Marvel's Kevin Feige has said the studio's forthcoming Ant-Man movie will retain the "DNA" of Edgar Wright's vision, despite the British director's departure from the high-profile superhero film.
Wright walked away from Ant-Man after eight years of development last month, reportedly due to creative differences with Disney-owned Marvel. But in comments first reported by Total Film magazine, Feige told the CineEurope event in Barcelona that the screenplay he wrote with Joe Cornish would still form the basis of the final film.
"Ant-Man is still going to come out on 17 July [2015], we start filming this August," said the studio president. "Edgar Wright, who I've known for many years, who wrote the draft with Joe Cornish – much of the movie will still be based very much on that draft and the DNA of what Edgar has created up to this point, but Peyton Reed has stepped in [to direct].
"Adam McKay, a very good writer is reworking parts of the script – not the entirety, but some of it – and it's going to, we believe, come to life in the best version of Ant-Man that we could possibly make. Again Ant-Man is a very important character for us. We like that people don't necessarily know what it is, we like that it sounds sort of strange when you first hear the notion of Ant-Man, or a hero that can shrink, but he's a very key Marvel character: he's a key Avenger. He's an important character we want to bring into our universe, and [with] Paul Rudd, Michael Douglas and an amazing cast all set to start in August, we believe that we're on the road to the best version of Ant-Man that we could have."
Douglas, who will play Hank Pym in the film, nevertheless recently called the British film-maker's departure "disappointing". Wright's regular creative partner Simon Pegg said last week it was a "terrible shame" that cinema-goers will now never get to see the original plans for the movie, which he said were based on a "daring, fun, funny and hugely exciting" screenplay.
McKay is the writer and director of Anchorman and Talladega Nights, while Reed is best known for the Jim Carrey comedy Yes Man.
