and drives off down the lane never to be seen again at Marvel Studios


NOTE TO READERS: This was pure speculation and a spoof of what I think happened. Im sure Im wrong and it was much more complicated.

 

[metaphysician]

Now if that was the only issue, Wright should have known they were going to do everything possible to connect this to the MCU at large.

Just because he knew, intellectually, didn't mean that isn't the reason. Remember, the movie started 8 years ago. Its entirely possible that serious conflicts existed from the getgo, but were ignored as stuff that can be "worked out later."

Only later came, and both sides realized the other was *really serious* about the things they felt needed to change/happen.

 

[Mike Murdock]

INT - MARVEL STUDIOS - DAY

Edgar: Hmmm, bloody 'ell. Im not gonna change it anymore after the last rewrite, bloody change it? righty. This is a slice o' fried gold as is. dee dee deeeee...here it is Kevin...(waiting).

Marvel/Kevin:....Uhhh Okay, we'll definitely have to have some changes made, here you go Joe Q. Screenwriter. Edgars obviously not playing ball with us.

Marvel: Hi Ed, Heres the final screenplay, we had to change some of it to fit in with the Marvel Film Universe that we established back in 2008 2 years after you were first attached to Ant Man, sorry ol bean.

Edgar: *gasp* Change MY screenplay?! Why you Bloody bastards! Im leaving! Hmmph!


NOTE TO READERS: This was pure speculation and a spoof of what I think happened. Im sure Im wrong.

I doubt he said that. My guess is it was a lot more subtle. They said "make these changes" so he would make one or two of them only if he agreed and keep the rest. This is actually quite common. A lot of TV writers have famously done this in response to network censors. They would get told that things needed to be taken out and they would just keep them in anyway on the hopes that the network forgot which things they wanted to remove. Taxi Driver is actually a famous example. The MPAA kept asking them to tone down the gore and they responded by literally sending the exact same cut back. Eventually, the MPAA thought enough changes had been made an approved an R rating.

So it's possible Marvel kept asking for changes and Wright would make changes, but it was never at the point that both agreed. There never was a "this is my final version" ultimatum from Wright. Marvel just looked at a calendar and went "we need to get this done!" So they had someone else get it done. Now they could have done it as a "this is what we meant" kind of thing or, probably more likely, they said "this is the version we're going to have to go with." Either way, it was more changes than Wright wanted so he said "I'm not feeling it" and left.

 

[metaphysician]

We can talk all we want about the script not being what Marvel wanted, but it's incredibly **** from Marvel to just take the script off of Edgar's & Joe's hands to give it to some nobody screenwriter, it's laughable.

As opposed to, what? Dragging him into a boardroom and saying "you get one more chance to revise your script to meet our requirements, otherwise, your fired"?

Its only incredibly **** if you presume Edgar wasn't botching the job in one way or another ( like *not finishing it after 8 years* ).

 

[TheVision]

My inspiration for the Edgar Wright Ant Man script scene was this:

[YT]ypcSHTLlK8E[/YT]

 

[Whiskey Tango]

Its only incredibly **** if you presume Edgar wasn't botching the job in one way or another ( like *not finishing it after 8 years* ).

Seriously. He made three movies during the time he was allegedly working on this project. You can't exactly say he was under immense pressure.

 

[TheVision]

TWO guys working on a screenplay for years and it still wasnt good enough to just shoot on time.

I really hope they get a director soon.