Marvel Studios has officially announced that Peyton Reed will replaced Edgar Wright as the director of their Phase Three kick-off superhero feature Ant-Man. Adam McKay, the director of the Anchorman movies and Step Brothers, is also coming aboard to rewrite the screenplay previously in the hands of Wright and Joe Cornish.

Reed’s past credits as a director include Bring It On, Down With Love, The Break-Up, and Yes Man. He’s accustomed to making entertaining comedies for major studios that are both visually and verbally inventive, so hopefully he will prove to be a worthy successor to the departing Wright. His hiring brings to an end a brief but exhaustive search for a viable replacement director that has sucked in and spit out names such as Ruben Fleischer, David Wain, Rawson Michael Thurber, Michael Dowse, and Nicholas Stoller. McKay himself was also mentioned as a possible pinch-hitter for Wright but bowed out close to signing a deal due to other directorial commitments.

Just when you thought there was no more hope for Ant-Man, two more hopefuls have been added to Marvel Studios’ director shortlist. With Edgar Wright, Adam McKay, and Rawson Thurberdirect Ghostbusters 3, it almost seemed like no one would even touch Ant-Man with a ten-foot pole.

However Neighbor‘s director Nick Stoller and Goon director Michael Dowse are now the new front runners to direct the film. Hit the jump for more info.

We could talk about whether Edgar Wright or Marvel Studios was wrong about the Ant-Man situation that led Wright to exit the movie all day, but it would really get us nowhere. If you don’t already know, on Friday Wright and Marvel announced that they would be parting ways on the project due to creative differences. The generic statement was then followed up by the rumor that Wright and co-writer Joe Cornish‘s script was given to two low-level writers in Marvel Studios, and after its review, Wright left, saying that it resembled nothing that was originally written. We couldn’t confirm if that was the real reason why the director left, but he did tweet (then deleted) an image of Buster Keaton holding a Cornetto ice cream cone a few days ago. The tweet signified Keaton’s regret signing on with MGM, having sacrificed his artistic integrity for money.

Now it has been confirmed that Wright did in fact leave Ant-Man over major changes to his script. Something he couldn’t stand for. Now that he is no longer directing the film, Marvel Studios is left to find a way to salvage the project. Hit the jump to see what needs to be done and how Guardians of the Galaxy may have led to the break up.

Edgar Wright and Marvel Studios may have parted ways due to reported major rewrites to the Ant-Man script, but it left the former without a project to work on. With the studio already interviewing a list of directors behind closed doors, Wright may have already found a new job just days after walking away from Ant-Man.

Deadline reports that Wright may shift his attention to directing The Night Stalker with Johnny Depp. Written by D.V. DiVicenti, the film is an adaptation of Kolchak: The Night Stalker, which centers on Kolchak, a tabloid news reporter whose investigations always lead to the supernatural and paranormal. Disney’s adaptation has been under development for quite some time, with Wright working on The World’s End and Ant-Man and Depp off working on other projects of his own. Now it looks like the pieces are finally falling into place. Hit the jump to learn more.

Last Friday, Edgar Wright, the globally adored filmmaker behind the Three Flavours Cornetto trilogy and Scott Pilgrim Vs. the World, abruptly departed the production of Ant-Man, the movie intended to be the kick-off to Marvel Studios’ Phase Three slate. During the weekend that followed, details over Wright’s surprising surrender of his directing duties emerged that suggested Marvel had taken the script out of his and co-writer Joe Cornish‘s hands and reportedly assigned it to Eric Pearson, writer of the Marvel One-Shot short films.

Unable to make a film that would have satisfied both the desires of Marvel and Disney and his own creative instincts, Wright decided to take a hike from the project he had been attached to on-and-off for the better part of the past eight years. Marvel already has his replacement cuing up in the bullpen as I write this, or so they claim. Meanwhile, Wright’s filmmaking colleagues/Marvel employees Joss Whedon and James Gunn have both expressed their sympathy and solidarity with his plight, but the man himself has remained silent on the issue until recently.