Ant-Man

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Exclusive: Who Might Direct Ant-Man?
First word on the new Marvel movie.

It was recently announced that Marvel Entertainment has secured a $525 million loan package that will allow it to produce 10 films based on its comic book characters, specifically Captain America, the Avengers, Nick Fury, Black Panther, Cloak & Dagger, Dr. Strange, Hawkeye, Power Pack, Shang-Chi and Ant-Man. Paramount will distribute the films, which will carry a price tag somewhere between $50 million-$165 million each.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, "Marvel chairman and CEO Avi Arad said he officially will begin attaching scriptwriters to all 10 projects beginning Wednesday and that, though he has a wish list, he's unsure which movie will be released first."

IGN FilmForce has learned that British filmmaker Edgar Wright is poised to direct Ant-Man. Wright apparently plans on making Ant-Man a comedy.

Neither Wright's reps nor Marvel responded to our inquiries for comment.

Wright wrote and directed the zombie laffer Shaun of the Dead. He also has been linked with the upcoming projects Hot Fuzz and Scott Pilgrim's Precious Little Life.

In the comics, Ant-Man was Dr. Henry "Hank" Pym; he also fought crime under the pseudonyms of Giant-Man, Goliath and Yellowjacket. As The Marvel Database reminds us, Pym discovered a group of subatomic particles and produced two serums from them, one that could reduce someone or something in size and another to restore them.

Testing the serum on himself, Pym was reduced "to the size of an insect. Pym became entrapped in an anthill and was pursued by the ants within. ... Inspired by his experience in the anthill, Pym undertook a study of ants, and theorized that ants communicate through psionic/electrical waves transmitted through their antennae. After months of work, Pym succeeded in creating his first 'cybernetic helmet,' which would enable him to communicate with ants through transmitting and receiving psionic/electrical waves. Thinking that someday he might want to use the shrinking potion on himself again, Pym also designed a protective costume for himself."

Pym eventually became a costumed crime-fighter, serving with The Avengers and also marrying (and later divorcing) fellow superhero Janet Van Dyne, a.k.a. the Wasp.

With Pym's blessing, Scott Lang later became Ant-Man II; he died in action.

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Wright apparently plans on making Ant-Man a comedy.

I should hope so.

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Comic-Con 2006: Ant-Man Panel
Director Edgar Wright shares big details on the little movie.

After his success with Shaun of the Dead, the entire catalog of Marvel characters was open up to Director Edgar Wright. He chose to make a movie about Ant-Man. Wright spoke at the first ever Marvel Studios panel at this past weekend's San Diego Comic-Con and he explained his decision: "In terms of high concept and character, it intrigued me."

Stressing it won't be a spoof, Wright's vision for the film is an action-adventure with some comedic elements. "The idea of Ant-Man is how kick-ass it would be to be small."

The film, still very early in production, looks to incorporate two incarnations of the tiny Marvel hero: Henry Pym and Scott Lang. "We wanted it to be about the guy who steals the suit," said Wright, further describing the story as a "Cold War handover." He sees the movie encompassing the 60s Ant-Man as well as recent incarnations.

In terms of the costume Ant-Man will wear, Wright said, "I like the diving bell kind of outfit. It's a way to get retro cool into a contemporary story."

Will Ant-Man include other Marvel heroes? Probably not. "One of the things I don't want to do," Wright said, "is get into the whole Marvel history... The last thing I want to do is try to cram too much in and fail."

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Exclusive: Edgar Wright Talks Ant-Man

Director Edgar Wright was at Comic-Con in San Diego this year for two reasons, to talk about his second feature film, Hot Fuzz, a police action spoof once again with Simon Pegg and Nick Frost, and to talk about the new movie he would be directing for Marvel Studios, based on the Marvel superhero Ant-Man.

Not to be confused with Marvel's other insect-based superhero, Ant-Man has the power to make himself really small and, if that isn't power enough for you, he can communicate with ants!

No, I know it doesn't sound too exciting, but it somehow makes sense when you realize that Wright is the director who first brought zombies to the world of romantic comedies with Shaun of the Dead. And he's looking to adapt Bryan Lee O'Malley's indie graphic novel "Scott Pilgrim's Previous Little Life" to the big screen, as well.

Superhero Hype!: Is it true that you brought "Shaun of the Dead" to Comic-Con two years ago?
Edgar Wright: Yeah, it was probably the first big public screenings that we did here.

SHH!: Did you actually do a panel for it?
Wright: Yes, in this room here two years ago. Same slot even.

SHH!: Oh really? The Sunday slot? So you're kind of used to that then.
Wright: It's cool. It's still exciting being here. I was with Simon [Pegg] two years ago, so it's Nick's first time.

SHH!: You seem to be taking everything that's gone on since then in stride.
Wright: The Marvel thing is interesting, 'cause like I was saying in the [Marvel] panel yesterday, it was weirdly, a treatment we'd written that before "Shaun," so it's kind of odd to come back to that. Basically, this writer Joe Cornish... Before we'd written or maybe around the same time we'd written the first draft of "Shaun," I was in L.A. and I'd met with Artisan and at the time, they had some of Marvel's lesser-known titles, and they asked if I was a Marvel comics fan, and I said that I always was a Marvel Comics kid, and they said, "Are you interested in any of these titles?" The one that jumped out was "Ant-Man" because I had the John Byrne "Marvel Premiere" from 1979 that David Micheline had done with Scott Lang that was kind of an origin story. I always loved the artwork, so when I saw that, it just immediately set bells going off kind of thinking going "Huh, that could be interesting. " So we actually wrote a treatment for it, which was never sent to Marvel. It was like more our pitch on the thing. Ant-Man was basically doing a superhero film in invert commas, and it takes place in another genre, almost more in the crime-action genre, that just happens to involve an amazing suit with this piece of hardware. The thing I like about Ant-Man is that it's not like a secret power, there's no supernatural element or it's not a genetic thing. There's no gamma rays. It's just like the suit and the gas, so in that sense, it really appealed to me in terms that we could do something high-concept, really visual, cross-genre, sort of an action and special effects bonanza, but funny as well. There will definitely be a humorous element to it as well. So we wrote this treatment revolving around the Scott Lang character, who was a burglar, so he could have gone slightly in the Elmore Leonard route, and they came back saying, "Oh, we wanted to do something that was like a family thing." I don't think it ever got sent to Marvel. So then about two years ago I met Kevin Feige and Ari here and they said, "Are you interested in any Marvel titles?" and I said, "Weirdly enough, I did something for you," [At this point, writer Joe Cornish walks into the room with a camera, because he's also the official Hot Fuzz "blogographer."]...so we basically said, "Do you want to read the thing that we did three years ago?" So they read it and that's kind of the basis for what we're working on.

SHH!: So Marvel contacted you later about Ant-Man?
Wright: No, not specifically about Ant-Man. I just brought it up because they asked me if I was interested in any Marvel titles, and I had written a treatment for Ant-Man three years ago, but that was the first they had ever heard of it.

SHH!: Did you end getting the exact same call and the exact same meeting a second time?
Wright: No, I just met them here at the Comic-Con for a general meeting, talking about Marvel Comics, and the fact that they were just really intrigued that they had no idea that I had written a treatment for Ant-Man.

SHH!: I think it's interesting that the Ant-Man you knew and grew up with was the Scott Lang one, since most people I would think know the one who hung with the Wasp in "Tales to Astonish."
Wright: Well, the thing is that what we want to do, the idea that we have for the adaptation is to actually involve both. Is to have a film that basically is about Henry Pym and Scott Lang, so you actually do a prologue where you see Pym as Ant-Man in action in the 60's, in sort of "Tales to Astonish" mode basically, and then the contemporary, sort of flash-forward, is Scott Lang's story, and how he comes to acquire the suit, how he crosses paths with Henry Pym, and then, in an interesting sort of Machiavellian way, teams up with him. So it's like an interesting thing, like the "Marvel Premiere" one that I read which is Scott Lang's origin, it's very brief like a lot of those origin comics are, and in a way, the details that are skipped through in the panels and the kind of thing we'd spend half an hour on.

SHH!: Obviously, you're going to need a lot of ants, so are you going to hire an ant wrangler or get into the whole CGI thing?
Wright: Oh, yeah, yeah, totally. Visually, the two kind of powers... aside from the shrinking--obviously the shrinking is incredibly visual, the fact that he can shrink and enlarge, kind of mid-combat, it's not like a peril thing where he shrinks and then he's stuck there. It's not like "Honey I Shrunk the Kids" or "The Incredible Shrinking Man", he can enlarge as well. So the thing that really appealed to me, the idea of doing action scenes, fight scenes, like hand-to-hand combat scenes with a protagonist who can shrink to an inch high and still have the same punching weight, and then spring back up up mid-fight. So I think you could do some crazy Jackie Chan sh*t with that.

SHH!: Some people might not think much about the character or even know about him, so is there less pressure because it's not "The Incredible Hulk" or "Spider-Man?"
Wright: Yeah, yeah, I think so in way. This is something me and Joe were talking about... [urges Joe to come over for his first ever interview]... come and join us! That's what is interesting in a way is that I think a lot of the really successful comic book adaptations, are either from books. I think "Spider-Man" and "Batman Begins" are kind of the two exceptions, but prior to that, some of the best comic book adaptations were either of lesser-known titles, like "Men in Black" or they were films that traded so much on comics without actually being an adaptation like "RoboCop" and "The Matrix," they're both kind of steeped in comic book lore. "Robocop" probably wouldn't have existed without "Judge Dredd." "The Matrix" may not have existed without a lot of Anime and stuff... or Grant Morrison. [Laughs very loudly at his own joke.]

SHH!: How did you two guys meet and start working together?
Wright: Well, Joe is a very talented, multi-hyphenate. Joe is like a writer and director, and can we say that you're a comedian as well?
Joe Cornish: Yeah.
Wright: And a presenter. What else?
Cornish: No, I wouldn't say presenter, but I had a TV show on just before and during "Spaced" basically.
Wright: Yeah, right around the time "Spaced" was on, Joe had a show on called "The Adam and Joe Show" which was very, very funny indeed and very sharp. We kind of met around that time and became really good friends and always wanted to write something together.

SHH!: I can guess that you're a comics fan, so do you just come at this from your comics background?
Cornish: Yeah, pretty much, absolutely, and just like Edgar, a complete movie, pop culture fanatic basically. Just to get the chance to do Ant-Man is just amazing.
Wright: You like the films, and you like the music... and we both like ants.
Cornish: I like the films and comics, anything that doesn't take too much effort... and we're obsessed with ants.

SHH!: You're going to have to like ants, because you're going be spending a lot of time with them.
Wright: I'm going to have ants... no, I'm not going to say "ants in the pants"... too obvious.

SHH!: Do they even have ants in England?
Wright: Do we have ants in England?!? [by now, Nick Frost has joined us intrigued by the ant conversation]
Cornish: We have many species.
Nick Frost: That's a joke, right?
Wright: I'm not sure we have Fire Ants. No.
Frost: No.
Cornish: No, we have completely different species of ants
Wright: Nick Frost is going to name them.
Frost: I think they just go from "Ant 1" to "Ant 30" and then they... [breathes out in an exasperated way from being put on the spot like that] I never felt so low.
[Wright laughs at this and they begin playing table hockey with the microphone.]

SHH!: Since we're talking about comic books, what is going on with the "Shaun of the Dead" comic book that IDW did?
Wright: We didn't really... the truth of it, with some of the spin-off things, you can't necessarily say "no" to people doing stuff, because with some kind of rights of merchandise, it's out of your hands. In the case with IDW, they wanted to do it, and we basically said we would do it as long as we could have approval on it basically, and I have to say they did a really cool job. I thought that Zach Harris' artwork was great, was really cool. So it was interesting. I always found adaptations of films were kind of weird. When I was a kid, I never used to like reading the film adaptations like "Star Wars." It felt kind of odd. In the case of "Shaun," it was almost kind of like... [Wright gets distracted when Kornish pulls out some DVDs.] What is that? Oh, no way, they're out already? That's brilliant!

SHH!: Are you still interested in doing comic stuff?
Wright: It's difficult time-wise. Simon is really interested in writing something original and stuff, but it's just finding the time, really.

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Exclusive: Edgar Wright Talks Ant Man
And he's working with Simon Pegg again
Source: Empire Online

Despite grabbing gold at the Sony Ericsson Empire Awards, Hot Fuzz helmer Edgar Wright clearly isn't ready to rest on his laurels just yet. He's ready to roll on a number of projects starting off with an adaptation of minuscule superhero Ant Man.

He's been attached to the big-screen version of Marvel's tiny comic book superhero - a character who can communicate with insects - for a while and the time, it seems, has come for the little man to make his move towards the big screen.

"It's written and we're doing a second draft of it," said Wright. "It's going to be less overtly comedic than anything else I've ever done. It's more of a full-on action adventure sci-fi film but with a comedic element – in the same spirit of a lot of escapist fare like that. It's certainly not a superhero spoof or pastiche and it certainly isn't a sort of Honey I Shrunk The Kids endeavour at all."

He's not got anybody in mind to play comicdom's tiniest hero just yet, so the big question at the moment is what incarnation will the hero take - the goody-two-shoes scientist Hank Pym originated by comic legends Stan Lee and Jack Kirby or Ant Man mark-II, the more roguish Scott Lang?

"Ah well, it could be Scott Lang, it could be Hank Pym, it could be both – okay it is both, now there's an exclusive for you."

While Wright puts the finishing touches to his script with co-writer Joe Cornish, he's got some other projects on the boil, including another collaboration with Simon Pegg. Could this be the final part of his so-called Three Flavours Cornetto trilogy?
"That's one of the things that we're going to do with Working Title who we've just signed a two-picture deal with," he said. "It will have comedy and a cross-genre in a similar way.

So how will it compare to Hot Fuzz and Shaun Of The Dead?

"Well, it'll be a trilogy in tone but I can't say any more than that. If you announce what the subject matter is, it can still be 18 months off and by that point everybody would be sick of it."

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Would Pixar Make Edgar Wright's Ant Man?

Entertainment Weekly report, amid their Marvel/Disney coverage, that "Pixar is said to already be eyeballing an Ant-Man movie."

Marvel Studios has had an Ant Man movie in development for a while, with a script by Spaced/Shaun of The Dead/Hot Fuzz/Scott Pilgrim's Edgar Wright Jr and Joe Cornish, to be directed by Wright. And probably with Simon Pegg in the lead.

As of last year, Wright and Cornish were working on a second draft of the script, while Wright described as "It's going to be less overtly comedic than anything else I've ever done. It's more of a full-on action adventure sci-fi film but with a comedic element – in the same spirit of a lot of escapist fare like that. It's certainly not a superhero spoof or pastiche and it certainly isn't a sort of Honey I Shrunk The Kids endeavour at all."

Will Pixar steal a jump? Could Pixar even use Wright and Cornish's work? While Pixar's work is normally family-friendly, both Wright and Cornish's work is usually far edgier, and one would expect even a superhero film co-written by the pair to have an older audience in mind.

Also Pixar do seem to have a  philosophy against projects "Not Made Here", as the people who worked on the original Toy Story 3 for Disney will tell you. Ant Man being a Marvel character might be as far as Pixar might stretch to incorporate other people's ideas, and ther Wright/Cornish treatment could be tossed as a result.

So let it be said loud enough. Let it reach John Lasseter's ears by one means or another. I would love to see a Pixar Ant Man. I would love to see a Wright/Cornish Ant Man more. A Pixar/Wright/Cornish Ant Man would be perfection. And I don't think I'm alone...

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Edgar Wright Teases 'Ant-Man'; Could It Be Marvel's Other 2014 Movie?
Source: Playlist

Unless you were living in the alternate dimension created by the Tesseract cube this weekend, you probably know that the jolly green Hulk and his fellow "The Avengers" swept any box office competition away with a record-breaking $200.3 million opening weekend. While the public is certainly lapping up director Joss Whedon's superhero opus, they're also eager to see what's next from Marvel Studios. Many are wondering if we'll be seeing more heroes making their way to the screen, with a number of potential candidates in the mix. Well, one potential frontrunner has re-entered the rumor mill thanks to a tweet from "Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World" helmer Edgar Wright on Saturday.

With Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige recently saying that the Edgar Wright and "Attack the Block" filmmaker Joe Cornish penned script for the studio's ant loving hero "Ant-Man" was "the closest its ever been" to heading into production, Wright wasted little time teasing his followers this weekend as he posted an image of a very intriguing piece of art containing the image of a man, an ant, and what's very clearly our hero "Ant-Man." Wright captioned the photo, "Received this in the mail. What can it mean?" What a tease, though is it indeed some sort of gift from Feige letting Wright know that it's time to roam the mounds to give "Ant-Man" life or did Wright just receive a lovely present from one of his many adoring fans?

While we eagerly anticipate further news on "Ant-Man," Feige has recently been revealing Marvel's future plans at the very height of all this superhero excitement, though once again he's remaining coy on Marvel's planned 2014 releases. What we do know is that "Captain America 2" is currently planting a big old American flag right in the ground of its previously announced April 4, 2014 date, but Marvel and distributor Disney have a prime May 30, 2014 slot readied for a currently mysterious movie. Feige told Crave Online back in April that, "We know what our second movie in 2014 is going to be, but we haven't announced it yet," to which he added that currently talked about features like "Ant-Man," "Dr. Strange," "The Inhumans," and "The Guardians of the Galaxy" are all on the table in varying stages of production. He does perhaps rule out "Dr. Strange" as a possibility for the May 30th date, saying to a Chicago NBC affiliate that bringing in various aspects of the universe takes time. "The magic side, again, it's going to be 'Doctor Strange.' Someday we will introduce that side of it, and when we go over that it's going to be through the eyes of Stephen Strange. When that happens, we don't know," he explained. Could Wright's time to shine at Marvel be around the corner?

The mystery surrounding Marvel's upcoming projects doesn't end there either. While Feige continues to be the reliable talking head for Marvel, he recently spoke to SuperHeroHype, where he gave accolades to his fellow creative types and executives and hinted that Marvel Co-President Louis D'Esposito --who's executive produced all the movies—"directed a little something that we're going to reveal in the coming months." Now this could just be a throwaway short in the vein of the S.H.I.E.L.D. Agent Coulson adventures that can be found on the "Thor" and "Captain America: The First Avenger" DVD releases, but perhaps it could be something more. There are no details besides that, but right now we'd assume it's something that will pop up on the "The Avengers" home entertainment release.

Marvel is certainly weaving an intricate spider web of mystery as they continue their ambitious task of bringing all their heroes to life, but they certainly have a bright future ahead of them. As they proved this weekend, they can culminate years of teasing and great to mediocre superhero films into a crowd-pleasing summer blockbuster, so we can only wait anxiously to see what's next.

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Test Footage

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Test Footage

Stupid Disney.
"This video contains content from Disney, who has blocked it on copyright grounds."

[Sleepless]

Test Footage

Stupid Disney.
"This video contains content from Disney, who has blocked it on copyright grounds."

Have a word, will you Ghostboy?

[03]

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Edgar Wright Exits Marvel's 'Ant-Man' as Director
Source: Variety

In a surprise announcement, Edgar Wright has left Marvel Studios' "Ant-Man" as its director, the company said Friday.

Marvel is zeroing in on a new filmmaker, but is not yet in negotiations with one yet, Variety can confirm. When announcing Wright's departure, Marvel said "a new director will be announced shortly."

Hollywood and Marvel's fan community will be scratching its head for awhile over this one, considering Wright has been attached to "Ant-Man" since 2006 — before the first "Iron Man" film — as a screenwriter. He has regularly gone to San Diego Comic-Con to give updates on the project's development, and even showed test footage in 2012 of his approach to bringing the size-shifting character to the bigscreen.

Marvel and Wright parted ways "due to differences  in their vision of the film," the company and director said in a statement.

The decision to move on is amicable, they added, and does not impact the release date of July 17, 2015. The film had originally been dated for Nov. 6, 2015.

Paul Rudd, Michael Douglas and Evangeline Lilly star in the film, with Corey Stoll, Michael Pena and Patrick Wilson.

In addition to helming, Wright also co-wrote the script with Joe Cornish ("Attack the Block"). Wright most recently directed the comedy "The World's End," and "Scott Pilgrim vs. the World," "Hot Fuzz" and "Shaun of the Dead" before that.

Cornish could conceivably take over the project, given his close involvement with it over the years.

He had been considered for "Star Trek 3″ but opted for Universal's spy thriller "Section 6," set to star Jack O'Connell, instead. Film revolves around the formation of British intelligence agency MI6.

Marvel is developing "Ant-Man" as a potential new franchise as part of its third phase of films, the way it hopes to introduce the characters in "Guardians of the Galaxy" in August to hopefully appear in multiple movies.

In the comicbooks, Ant-Man is the alter-ego of biochemist Hank Pym, who uses subatomic particles to create a size-altering formula and when tests go awry, realizes he can also communicate with and control insects. The character eventually pairs up with the Avengers.

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[Kellen]

r.i.p. ant man