Now that Scott Pilgrim is done and dusted with, everyone is looking to see what Edgar Wright’s next directorial project will be. It seems that since Pilgrim’s DVD release, Wright has confirmed that he is beginning a new re-write on his and Joe Cornish’s Ant-Man script.
Set up way back when in 2006 at Marvel Studios, Ant-Man has been gestating for a while, Wright first publicly spoke about bringing his pitch to Marvel at the 2006 San-Diego Comic Con! First drafts were put together during the summer of 2007 (reportedly written in Quentin Taratino’s guest house!) but work broke off in 2008 to make way for Wright and Cornish’s work on the Tintin script; but now Wright is finally picking up that pen/opening that macbook again to begin work on the 2nd draft.
Wright has always emphasised the importance of scripting to a film’s success so I wouldn’t expect any behind the scenes filming snaps just yet, plus Joe Cornish has to make room for his own directorial debut released in April (Attack The Block looks ace) but Wright has been talking about the style of the film. He says that it’ll be humorous yet less overtly comedic than his previous work and it will take a different spin on the traditional origin story (a plot point which cut the character from next years Avengers movie).
Ant-Man is hardly a Marvel tent pole release so I wouldn’t expect it on our cinema screens till at least 2013, and the character’s general public obscurity will have a large effect on its budget and release strategy, but, whilst everyone sees Ant-Man’s low profile as a hindrance, couldn’t this maybe just be the key to its success?
Wright has the chance to put an interesting spin on a largely unknown character’s story, with no public pre-conceptions to contend with and without the weight of a high profile summer release slot on his shoulders. After his work on Scott Pilgrim we know he can do action, so lets just hope he sticks with Ant-Man and doesn’t give it all up and take the vacant directors chair currently hanging over Iron Man 3.
Will Pond.
