Well, this blows.

Edgar Wright, the Shaun of the Dead and Scott Pilgrim director who's been working on a feature film adaptation of Marvel's Ant-Man for the better part of a decade, has parted ways with the studio over what a press release describes as "differences in their vision of the film."

Marvel has established a tradition of "casting" its library of superheroes with idiosyncratic filmmakers like Shane Black (Iron Man 3), Kenneth Branagh (Thor) and James Gunn (Guardians of the Galaxy), but nothing seemed more perfect than deploying Wright on Ant-Man. The director's visionary action style and penchant for quirky humor made him the perfect fit for a live-action movie about a superhero as far-fetched and potentially comical as Ant-Man, and Wright had began work on the film all the way back in 2006.

It was confirmed this year that Wright and Marvel had cast Paul Rudd in the lead role of Scott Lang, the second Ant-Man from the comics, and Michael Douglas as Hank Pym, the original Ant-Man who invented the size-changing technology.

The  separation news came in the form of a very direct statement from Marvel on Friday:

Marvel and Edgar Wright jointly announced today that the studio and director have parted ways on ANT-MAN due to differences in their vision of the film. The decision to move on is amicable and does not impact the release date on July 17, 2015. A new director will be announced shortly.

The nature of the creative differences has not been disclosed, but it's known that due to its long development timeline, Ant-Man's script had to be revised to accommodate more recent events in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Though not the first time Marvel and a director have parted ways (Patty Jenkins left Thor: The Dark World during pre-production), this disappointing news comes as a great shock considering how much work Wright and Marvel had put into the film, and how well fans reacted to the test footage screened at Comic-Con.

 

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