Paul Rudd on rewriting Ant-Man
As you already know, Edgar Wright departed Ant-Man at the last minute; with hardly any time before shooting began, the director left the project, with heavy creative differences cited to be the cause of the split. On came Peyton Reed as director, while star Paul Rudd (the miniature superhero himself) and Adam McKay (who’s directed Anchorman and The Other Guys) rewrote Wright’s and Joe Cornish’s screenplay. Speaking with Screen Rant, Rudd revealed how they sculpted Ant-Man‘s script into something Marvel were looking for:
‘The bones of this story, the foundation of it was there. Joe Cornish and Edgar Wright did such a great job. We certainly added things, enhanced some storylines, changed some things, and added some scenes. It was a fairly sizeable rewrite but the story is theirs.’
For Wright die-hards, this is a reassuring indication that the British director’s presence will still be felt in the movie. Rudd goes on:
‘As far as the specifics, there’s obviously some… [laughs] I’ve been instructed not to divulge, but it kind of came about organically. It was obviously never part of the plan when Edgar and Marvel parted ways, there had been a rewrite that was kind of a different take on the story. So when we were meeting directors and all sorts of stuff, Adam came in… I think it was more of an issue of this movie is going to start, and the script needs to get to a place that Marvel wants to take it, and so we just spent some time working on it together.’
Taken at face value, it seems that Rudd may have gotten into more work than he expected, having signed on only to act – but we’re happy that Rudd, a friend of Wright’s who he’s known for years, took on the task of rewriting the movie. However, it’s still up in the air concerning the film’s tone; with Wright’s involvement, it was a fantastic blend of his sense of humour and action that first got us interested. We just hope Peyton Reed’s movie can live up to at least some of that promise; but with Rudd on writing duties, we’re looking forward to the movie more than ever.
Ant-Man is released July 15.