Caffeinated Clint
In case you’ve spent the last few days locked inside a multiplex, having fallen asleep sometime during the 9:20 session of “Blended”, you’ll have heard the big news around Hollyweird : After 397 years developing the project, Edgar Wright decided to move on from Marvel Studio’s “Ant-Man”.
Most have responded to the tune of “what the fuck, Marvel!?” or “Ant-Man is gonna suck now!”. The business side of Hollywood have thought out their responses a little longer though.
Joss Whedon took a picture with a Cornetto Ice-Cream to signify the event, and James Gunn essentially professed his love for both feuding parties – naturally not wanting to get caught in the middle. But what say Edgar Wright, he at the center of the “director quits big-studio superhero tentpole” news, of the “Ant-Man” movie departure?
Well, if you look at his Twitter tonight – not much. He’s still as silent as he was the day the bombshell dropped.
But last night told a different story.
While 250 of you were tuned into “24 : Live Another Day” (sorry Fox, low blow), the rest of the entertainment-munching populace spotted an interesting post over on Scott Pilgrim’s poppa’s page.
Wright posted a Tweet alongside a picture (below) of a sad Buster Keaton that said “selfie”.
What Wright – who left Marvel’s “Ant-Man” last Friday, after near a decade developing the project – was implying by posting the gray-scale pic was that he was super, super bummed out about the way things had turned out. He obviously didn’t want to leave “Ant-Man” – particularly since he’d been working on it for so long, and probably looked forward to his annual ‘when the fuck is that superhero movie happening, dude?’ question he gets at Comic-Con each July, plus he was nearly ready to roll film on it. But he had to. He was forced to walk the plank.
If he’d stayed on, he would’ve essentially been directing someone else’s script, having now discovered that his libretto has been drastically rewritten by someone else – and as such, the script no longer resembled the film he’d signed up for.
The same thing had essentially happened to Buster Keaton, the sad-looking thesp in the photo. In 1928, after carving a name for himself as a successful independent actor, Keaton caved in and joined MGM – one of the biggest studios in town at that point. But the experience was a miserable one for Keaton who would later describe the partnership as “the worst mistake of my career”.
Wright, it seems, is comparing the experience Keaton had to his own; the “Hot Fuzz” director has clearly had a hard time with Marvel, while working on “Ant-Man”, and is ostensibly swirling with many emotions – some angry, some sad, some sexual. And fair enough, too – if the reason for his departure is indeed on the money, and it’s true that Evangeline Lily was set to star. So many missed opportunities.
Wright – likely at the request of his agent or publicist, knowing he doesn’t want to burn that bridge with Marvel or Universal just in case they do an about face – later deleted the tweet. As angry as he may be, he doesn’t really want to piss off the big wigs over there. And having been shit-bombed at home all weekend, the Marvel execs might already be having a change of heart, and be willing to offer Wright as many Cornetto’s as it’ll take to get him back, so best not to make matters worse.
But for the moment, nobody knows nothing when it comes to “Ant-Man”. Guessing Marvel spent their Memorial day holiday holed up in an office where they banged their heads, in synchronicity, on their desks. Look, Universal and Marvel are no doubt scrambling to find someone to replace Wright – and they may find someone, but the film is already damaged. Even the film’s attached cast seem understandably irked by the situation; it goes without saying, Wright was probably the reason a few of them signed up for the project in the first place. While there’s been no comment from Michael Douglas, Paul Rudd, Evangeline Lily or any of those above-title attached actors, co-star Patrick Wilson did speak up. His tweet (below) suggests the movie has been put on pause for the time being but more so, that he’s definitely a member of ‘Team Edgar’. Not quite sure what deals these actors have, but I’m assuming most of them – all but Douglas probably, who likely had a contract more styled to his liking, since he’s Michael Douglas – will be all forced to bite their lip and work with whatever surrogate Marvel drags in to direct the movie. When it happens.
Yes yes…the big news was Edgar’s departure and now not knowing the fate of the film. Big to ME anyway.
— patrick wilson (@patrickwilson73) May 23, 2014
