Kevin Feige spoke out today about what Peyton Reed is bringing to the Ant-Man movie, saying that it is working better than ever.
Kevin Feige and Marvel Studios’ big night may not be until next week, but the head honcho of the biggest franchise(s) in Hollywood is already getting fans and the press excited, such as when he talked this morning in London with IGN. While they were at an event screening of footage from Guardians of the Galaxy, the line of questions turned invariably to Ant-Man and its new director Peyton Reed.
“Peyton is someone that I’ve been a fan of for a long time,” Feige told IGN.“People may not remember, though probably your readers remember, that he was attached to Fantastic Four more than 10 years ago. We spent a lot of time together… and I got along with Peyton very, very well and he had awesome ideas and an awesome vision for the movie, and for various reasons he ended up leaving that movie...”
Feige even admits that he has talked with Reed during pitches on several projects since, including Guardians of the Galaxy. When the need to replace Edgar Wright on Ant-Man finally came up, Feige underscores that it was not a “slam-dunk” on getting Reed to take over Wright’s production, and that they had to woo him in the face of great online skepticism.
“He looked at everything, he talked with us, and he said ‘Number one, I agree with the direction you’re going in. And number two, I can add to it.’ And he has – the movie is in as good a shape as it’s ever been right now.”
These are strong words, especially since Marvel has been patiently developing this version of the film with Edgar Wright for almost eight years. But Feige reiterated while it is still in line with Wright’s original pitch and entire template, the movie is now “the absolute best version of what that movie could have been.”
Of course, any fan should give Reed and Marvel the benefit of the doubt and wait to see the finished film on its own merits in July 2015 (or at least for whatever Feige likely has up his sleeve for San Diego Comic-Con this month). Still, the upcoming project is always going to in great shape, right?
Ant-Man hits the big screens on July 17, 2015.
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