ANT-MAN

[Shane]

I was under the understanding that it was still keeping comedy in it.

[Doc Holliday]

Ahh - that's good to hear Shane, cheers buddy. I'd heard that Wright was a fan of the character and was going to do a faithful, sensible ode.

Like I say, he was (is) a good character...but I don't know that it'd work on film.

"YellowJacket" was a better incarnation. Did he ever hit anyone by becoming dead small....then scuttling near to being perpendicular to someone's jawline and doing a vicious uppercut whilst zooming back to normal size?

OOF!

[Shane]

Ahh - that's good to hear Shane, cheers buddy. I'd heard that Wright was a fan of the character and was going to do a faithful, sensible ode.

Like I say, he was (is) a good character...but I don't know that it'd work on film.

"YellowJacket" was a better incarnation. Did he ever hit anyone by becoming dead small....then scuttling near to being perpendicular to someone's jawline and doing a vicious uppercut whilst zooming back to normal size?

OOF!

have you read this yet?

[Doc Holliday]

Now THATS the Shane Goodness everyone is talking about!

Thanks again - good read - I hadn't seen that before.

Encouraging stuff - Its Edgar Wright, so I'm interested by default (I like Cornish too - seen a lot of his shows on here in the UK - he's a funny guy)

[Shane]

It is just looking more and more promising by the minute. I never thought I would be all excited for the Antman Movie, but they seem to be doing it right. The question remains will Antman be british, or american? I'm all about |Simon Peg for the part, but that is unlikely.

[Doc Holliday]

Hmm - why not both? But which one would be best played as a quirky (you know its unavoidable) Brit - Pym or Lang?

I think Pym most probably - but both have potential...

[Shane]

Peter O'toul or however you spell it, he should be Hank Pym.

[Doc Holliday]

Oh man, thats good. Peter O'Toole would be just great as a quirky, cynical has-been hero. Definitely. Bill Nighy seems to be getting a lot of work these days - he'd have to leave his drug-addled fading 70's rock star act at the door though. Ian Holm would have a very interesting spin on it as well I reckon - probably be a bit darker with Holm though.

Hmm - what American to play Lang then? I confess to not knowing much about the Scott Lang character - but for some reason have Christian Slater in my head all of a sudden - any good or missing the point?

[Ribbons]

I'm pretty sure that Ant-Man is going to be humorous, but slightly less satirical than Hot Fuzz and Shaun of the Dead. I liked Shaun and "Spaced," so I'm along for the ride.

To answer someone's question: yeah, giving Edgar Wright $100 million to do a "big-budget bonanza" called Ant-Man is kinda risky. But I love it anyway. In fact, I'm over the moon that Marvel scored this coup. Hopefully it'll pay off, maybe it won't, but for now I'm excited.

[Doc Holliday]

I'm down with Wright being given the helm. When a studio beats a fmailiar track we moan...and when they try something new we moan.

Wright has shown he can direct - give him a good producer (they do exist) and the money does not become an issue.

If you give the money to the guys asking for the money you end up with Michael Bay.

Try giving the money to the guy who isn't used to it...seemed to work ok with Raimi.....

[Shane]

I love the fact they are trying something new. That's why I want to see it.

I agree with you totally Doc

[John-Locke]

[quote="Empire Online"]Exclusive: Edgar Wright Talks Ant Man
And he's working with Simon Pegg again

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,â€

[ThisIsTheGirl]

[quote="Empire Online"]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.â€

[Fried Gold]

I'm sure I posted about all this months ago...but then I checked and for some reason I'd posted it in the Metal Men thread instead for some reason.

[Ribbons]

So I noticed that this film wasn't on Marvel's upcoming slate thingee.

*pouts*

Did the project fall through, I wonder, or is it just because Wright is working on two other movies right now? I mean that one article where he's talking about a second draft was published less than two months ago.

[Pacino86845]

It is still on their slate according to the AICN article, just that a release date hasn't been fixed yet.

[Fried Gold]

Joe Cornish is currently writing a second draft script.

[MasterWhedon]

My bet is Marvel isn't going to commit to this one until they're convinced they have something golden, given that Ant-Man doesn't have the same sort of public appeal as Iron Man or Captain America.

Assuming they do get all the right elements in place, I can see this being a nice, mid-range adventure setting Hank up to join the Avengers.

[Vegeta]

Where is the DEADPOOL movie?

[Pacino86845]

I think if they can keep the budget down this could be a real hit, relatively speaking... I would guess that the issue has more to do with how superhero sorta comedies have been faring lately. Not talking about Superhero Movie or whatever it's called, but rather Sky High, My Super Ex-Girlfriend and the upcoming Hancock.

[MasterWhedon]

I think if they can keep the budget down this could be a real hit, relatively speaking... I would guess that the issue has more to do with how superhero sorta comedies have been faring lately. Not talking about Superhero Movie or whatever it's called, but rather Sky High, My Super Ex-Girlfriend and the upcoming Hancock.

Yeah, I'm really hoping Hancock is a hit (and also good) because it'd help broaden the scope of what a superhero movie could be.

[Vegeta]

I think if they can keep the budget down this could be a real hit, relatively speaking... I would guess that the issue has more to do with how superhero sorta comedies have been faring lately. Not talking about Superhero Movie or whatever it's called, but rather Sky High, My Super Ex-Girlfriend and the upcoming Hancock.

Yeah, I'm really hoping Hancock is a hit (and also good) because it'd help broaden the scope of what a superhero movie could be.

Promising trailer?
Will Smith?
4th of July weekend?
It'll be a hit. As far as quality, I will say it looks promising.

[TheButcher]

Here is a small update from Edgar Wright:

PiQ: And finally, Ant-Man.

EW: I wrote that for Marvel and I’m in the process of doing a second draft. I had a lot of fun writing that script, I wrote it with this guy Joe Cornish, who is a really funny UK writer. It’s not really an out-and-out comedy. I think some people assume that it must be a spoof, but it’s not really. I guess it’s as funny as something like Iron Man is, it’s on that level of entertainment, really. It’s a big, high concept, special effects comic book adaptation, and very character-led and we found a way of… I guess in a similar way to Iron Man, the thing that worked with that and hopefully will with this is that it’s a different way of seeing a superhero origin, because you’ve seen so many of them and we really tried to figure out a fresh take on that story. So it’s definitely a Marvel film but it’s got a little twist on it in terms of the way that it plays out.

PiQ: So your immediate next project is Scott Pilgrim?

EW: Yeah, it would seem that way. I’m pretty much writing on all those other ones, and I have one other project as well that I’m doing with Working Title, so I’m kind of using this period to write all of these things, and so far Scott Pilgrim and Ant-Man are done and The World’s End is being worked on.

source: PiQ Mag

[Morzongo]

I want to see it soon. Edgar Wright is a great director, a comic fan and a man with a great sense of humor who can bring to life this character. I hope Marvel will make at the end of this superhero offensive a big Avengers movie (specially if they base it on the Ultimates saga).

[TheButcher]

From Comic Book Movie: Pixar Interested in Making Marvel's Ant-Man Movie

Hey, now here's some promising news about the Disney/Marvel merger! According to EW, Pixar has expressed interest to their Disney masters that they would like to make Marvel's Ant-Man movie

I got my Entertainment Weekly Magazine today, and there it was on page 23...

Marvel has thousands of characters to feed Disney's film, TV, and animation business (Pixar is said to already be eyeballing an Ant-Man movie). As Iron Man proved, they don't need to be iconic to become blockbusters.

Ant-Man does seem right down Pixar's alley, although audiences might be a little tired of all the tiny characters they've already done (Toy Story, A Bug's Life, Finding Nemo). Let's just hope that they don't rehash another Disney movie and call it Honey, I Shrunk Myself.

From Screen Rant:
Pixar To Produce Marvel’s Ant-Man?

From CinemaBlend:
Pixar Making Ant-Man?

From Bleeding Cool:
Would Pixar Make Edgar Wright’s Ant Man?

From COLLIDER:
Will Pixar’s Lamp Jump on ANT-MAN?

[Ribbons]

Don't take this movie away from Edgar Wright, you bastards!!!

[Bloo]

agreed, let Pixar produce, let Edgar direct

[buster00]

So, if this happens, we could pretty much rule out Ant Man's appearance in the Avengers flick, huh? Pity.

[Bloo]

I'd really think less of Lassatar if he did do this, you have a name director wanting to direct it, it would just seem like a real "fu" move to me

[TheButcher]

Stan Lee meets with Edgar Wright to discuss Ant Man?

HERE

and

HERE

Thanks, this kind of got lost in the mix because of the big Superman news.

[Seppuku]

That's OK, just don't let it happen again, Butch! We don't want this to be the start of a downward slide on your heretofore spotless track record.

[TheButcher]

That's OK, just don't let it happen again, Butch! We don't want this to be the start of a downward slide on your heretofore spotless track record.

I won't. I promise.

[TheButcher]

From MTV:
EXCLUSIVE: Edgar Wright Explains His 'Ant-Man' Priorities

[TheButcher]

Super Hero Hype Exclusive: When Might We See Edgar Wright's Ant-Man?

[TheButcher]

Edgar Wright's 'Ant-Man' To Follow 'The Avengers,' Says Marvel Studios President

[TheButcher]

Stan Lee: Bring on the ‘Ant-Man’ movie

[TheButcher]

From 24 Frames:
'Ant-Man' crawls forward

Marvel Comics fans who've been clamoring for Edgar Wright to get to the insect-like business of writing "Ant-Man" may have a reason to feel happy. The director this week picked up the pen on the movie's script for the first time in more than two years.

Wright, who came on in 2006 to write and direct a take on the arthropodal superhero, said Tuesday in an interview with 24 Frames that with much of the international promotion for "Scott Pilgrim vs. the World" now behind him, he's free again to write on "Ant-Man" -- the first time he'll do that since he started developing "Pilgrim." (He had previously written a first draft of the script.)

In fact, the director had just come from a dinner meeting with Marvel production head Kevin Feige, where the subject of the offbeat Marvel property was in the air.

Speaking by phone from London -- in an interview about a program he's curating at the New Beverly; more on that in a separate post -- Wright was coy about plot details for "Ant-Man." (In the past he's described it as not quite a comedy but with humorous elements.) The film centers on Marvel scientist Hank Pym who, in various incarnations of the comic, could shrink down to the size of an insect to solve crimes, in one iteration with a female companion named The Wasp.

But Wright did say that the "Ant-Man" script, which he's writing with "Adventures of Tintin" collaborator Joe Cornish, can afford to be more offbeat and, well, small.

"This one's not about about the urgency of summer tentpoles and things going into production without a script," said Wright, who approached Marvel with the "Ant-Man" idea. "It's slightly different than that. "

Among the creative issues facing Wright and Cornish: making a character that diminutive seem larger than life. (Humor-inflected superheroes -- especially insectile ones -- will face a key test this weekend with the opening of "The Green Hornet.")

Meanwhile, for those who love the genre sendups created by Wright and Simon Pegg -- "Shaun of the Dead" and "Hot Fuzz" -- Wright said that he and Pegg "have a [new] idea" and that "at some point I've got to sit down with Simon and write something." But after, Marvel fans may hope, Wright finishes "Ant-Man."

--Steven Zeitchik

[TheButcher]

The Playlist @ SXSW:
Hope For The Marvel Fans: Joe Cornish & Edgar Wright May Be Finishing Up ‘Ant-Man’ Script Soon

[TheButcher]

From Collider:
Edgar Wright Talks Lengthy Development on ANT-MAN

[TheButcher]

Edgar Wright‘s very, very long awaited contribution to the Marvel Movie-verse will be released on November 6, 2015.

[TheBaxter]

Edgar Wright‘s very, very long awaited contribution to the Marvel Movie-verse will be released on November 6, 2015.

2015? talk about having your release date pushed back...

[TheButcher]

Ant-Man Update From Edgar Wright
Writer-director Edgar Wright calls Ant-Man "A superhero film within another genre."

IGN recently caught up with Edgar Wright to discuss forthcoming feature The World’s End, and while we had the writer-director on the line, we took the opportunity to quiz him about superhero flick Ant-Man, the first film in the third cycle of Marvel movies heading into cinemas.

Speaking of the ways in which his effort will differ to other comic-book movies, Wright said: “It’s a way of doing a superhero film within another genre. I wanted to tell an origin tale in a slightly different way. It’s part of the Marvel cinematic universe, but it also feels like its own piece.”

As for the reason it’s taken so long to make it to the big-screen, Wright said that it’s all been part of the plan. “I’ve been collaborating with [Marvel boss] Kevin [Feige] during the whole of that cycle” he explained. “I think people have always assumed… ‘Oh why is it taking so long to make?’ Part of it is because I wanted to make two other movies first. I wanted to make World’s End… me and Simon were very keen to make it and it felt like it was unfinished business and we wanted to wrap up the trilogy. The script came together really fast. Well not really fast, but it came together at a certain point where it was like ‘I really want to do this next.’

“But to be honest, the later I do it, it feels like I could learn more, especially about special effects. It’s a big effects movie, so I’m pleased to go into it having done Scott Pilgrim and The World’s End because you’re always learning more about that side.”

Indeed, Wright revealed that the Ant-Man test footage that screened at Comic-Con last year was shot just before The World’s End, and he even spent some of his days off finishing the effects. “I hope that at some point we’ll be able to show that at some venue all finished” he added. "Because obviously at Comic-Con we showed it unfinished. All done it looks really good.”

And when asked about his favourite Marvel movie, Wright had no hesitation: “I guess my two favourites would have to be Iron Man and The Avengers. I’ve enjoyed all of them and I think those two are the ones that score highest on the popcorn metre. That totally work as great crowd-pleasers. And I think what they’ve managed to do in terms of The Avengers coming after a five-film cycle, is kind of extraordinary and unprecedented in cinema history. To bring together four other franchises into one. It couldn’t have gone better could it? It’s amazing.”

Ant-Man is set to release at the tail-end of 2015, while The World’s End hits this summer.

[TheButcher]

Marvel's Phase Three: 'Doctor Strange,' 'Iron Man 4,' 'Hulk,' 'Inhumans' or 'Runaways' on horizon? -- EW EXCLUSIVE

Right now the only definite project being planned for Phase Three is Edgar Wright’s Ant-Man, which has been in development since 2006 but will finally come to the screen in November 2015 — just a few months after Avengers 2.

“I’d say 99 percent of our time right now is purely spent on Phase Two,” Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige told EW. “It’s five colossally giant motion pictures that we have to produce. So that’s taking up the time. But within the next year or so we’ll start the advanced planning for post-Avengers 2.”