Ant-Man: David Wain, Peyton Reed Rumored to Be In the Mix To Direct

Peyton Reed and David Wain are the new frontrunners to direct Marvel's Ant-Man, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

While conversations are apparently still ongoing with a number of directors, many of the stronger voices that have been mentioned previously may be out in favor of Wain or Reed, neither of whom have ever done a summer tentpole like this but both of whom have experience with expensive productions and fairly short production times.

Wain, like Adam McKay who reportedly almost took the job shortly after it was vacated by Edgar Wright, has worked with star Paul Rudd in the past, most notably on Role Models and most recently on They Came Together.

Reed has a solid comedy background, with movies like Jim Carrey's Yes Man and Bring It On in his resume. Years ago, he was also involved in pitching a Fantastic Four film (Reed's pitch stalled, and the film went to The Smurfs's Raja Gosnell and then finally to Tim Story, who actually made two FF movies).

Wright, who had been involved with the film since 2006, left abruptly last month, citing creative differences with Marvel. The most common version of the story is that the studio demanded significant, last-minute script changes before the film went into production to meet its July 2015 release date (which Marvel claims the movie will still hit). A number of directors have reportedly already passed on it, and 22 Jump Street and The Lego Movie filmmakers Phil Lord and Chris Miller -- fan favorites to take over the film -- said in a new interview that they thought Marvel would be best served to leave the propertly alone for a few years and try again.

"It seems like a tough person's shoes to step into, you know what I mean?" Miller said. "It's tough to have that as the specter hanging over, what would have been, and what could have been. It seems kind of tough."

"A logical choice would be Edgar Wright…To finish an Edgar Wright film," Lord said. "I mean, [Wright's co-writer] Joe Cornish, that would make a lot of sense. Or if they, like, decided to abandon ship and try again years from now it would make more sense."