When Marvel released its first official credits for their upcoming super hero movie “Ant-Man,” the screenplay credits read: written by Adam McKay & Paul Rudd with a story written by Edgar Wright & Joe Cornish. Had the screenplay been that radically changed that Wright and Cornish, the original writers of the screenplay developed and rewritten over eight years, wouldn’t get a credit? That didn’t really pass the smell test a few months ago given that the WGA almost always favors the original writers that filled up the blank page. Given WGA rules, it’s perhaps no surprise that Marvel has changed their mind — and or Wright and Cornish fought for what they thought was theirs and won.
Apparently the dispute went down to WGA arbitration and Wright and Cornish won (via The Wrap). That means the screenplay is now credited to four writers and reads: Edgar Wright & Joe Cornish and Adam McKay & Paul Rudd. The story credit remains the sole work of Wright and Cornish. In case you were living on another planet in May of 2014, Wright abruptly pulled out of “Ant-Man” after Marvel had commissioned two in-house writers to do another pass on the screenplay, allegedly to bring in more Marvel Cinematic Universe elements and make the movie more uniform with Marvel films.
Curiously enough, those Marvel in-house writers, never named in the first report but described as “very low credit writers” at the time, aren’t anywhere in the credit process, and one has to closely wonder why they were tasked to rewrite Wright and Cornish’s script a few months before production and then only to give the screenplay to two different writers months later.
Meanwhile, “Ant-Man” star Paul Rudd recently turned up on Letterman and the talk show host unveiled the first clip. It shows Rudd as Scott Lang and demonstrates his thief roots; it’s the scene were Lang first finds and steals the Ant-Man costume. Is Ant-Man inherently silly? "I guess we all can’t wait to see how stupid this will be," Rudd joked to Letterman, his son apparently mocking the character too. BTW, there are rumors that the character may turn up in “Captain America: Civil War,” but consider that just a rumor for now. “Ant-Man” opens on July 17. Watch the first clip (via CBR) below and Rudd’s appearance on Letterman.