By Beloved “Shaun of the Dead” and “Hot Fuzz” filmmaker Edgar Wright was originally hired to write and direct the first “Ant-Man” way back in 2006, before the MCU took off.
He remained attached for years, him and Joe Cornish doing a full script and plenty of early development and pre-production on the title. He shot test footage which premiered at Comic-Con, cast Paul Rudd in the lead role and was all over pre-production of the film.
In May 2014 however – he left, Marvel and Wright jointly announcing his departure over creative differences, which was speculated to be over having to squeeze the film into the larger MCU narrative. Peyton Reed came onboard by June and shooting commenced in August.
The filmmaker, talking up his new Netflix anime series “Scott Pilgrim Takes Off,” answered some fan questions on Instagram this week and was asked about his scrapped “Ant-Man” plans:
“Having signed an NDA when I left, there’s not a lot I can say. I guess the biggest (pun intended) differences in our screenplay was it was self-contained and didn’t have cameos from other MCU characters (apart from an end tease) and it was much more of a crime heist movie, with interlocking robberies and heists throughout, a little like Donald Westlake’s ‘The Hot Rock’.
I think the crucial difference too was that (like the original comics) Scott Lang was an actual criminal at the start of the film and not already a 100% good guy. We felt it was a more satisfying redemption arc if he went from criminal to hero. Lots more to say, but can’t for legal reasons!”
Parts of Wright and Cornish’s script did make it into the final version of the film which scored good reviews overall and performed well enough to justify two sequels – the most recent hitting earlier this year.
The comments come as Paul Rudd spoke about the restrictive diet he was put on for the film during a recent appearance on the Off Menu podcast. He says:
“When I was having to train for the Ant-Man movie, and I was on a very restrictive diet, my reward was sparkling water. That’s how horrible that diet was. I was like, ‘Alright, I’m gonna have some sparkling water now, I’ve earned it.’… Yeah, it was great. It wasn’t flavored, I wasn’t gonna go crazy.”
He adds the diet was “really boring food, every time, over and over again” but once you’re in the zone of having to follow it it’s “actually not too hard”.
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