‘Ant-Man’ Could Get ‘Yes Man’ Helmer Peyton Reed or David Wain to Direct [Updated]
Marvel has yet to postpone 'Ant-Man' since Edgar Wright left the project two weeks ago, and though we've heard a number of names mentioned as possible replacements, with Adam McKay coming the closest to taking the job, no one has yet to sign on. The latest word suggests 'Yes Man' helmer Peyton Reed and 'Wet Hot American Summer' auteur David Wain are the new front-runners to take over the project.
This news about Reed first came from The Wrap, and then The Hollywood Reporter chimed in, confirming Peyton's front-runner status and added Wain to the mix. That said, Reed being up for the film and possibly taking the project on makes sense. The director had a breakout hit in 2000 with 'Bring it On,' but his followup, 2002's 'Down With Love,' was a box office bomb that sandbagged his period 'Fantastic Four' adaptation (which suggests that Reed does have an interest in making a comic book movie). Since then he rebounded slightly with 2006's 'The Break Up' and 2008's 'Yes Man,' but has mostly kept busy in television.
Wain also makes sense in that there was a sense that Adam McKay almost took it because Marvel wanted to make star Paul Rudd happy. Wain hasn't directed a film without Rudd, and considering his upcoming comedy 'They Came Together' is coming out day and date with the VOD release, he may need something splashy to get reasonable budgets for his comedies after 'Wanderlust' underperformed.
At this point it's hard to imagine the project moving forward at all without a serious delay. Considering that the action set pieces will have already been previsualized, and much of the cast is in place -- on top of having to work with a script that was rewritten in such a way that it made Edgar Wright walk away from the project -- surely anyone coming on would want to put some of their own spin on the material. But perhaps a delay could allow some of the actors to leave the project due to prior commitments. There's a lot of balls in the air, but currently 'Ant-Man' is still scheduled to be released July 17, 2015.