So what did Adam McKay and “Ant-Man” star Paul Rudd change about the script for the Marvel project after Edgar Wright left over “creative differences”? McKay himself has opened up about the process in a new interview
“We added some new action beats,” the writer/director told Collider in a recent interview. “I grew up on Marvel Comics so the geek in me was in heaven that I got to add a giant action sequence to the movie; I was so excited. So we did, we added some cool new action. There”s a lot that”s already in there from what Edgar did, there”s a lot of dialogue and character still in there.”
Describing the split between McKay/Rudd-scripted action scenes and Wright-scripted action scenes in the final script as “half and half,” McKay noted a few other goals he and Rudd had in reshaping the film:
“We just tried to streamline it, make it cleaner, make it a little bigger, a little more aggressive, make it funnier in places-we just basically did a rewrite,” said the “Anchorman” writer/director. “Edgar had a really good script. But we just had a blast, and Rudd was just so much fun to write with. I walked away saying, ‘Hey, you and I gotta write a script together.””
As for Rudd, the actor had this to say about Wright's exit when we spoke with him at San Diego Comic-Con back in July: “It was pretty bumpy for sure. I'm really sad about it. Edgar's brilliant, and Edgar brought me on. Edgar's my friend. I mean, I still talk to Edgar just about every day, almost.”
“Ant-Man” is currently in production with director Peyton Reed (check out our Comic-Con interview with the filmmaker here). It's slated for release on July 17, 2015.
Weigh in with your thoughts on McKay's comments below.