The plot thickens. Or, as it turns out, maybe thins and homogenizes.
Yesterday we learned that [Edgar Wright](https://awesomefriday.ca/2014/05/not-awesome-edgar-wright-is-off-ant-man/) had left production of _Ant-Man_, the first of Marvel’s third phase of films. We didn’t have a lot of info on that but now it’s starting to come out that maybe Disney was meddling with the script.
Apparently the powers that be, those above Marvel Studios exec Kevin Feige, were unhappy with the script as Wright and Joe Cornish wrote it and sent down a bunch of notes. Wright and Cornish tried to accommodate the notes with new drafts that incorporated the things the studio wanted but didn’t change their vision of the film.
Then, reportedly six weeks ago, Marvel had the script re-written by some guys from their in house writing team and handed that script to Wright and said “here’s your shooting script” and Wright said thanks but no thanks and left the production.
I’d like to stress that this is still technically a rumour but this is exactly the kind of thing that never surprises me from Hollywood Studios. Kevin Feige had apparently foought for Wright’s vision, and why not? Letting Shane Black and Joe Johnson and The Russo Brothers put their own stamp on films has been one of the best decisions they’ve made, letting the films stand alone as well as part of the greater series. Just looking at the new Spider-Man movies, which suffer from intense pressure from Sony high ups, why would Disney/Marvel want to recreate that kind of atmosphere/process/terrible type of production environment.
There’s also this:
— Joss Whedon (@josswhedon) May 24, 2014
Joss Whedon in a clear show of solidarity with Wright. Why would he post this if Wright left on free and friendly terms? There’s also the distinct possibility that Whedon won’t re-up to shepherd the films past _Avengers: age of Ultron_ and you can only imagine that situations like this make that more likely (and to be perfectly clear: that will be a major loss).
This isn’t the first time anything like this has happened. Remember that _Thor: The Dark World_ had two directors in production and Marvel didn’t let Alan Taylor have final cut either.
I dunno guys. If this turns out to be true then it seems like it might be the beginning of the end of Marvel films. Not that they’ll stop making them or they’ll necessarily be _bad_, but it might harken a time when they are less innovative and individually unique.
What do you guys think of this rumour?
(sources: [Badass Digest](http://badassdigest.com/2014/05/24/is-this-the-end-of-the-marvel-movie-age/), [Latino Review](http://www.latino-review.com/news/exclusive-the-inside-story-on-the-divorce-between-marvel-edgar-wright-over-ant-man), [Twitter](https://twitter.com/josswhedon/statuses/470141319831363584))
Comments are closed.