The ‘Ant-Man’ Screenplay is Credited to Adam McKay and Paul Rudd

For a little hero, ‘Ant-Man’ has already faced some pretty big obstacles in his journey from comic to movie. Marvel’s ‘Ant-Man’ film was first announced all the way back in 2006, and developed alongside the very first ‘Iron Man,’ but it’s only coming out now, nine years later. Much of that time it was under the direction of Edgar Wright, who developed the film’s story with ‘Attack the Block’ filmmaker Joe Cornish and cast Paul Rudd as his diminutive Avenger. But just as ‘Ant-Man’ was about to finally go into production, Wright left the project over creative differences with Marvel, who eventually replaced him with Peyton Reed, while handing over Wright and Cornish’s script to Rudd and his ‘Anchorman’ director Adam McKay for revisions.

After a nine-year wait, ‘Ant-Man’ is finally approaching launch; yesterday, Marvel unveiled the film’s first teaser and poster. They also issued a press release with the film’s official synopsis and list of credits—which attributes its story to Wright and Cornish, and its screenplay to McKay and Rudd. Here’s the synopsis:

The next evolution of the Marvel Cinematic Universe brings a founding member of The Avengers to the big screen for the first time with Marvel Studios’ ‘Ant-Man.’ Armed with the astonishing ability to shrink in scale but increase in strength, master thief Scott Lang must embrace his inner-hero and help his mentor, Dr. Hank Pym, protect the secret behind his spectacular Ant-Man suit from a new generation of towering threats. Against seemingly insurmountable obstacles, Pym and Lang must plan and pull off a heist that will save the world.

McKay’s work on the script has been no secret, but I’ve been curious to see just how much of his material would actually wind up onscreen (not to mention what, if anything, would remain from Wright and Cornish’s draft). The credit for Rudd is interesting too; to date, his only previous writing credit was one for the screenplay for his buddy comedy ‘Role Models,’ which he wrote with David Wain, Ken Marino, and Timothy Dowling.

I’m still hugely disappointed we won’t see Wright’s ‘Ant-Man.’ But an ‘Ant-Man’ that feels like an Adam McKay comedy? That’s pretty interesting, if also pretty unlikely; it’ll probably feel like every other Marvel movie with a little more self-referential humor. But a(n ant-)man can dream. ‘Ant-Man’ opens on July 17.