Pixar Wants Marvel’s Ant-Man? And so it begins…

The last time we touched on the Ant-Man project by Marvel Studios here at Screen Rant was back in July when we reported that Edgar Wright, the man behind Hot Fuzz and Shaun of the Dead, would be prioritizing Baby Driver as his next film.

For Marvelites, that news meant that his Ant-Man live-action adaptation would be delayed for a while, likely to 2012 (where it tentatively sits now) or later.

Well, if Disney wants that movie out sooner… there’s always Pixar, right? I’m just kidding of course. Or am i? As it turns out, they’re interested in actually doing that movie…

With Edgar Wright currently hard-at-work on his comic book adaptation, Scott Pilgrim Vs The World, us Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz (both of which he directed) fans are left rightly wondering what he’s got lined up next. A lot of us assumed it would be the comic book adaptation, Ant-Man.

We were wrong.

We all remember the Writers Guild of America (WGA) strike that lasted 100 days (from late 2007 to early 2008) and cost Hollywood a couple of billion dollars in lost wages and revenue.  Sure, plenty of movies went into production anyway so there would be at least some new movies, but without writers to do onset re-writes has the quality suffered?

For example, the recent James Bond film Quantum of Solace; writer Paul Haggis turned in the script right before the WGA strike began in November 2007, and the film started shooting soon after.  Production was well underway by the time the strike ended, so it is possible they had some rewrites done, especially if there were any major reshoots.

In today’s Movie News Grab Bag, I’ve got a confirmation on the director and writer of the RoboCop sequel, X-Files: I Want To Believe is getting poor reviews, and my theory on why Ant-Man isn’t on the release slate yet.

RoboCop 4 (unless they ignore parts 2 and 3 and do a reboot): Darren Aronofsky, director of Pi and the one movie I liked but I’ll never watch again, Requiem For a Dream, has officially signed on to direct the RoboCop sequel, set further in the future after the program was shut down.  Will it be a new RoboCop, or will Murphy live again?  David Self (Road to Perdition) is writing the script.  Sounds like it’ll be fun, especially since it isn’t a remake!

Rumor is beginning to circulate about which of its top-shelf heroes Marvel plans to recruit for the upcoming, and much-hyped, Avengers movie. Some choices are obvious, due to not-so-subtle foreshadows dropped in both Iron Man and The Incredible Hulk. And with the internet recently abuzz with news that Marvel studios was pushing to snag A-list stars for its Captain America movie, that character’s inclusion in the Avengers project is certain. So that’s three Avengers we can expect to see, but who else will make the roster?

When it was announced that Edgar Wright would be writing the script for Marvel Comics’ superhero flick Ant-Man, the assumption was that it would be a comedy instead of a “regular” superhero movie.

If you don’t know who he is, Wright is the very funny British guy who wrote and directed the now classic Shaun of the Dead as well as the excruciatingly funny parody of buddy-cop-action films Hot Fuzz.

So what’s happening with Marvel Studios? We’ve got the invincible-looking Iron Man opening May 2, 2008 and The Incredible Hulk smashing into theaters June 13. But what about the other planned movies, such as Thor and Ant-Man, both rumored for release in 2009? What about other movies?

Marvel’s ultimate goal is to have total control over the filmed adaptations of their characters; mission accomplished. However, their other goal of two films per year appears to be in danger. Due to the Writers Strike debacle, things have been delayed. Unlike a major studio, which has billions to spend on 24/7 re-writes, Marvel Studios only has about $525 million from Merrill Lynch, though that number could be higher with other investments, with movie budgets ranging from $45 million to $165 million. Paramount Pictures is distributing (except Hulk, which is Universal–a holdover from the Ang Lee film).

How the heck did I miss this? The boys behind Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz are going to be making the Ant-Man movie! For those of you who don’t know, Ant-Man is a Marvel Comics character who uses technology which allows him to shrink down to the size of an insect and can also communicate with the little creepy-crawlers.

Yes, not exactly an “A-List” superhero, but he was a member of The Avengers.