Edgar Wright is no longer directing Marvel’s Ant-Man due to “differences in their vision of the film”. The rumor going around was that Marvel wanted substantial last-minute rewrites from less experienced writers. But at least they still got to use Wright’s name to attract talent.
We’ve already seen Marvel’s statement on the matter, but Edgar Wright has remained silent . . . sort of. He did tweet (then delete) a photoshop of a frowning Buster Keaton holding a Cornetto, with the description, “Selfie.”
Keaton made 31 films as an independent director before signing with MGM, a decision he regretted. In Keaton’s words: “In 1928, I made the worst mistake of my career. Against my better judgment I let Joe Schenck talk me into giving up my own studio to make pictures at the booming Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer lot in Culver City. [… They] were picking stories and material without consulting me and I couldn’t argue ’em out of it. I’d only argue about so far and then let it go. They’d say, ‘This is funny,’ and I’d say, ‘It stinks.’ It didn’t make any difference. We did it anyhow.”
He deleted the tweet later, but we’ll consider that bridge burned. May it light his way to a more fitting movie.
Meanwhile, two other Marvel directors responded to the news via social media. Guardians of the Galaxy director James Gunn refused to take sides in this Facebook post:
Sometimes you have friends in a relationship. You love each of them dearly as individuals and think they’re amazing people. When they talk to you about their troubles, you do everything you can to support them, to keep them together, because if you love them both so much doesn’t it make sense they should love each other? But little by little you realize, at heart, they aren’t meant to be together – not because there’s anything wrong with either of them, but they just don’t have personalities that mesh in a comfortable way. They don’t make each other happy. Although it’s sad to see them split, when they do, you’re surprisingly relieved, and excited to see where their lives take them next.
It’s easy to try to make one party “right” and another party “wrong” when a breakup happens, but it often isn’t that simple. Or perhaps it’s even more simple than that – not everyone belongs in a relationship together. It doesn’t mean they’re not wonderful people.
And that’s true of both Edgar Wright and Marvel. One of them isn’t a person, but I think you get what I mean.
Avengers director Joss Whedon, on the other hand, said far less — or perhaps more — with this tweet:
Via Bleeding Cool and Cinema Blend