For the second Friday in a row Marvel is dominating the headlines, and again it's Ant-Man at the center of a lot of it. Earlier today we learned that Josh Brolin would be voicing Thanos in Guardians of the Galaxy, and then a short list of contenders to replace Edgar Wright as director of Ant-Man emerged. On that list were Rawson Thurber, Adam McKay, and Ruben Fleischer, but now it's looking as if Thurber has the edge.
The Wrap reports Thurber as the frontrunner for the gig, sighting his willingness to "serve a studio's vision", something Wright was unwilling to do. It helps that Thurber is red hot after last year's $270M hit, We're the Millers. Those factors give him the edge over McKay and Fleischer, who perhaps have greater cred with the crowd Marvel is trying to reach. McKay would have been the big score but an imperfect fit as he is similar to Wright in wanting to tell his own stories. Besides, he's got more than enough to do already. He's producing an animated version of The Flintstones, has the financial world drama The Big Short developing, and he may direct his buddy Will Ferrell in Border Guards.
As for Fleischer, he's still in the mix but The Wrap says he has family commitments that could prevent him from jumping into the job right away, which is something Marvel clearly wants. A better fit may be Ghostbusters 3, which Fleischer is apparently being sought for but is still a long ways off from going into production.
Paul Rudd, Michael Douglas, Patrick Wilson, Evangeline Lily, and Michael Pena are presumably still on board for Ant-Man, which Marvel hopes to open July 17th 2015.
