Marvel has announced the new director of recently Edgar Wright-less Ant-Man. Bring It On Director Peyton Reed is now in the driver’s seat. Also, as part of the announcement is formerly rumored director Adam McKay as script contributor.
This is kinda not much of a surprise since he and Wet Hot American Summer director David Wain were both recently (yesterday, actually) speculated to be on the target list. According to the short but sweet Marvel press release:
When Marvel’s Ant-Man hits theaters July 17, 2015, director Peyton Reed will help shepherd the hero into the Marvel Cinematic Universe with a cast led by Paul Rudd and Michael Douglas, with writer Adam McKay contributing to the film’s script.
Armed with the astonishing ability to shrink in scale but increase in strength, con-man Scott Lang (Rudd) must embrace his inner-hero and help his mentor, Dr. Hank Pym (Douglas), protect the secret behind his spectacular Ant-Man suit from a new generation of towering threats. Against seemingly insurmountable obstacles, Pym and Lang must plan and pull off a heist that will save the world.
It is interesting that they went with Reed over Wain, since the latter has a long and close working history with star Paul Rudd (The Ten, Wanderlust, Role Models, and the upcoming They Came Together). But it does make a bit more sense since Reed was in development early on for the Fantastic Four movie that was ultimately made by Tim Story. Kevin Feige, current head of Marvel Studios, was an Executive Producer on that movie with Avi Arad at the time.
The other interesting part is the inclusion of Adam McKay (Step Brothers, Anchorman, etc) as a contributing screenwriter – this could be to help mollify Rudd who signed on for one director and now has had the carpet pulled out from under him.
Regardless, this is probably the best that we could hope for from a very difficult situation. Reed is technically a pretty decent director, with a solid (mainstream) comedy background, and the inclusion of McKay means that they have some freedom to adjust at least the comedic tone of the piece to be a bit more accessible to Reed on a short ramp notice.