According to Jeremy over at AICN, Adam McKay (the Anchorman films) is in talks to fill the vacuum that Edgar Wright created when he left Ant-Man. McKay was one of three filmmakers who were considered frontrunners for the job. The two others included We’re The Millers director Rawson Thurber and Zombieland director Ruben Fleischer. McKay seems the natural choice due to his experience working with Paul Rudd, who will be playing Scott Lang (the second Ant-Man).
While I think McKay is the best choice out of the three, he’s hardly the filmmaker that Edgar Wright is. You can call me a Wright fanboy, and perhaps you’re right, but you know it’s true. McKay has done action comedy before, but the distinct brand of visual humor and slapstick that Wright would have brought is basically lost. It’s also my understanding that the script has been given a thorough scrubbing by some currently uncredited writers, which will undoubtedly rinse a lot of the Wright/Cornish character away.
I know Kevin Feige won’t let this become another Apatow style riff-a-thon, and I’m sure the final product will be funny and just fine, but I’m still mourning the loss of a film that could have been a lot more than that. I suppose I should be glad that Marvel and Wright parted ways when they did, instead of letting him shoot his version, then yanking him off to recut and reshoot parts of his film.
In other Marvel news, Josh Brolin has been cast as Thanos for the MCU, and will appear in Guardians of the Galaxy and Avengers 3. I usually like Brolin, so I consider this good news.
EDIT: As of 10:06 AM Pacific Time, The Hollywood Reporter is saying that Adam McKay has turned the job down.