Edgar Wright’s Next Film To Be 'The World’s End', Not Ant-Man

Working Title have announced a September start date for Edgar Wright’s next film, the long-awaited apocalyptic comedy "The World’s End".

By Mike Histon / May 11, 2012

Working Title have announced a September start date for Edgar Wrights next film, the long-awaited apocalyptic comedy "The Worlds End". The film will be the third chapter in Wrights unofficial trilogy (often referred to as the "Blood and Ice Cream" series, due to the appearance of different flavours of Cornetto in each film, as well as copious amounts of blood), that began in 2004 with rom-zom-com "Shaun of the Dead", and continued in 2007 with buddy cop action/comedy "Hot Fuzz". Co-written with star Simon Pegg, and featuring regular collaborator Nick Frost, "The Worlds End" has been teased by the trio for some time, but appears to have made a large step forward. According to Deadline, the plot is as follows:

20 years after attempting an epic pub crawl, five childhood friends reunite when one of them becomes hell bent on trying the drinking marathon again. They are convinced to stage an encore by mate Gary King, a 40-year old man trapped at the cigarette end of his teens, who drags his reluctant pals to their home town and once again attempts to reach the fabled pub, The Worlds End. As they attempt to reconcile the past and present, they realize the real struggle is for the future, not just theirs but humankinds. Reaching The Worlds End is the least of their worries.

The film is being produced by Working Titles Tim Bevan and Eric Fellner, and Wrights long-time producer Nira Park for Big Talk Productions. It has yet to receive the official greenlight from studio Universal, but due to the critical acclaim and commercial performance of the previous films, the pair having taken in $108 million worldwide between them. There are currently no mentions of further cast, but heres hoping some of Wrights "Spaced" crew sign on, particularly Peggs co-writer/co-star for the series, Jessica Hynes. Wrights last film was comedy-action-romance "Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World", a cult classic that sadly failed to match its critical performance with a complementary commercial one. Since completing the press for Pilgrim, Wright had kept quiet about his next directorial gig, leading to speculation that it might be Marvel Studio's "Ant-Man", which he has been co-scripting with "Attack The Block" writer-director Joe Cornish for some time. With the recent success of "The Avengers", and the presence of Ant-Man in The Avengers comic series, it looked even more possible that "Ant-Man" was indeed next on Wrights list, with Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige as being the closest its ever been, and Wright teasing the project through his Twitter feed. The tweet, Received this in the mail. What can it mean? accompanied the following picture: But with the announcement of "The Worlds End", it looks like "Ant-Man" is still some way off. Wright is known for giving projects their due time, spending six years working on "Scott Pilgrim", so pushing Ant-Man back does not necessarily mean dropping it, especially as Wright is already juggling several other projects, including adapting "The Night Stalker" series for Disney, with Johnny Depp to star, and "Baby Driver", a project Wright has talked about vaguely but kept under wraps for some time, not to mention executive producing for "Sightseers", the next film from Kill List director Ben Wheatley. What will follow The Worlds End remains to be seen, but for now, Working Title are pursuing a Spring 2013 release for the film.