The troubled 10 year production timeline of Marvel’s Ant-Man
Marvel’s Ant-Man might be all about shrinking proportions, but it’s production timeline is anything. Its 10-year gestation period was peppered with delays, rewrites, and a high-profile director jumping ship.
Here’s all you need to know about Ant-Man’s slow crawl to the finish line.
Marvel overhauls its approach to movies and announces plans to self-produce movie adaptations of ten different characters, including Ant-man, under its own Marvel Studios banner.
At same time, Edgar Wright and writer Joe Cornish are given the go-ahead for their treatment for an Ant-Man movie, by top execs Kevin Feige and Avi Arad.
Marvel officially announces the Ant-Man movie at San Diego Comic-Con in July.
Ant-Man remains in a holding pattern while the second draft of the script is being worked on.
Wright shares with Empire that the second draft of the script has deviated from their original crime-story treatment, Ant-Man is not going to be a superhero spoof, but more of a “full-on action adventure sci-film but with a comedic element”.
Marvel assembles the core cast for its upcoming Avengers movie at San Diego Comic Con. But Ant-Man is not one of the characters involved, despite being a key member of the Avengers in the comics. Rumours begin circulating that the production is in trouble.
By now, Wright and Cornish have written three drafts of the script.
At San Diego Comic-Con, Wright confirms that Ant-Man is still on and screens some unfinished test footage he directed. (P.S: Geek Crusade was there to witness the unveiling in Hall H!)
In the later part of the year, Marvel announces that Ant-Man will be released on November 6, 2015.
Even though Henry Pym (the original Ant-Man) built Ultron in the original comics, Ant-Man is not part of The Avengers: Age of Ultron which is announced at San Diego Comic Con. Wright announces that Ant-Man’s script is finally complete, and it will not feature Utron. He starts prepping for production and Marvel moves the Ant-Man release date to July 31, 2015.
Marvel relocates the shooting of Ant-Man from the U.K to the U.S due to a dispute over filming on protected land. Paul Rudd signs on to play Ant-Man, but production is delayed so that Wright can finish The World’s End first.
Ant-Man’s release date is changed for the third time to July 17, 2015, and more cast members are announced. Wright and Cornish deliver a fifth draft of the script in March. The villain’s name has, by this point, been changed to Yellowjacket, a confusing choice as it was also a codename for Pym in the comics.
With just weeks before the start of shooting, Wright and Cornish are told that the studio wants to do a draft of the script without their involvement. Wright is not pleased with the draft script he receives.
Wright quits the project.
Joss Whedon, in a show of camadiere, tweets a captionless image of himself holding up a Cornetto ice-cream (A reference to Wright’s Cornetto Trilogy).
(Source: Twitter/ Joss Whedon)
Wright responds by tweeting, and deleting, a picture of a sad Buster Keaton eating a Cornetto with the caption, “Selfie.”
(Source: Twitter/ Edgar Wright)
After rumours that Adam McKay turned down the offer, Marvel announces that Peyton Reed is the new director of the Ant-Man movie, with McKay on scripting duties. (Paul Rudd will eventually contribute to the writing too) Marvel’s Phase 3 rolls on.
In an interview with The Guardian, Feige defends the loss of Edgar Wright, saying:
“Peyton is going to do a tremendous job and the cast is tremendously dedicated and the script is getting into amazing shape. You wouldn’t expect a producer to say anything different, but when that movie comes out it will be the absolute best version of Ant-Man that could have existed.”
Filming on Ant-Man wraps with this tweet from Reed
And that’s it! Principal photography on ANT-MAN is now complete. The ants have left the building. Stay tuned…
Ant-Man opens in #1 in the box office with an opening weekend gross of $58M. But what’s more exciting for fan boys is its end credit scene (spoiler!) that serves as a direct bridge to Captain America: Civil War.
Gillian Ang is the co-founder of Geek Crusade, a pop-culture news website dedicated to tracking all your favorite TV Shows and movies from rumour to screen. #Jointhecrusade for up to date fandom news for Sherlock, Game of Thrones, The Walking Dead, Marvel and DC movies and many, many more. Tweets go out at @geekcrusade. The views expressed are her own.