By Kim Filchak

Good morning and welcome to Rampant Speculation, a new semi-daily/weekly column dedicated to all of the rumors floating around out there. Rumors and speculation are sort of like a journalistic version of two truths and a lie. Sometimes rumors are just crap we make up because it could conceivably happen in a parallel universe ruled by a sentient jellyfish oligarchy, sometimes they based on observations of arcane Hollywood maneuverings too byzantine for the non-Illuminati to follow and sometimes someone opens their mouth and words just seem to fall out of said mouth indicating that shenanigans are afoot. Rampant Speculation will hunt those rumors down and let you know just what mad conspiracy theories and casting choices are floating around the web, as well as corral all of the “actual news” news to at least give the dark corners of Internet’s wild fevered imaginings a bit of perspective. We will let you know who thinks what is about to happen and let you know if there has been any confirmation of said rumors by the people actually involved in the projects the rumors are about.

To start things off lets go hardcore and tackle the on-going drama over the divorce of Marvel Studios V Edgar Wright and what that means for the future of their progeny Ant Man, Edgar Wright, and other Marvel Studios projects.

Honestly there have been very few officially confirmed reasons given for the split other than “creative differences” the no fault/irreconcilable differences of Hollywood blockbuster divorce. The Latino Review, metaphorical internet patient zero for many Hollywood related rumors, reported as early as May 24th that it could be just a fundamental differing between the two parties over the script.

“6 weeks ago Marvel took the script off them and gave the writing assignment to two very low credit writers. One of the writers were from Marvel’s in house writing team. Edgar stayed cool, agreed to stay on the project, and read the draft.
The script came in this week and was completely undone. Poorer, homogenized, and not Edgar’s vision. Edgar met with Marvel on Friday to formally exit and the announcement went out directly after.
Edgar & Joe were upset by the sudden, out of nowhere lack of faith in them as filmmakers. Fiege had always batted for them but this felt like it came from the higher ups.
Where does this leave the cast? Well, it is believed they don’t have the option to walk like Edgar did.
That is pretty much the gist of it. I give props to Edgar for having integrity.
So what do you guys think? Chime in below and have a great holiday weekend. Any other developments on this story and I will update your guys.”

This rumor has just gotten some verification via The Hollywood Reporter when they spoke to an anonymous source about the split, though their take of it was not as negative as the one presented by The Latino Review.

“Kevin Feige (and his Lieutenants) run Marvel with a singularity of vision, but when you take a true auteur and throw him in the midst, this is what you get,” says a source. “They don’t want you to speak up too much or have too much vision. People who have never worked there don’t understand how they operate, bit if you trust them, they have an amazing track record.”
Ant-man’s tone might have been too quirky for the Marvel Universe. Insiders say Marvel feels it already might have gone outside its comfort zone with Augusts Guardians of the Galaxy, a space adventure heavy on the odd ball humor and featuring a talking raccoon. In 2011, Sony’s similarly comic The Green Hornet with Seth Rogan failed to launch the franchise for which the studio hoped.”

None of this should really come as a surprise. Marvel Studios has never shied away from parting with individuals who don’t align with their creative vision and Wright’s cinematic vision is completely his own. The fan-favorite director had been attached to the film since as far back as 2006, pre Iron Man and way before anyone even thought that the brand would support a unknown character like Ant Man so it is not strange that he would feel proprietorial about the story he wanted to tell. Wright is known for his quirky, original style of film making such as Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz and The Worlds End, and he had been all in from day one, co-writing the script with Joe Cornish, Ant Man was his baby. It easy to see why the film he was making and the film Marvel Studios wanted to slot into their Cinematic Universe would not match up and why it would probably be well-neigh impossible to reconcile those two competing visions.

These observations seem to be obliquely confirmed by way of the social media shenanigans of Avengers director & Marvel Studios in house conciliar Joss Whedon, Guardians of the Galaxy director James Gunn and by Wright himself. Gunn posted a heartfelt response on his Facebook account while both Whedon and Wright posted pictures on twitter in lieu of public statements, though Wright quickly deleted his.

Wright’s picture is especially revealing considering that Buster Keaton was considered an auteur in his time and deeply regretted going to work for the studio system that had no place for his singular vision. The difference between the two of course being Wright had the option of walking whereas Keaton was stuck there until his contract ran out because the old studio system sucked for the creative who worked within its confines.

Where does all of this leave the future of Ant Man and it’s confirmed July 17, 2015 release date? The Hollywood Reporter once again is here with not so much answers as a well informed educated guess.

“But while a source close to the studio says a search for a new director is underway, some observers believe Marvel president Kevin Feige will have a hard time pulling together the risky film in such a short time frame.

The challenges are clear in finding a director who can pick up a project infused with Wright’s vision for years. In addition, sources say the film’s key crew — its heads of departments — departed when it became clear production would not begin as scheduled July 28. Rudd’s reps say he’s still in, and a source close to the production says all key crew positions will be filled shortly.”

The next chapter in this ongoing real life geek soap opera came very close on the heels of the announcement of the Marvel/Wright split and some were quick to draw a line from point A to point Omacron Persei 8 without actually seeing if this was truly indicative of a full on creative rebellion at Marvel Studios. A day after the Ant Man announcement Variety broke the news that Drew Goddard was stepping down as show runner for the upcoming Netflix series Daredevil, the launch of Marvels five new Netflix exclusive series’ which will be built around Marvels “street level” heroes and culminate with the team up series The Defenders.

The reason for the exit is that Goddard had previously been committed to Sony’s Spiderman spin off The Sinister Six and due to scheduling conflicts could not actually complete both projects at the same time as he is not currently being played by Orphan Black’s Tatiana Maslany. Goddard wrote the screen play for Sinister Six a year ago and with the success of his directorial debut Cabin in the Woods it makes sense that Sony would tap him to direct this latest link their attempt to forge a MEGA franchise based on the Spiderman properties. While the timing of this announcement is a little hinky there is no reason to not believe this was a purely practical move on Goddard’s part as he jumped from a Netfix series to directing what will surely be a summer tent pole movie for Sony and a freaking massive paycheck for Goddard. This is a pretty straight forward and reasonable explanation and not any sort of grist for the elaborate conspiracy theory rumor mill the internet thrives on so of course what followed was a series of cries of “DOOM, DOOM I SAY!” for Marvel Studios and their current run of excellence. Which, um yeah. No, not yet, maybe even not for a very long time.

In the aftermath Marvel quickly announced that fellow Buffy and Joss-verse alum Steven S. DeKnight will be taking over as show runner for Daredevil and doubled down on good news by announcing that they had cast Charlie Cox (Remember his adorable face from Stardust?)  in the role of blind lawyer, masked hero and all around Mr. Sassypants Matt Murdock.

Finally there is one last bit of speculation to report on in what has turned out to be the all Ant Man inaugural edition of Rampant Speculation. Deadline has written a piece on what they think Edgar Wrights next move will be as he dives into a new project. They, in all of their infinite insider wisdom and access to secret sources, predict this project will be Kolchak: The Night Stalker. If this news is even remotely possible it freaking rocks, talk about your prefect fit of story and story teller. Dark, atmospheric, quirky humor with dead things? Yeah, pretty much the best rebound girlfriend ever for Wright. Let’s keep our finders crossed for these two crazy kids. Deadline seems to be just guessing here, but they also seem to know what they are talking about, even going so far has to attach Johnny Depp to the project.

“Wright has been developing this for Johnny Depp to play the tabloid news reporter, played by Darren McGavin in the original ’70s movie and series.”

And it looks like the time to move on Kolchek: The Night Stalker might be now.

“the script by D.V. DeVincentis is in strong shape. Of course, much of this depends on the availability of Depp, who’s playing Whitey Bulger in Black Mass right now and is supposed to make another Pirates Of The Caribbean movie either later this year or early next.”

 

That is where everything stands at this very second, internet time. We are still waiting for Marvel to announce their replacement director but when they do I am sure we will all have something to say about it.