Home / Casting / Director / BREAKING: Marvel’s Ant-Man to be Directed by Peyton Reed

BREAKING: Marvel’s Ant-Man to be Directed by Peyton Reed

By Jack Gattanella on Sun 8 Jun, 2014

peytonreed

And so it finally is official, this from a statement Marvel posted yesterday: Peyton Reed will be directed the Ant-Man movie starring Paul Rudd, Evangeline Lilly, Michael Pena, Cory Stoll and Michael Douglas as Hank Pym, which is scheduled to open in theaters July 17th, 2015.

Don’t know who Peyton Reed is?  A lot of audiences won’t know the name off the top of their collective heads, and he hasn’t made a whole lot of distinctive films; he’s mainly helmed in the past fifteen years studio romantic comedies and light fare like the Doris Day/Rock Hudson homage Down with Love, The Break-Up (that was a little more dramatic but still a Vince Vaughn/Jennifer Anniston comedy), Yes Man starring Jim Carrey, and the cheerleading comedy Bring it On (the first one).  He also has a background in directing TV comedy like Upright Citizen’s Brigade, Mr. Show with Bob & Dave, and episodes of The New Girl.

Not exactly an auteur like Edgar Wright, or known for action for the most part.  At this point, following through a multitude of potential directors (some reported and rumored so quickly we didn’t have time to report on them), Marvel just wants to get the movie made and have someone who can do it on time and on schedule.  And the other addition in the script process (and likely re-writing the previous draft by Wright and Joe Cornish) will be Adam McKay – who was up to direct but then turned it down – which is likely a move to please Rudd and, I suspect, a way of injecting a lot of room for improvisation on the set.

There is also a new synopsis for the film via Marvel’s website:

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.

The other thing that must be kept in mind is how much Disney/Marvel want the film to tie in to the other films – this is the first picture to follow up Avengers 2, which kicks off next summer’s blockbuster roster – and that Ant-Man would likely join the Avengers at some point (or, perhaps, could be featured in the “stinger” in the end-credits of Whedon’s film).

Whether Reed can match up to the likes of the other director’s in the MCU, both talented (Jon Favreau) and, as with Reed, a hired gun (Alan Taylor), remains to be seen, though it’s also curious that Marvel announced the news on Saturday, when no one is really paying attention to movie news (Monday would’ve been more ideal, or they wanted to keep it quiet as to not upset fans of Wright).

Have at it in the comments, comics fans, or of course on Twitter @ you can start a good run of comments like on the Slash-Film site.

Jack is a graduate of film studies from William Paterson University in Wayne, NJ, and is currently seeking his MFA in Screenwriting at the Academy of Art. He is a screen-writer, film critic, director, and editor, and has also done camera-work for web-series, doccumentaries and shorts. Currently Jack is seeking distribution for his feature film drama, “Green Eyes“, co-produced a sci-fi feature, Audrey Lorea‘s ‘Heaven is Now.‘, as well as a comedy pilot called ‘Losers’ which is being shopped around to networks. He is also a contributing writer for the sites FocusFilm.co.uk, Film Forward, and some of his other reviews can be found on his blogcinetarium.blogspot.com. Jack is a vociferous fan of films and will watch anything interesting, foreign and domestic. He survives by his wife, a political science professor, and currently resides in Little Ferry, New Jersey, USA.
Related ItemsAnt-ManAvengersCory StollEvangeline LillyMarvelMichael DouglasPaul RuddPeyton Reed