UPDATE: That's gone now.
The Ant-Man test footage Edgar Wright shot last June and debuted back at Comic Con has finally made its way online, definitively revealing that the shrinking hero will not attack guys by forcing himself into urethras. Go figure, right? Have a look at the more boring thing he does instead below.
If you've been wondering why Marvel is making a movie about Ant-Man--especially when they haven't even touched their cache of flamboyant magicians--studio head Kevin Feige has some answers for you.
It's official: The Ant-Man movie we've been talking about for the better part of a decade will continue being dangled in front of us for a few more years. Marvel today announced a release date for the Edgar Wright-directed film, giving it a November 6, 2015 opening that places it six months after the scheduled release of The Avengers 2 and almost nine years after we first started anticipating a movie about a shrinking man who can talk to insects. Oh, god, what have we done with our lives?
The Ant-Man test footage Edgar Wright debuted at Comic Con still hasn't made its way online, but here's what I guess is the next best thing: animated storyboards recreating what one guy recalls seeing on the screen. It's not ideal, but drawings of a memory of a video of a man who shrinks down and talks to insects is sometimes the best you can do. Or at least that's what I keep telling myself.
Well, as is increasingly-often the case, Marvel used this past weekend's Comic Con to unload a bunch of secrets that had been burdening them. If you missed their big announcements and reveals, have a quick catch-up below.
While new Edgar Wright would be shooting The World's End in September was exciting from the perspective of finishing up his Three Flavours Cornetto Trilogy, the downside to this announcement was that it seemed to indicate Wright's long-gestating Ant-Man film was once again being put aside. OR SO WE THOUGHT. Turns out, we should not have given up so easily, like we always do. O, why is our spirit so readily broken?
Though Marvel's system of slickly-polished uniformity has clearly worked well so far for their films--as suggested by their taking all of our moneys this weekend--the studio still seems surprisingly game for upsetting their pattern with some surely more distinctly auteur-styled superhero fare. Just last week Marvel's Kevin Feige claimed Scott Pilgrim director Edgar Wright's forever-in-development take on Ant-Man is "closer than it's ever been before." And now, reaffirming that point, Wright has tweeted the above image, not-so-cryptically adding, "Received this in the mail. What can it mean?" My rebus experience from a childhood playing the NES edition of Classic Concentration tells me it means he's finally making that Ant-Man movie! But then again, maybe it doesn't mean that, because Wright is also supposed to be finishing up The Three Flavours Cornetto Trilogy with Simon Pegg, and he's doing that Night Stalker remake with Johnny Depp, too. Regardless, can we just make a movie about a shrinking man who talks to insects already, Marvel? I know it probably won't make its money back, but if Scarlett Johansson shows up to squat for a few scenes, maybe it will come close.
Speaking to BoxOfficeMagazine, writer/director Edgar Wright finally gave an update and brief description of his long-talked-about adaptation of Marvel comics hero Ant-Man. Don't worry, guys, it's still happening--assuming Marvel hasn't had a change of heart about the viability of a movie about a shrinking man who communicates with bugs:
I haven't actually started the second draft yet--I'm not going to be able to until this film [Scott Pilgrim] is out--but what we wrote for the first draft, and what Marvel really liked, is that it's funny, but it's a genre film. It's about the level of comedy that Iron Man has. The idea is to make a high-concept genre film where it's within another genre. His suit and its power is the big gadget and it takes place in the real world. I just wanted to do something that was slightly different than the superhero origin film. I felt that between that and the various mad scientist, crazy doctor films that we've all seen, this would be a way into an origin that was slightly different. I'm not really a multi-tasker--I haven't done anything since Marvel liked our first draft.
Please hurry up with this. We need to get this in production before Marvel starts asking stupid questions like, "Should we really be making literally every superhero we can think of into a multimillion dollar film?"
(via)
With so much talk of Iron Men, Thors, Captain Americas, and Avengers, what's going on with the movie about the costumed man who can shrink and communicate with the insect world that Edgar Wright was going to do? Still going ahead, claims Stan Lee on the Twitter!:
Marvel is prepping a movie starring-- Ant Man!I had lunch with the cool , young director Edgar Wright (Shaun of the Dead) and, as you’d imagine, we had fun discussing the tiny hero
Phew.
(via /Film)
Bad news for those of us anxiously awaiting the size-altering, insect-communicating portion of Marvel's never-ending superhero movie line-up. Speaking to Empire, writer/director Edgar Wright revealed he hopes to move from his in-production film, Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, to a film called Baby Driver, thus putting off his adaptation of Ant-Man and the finale to the Blood and Ice Cream Trilogy:
"I’d like to make Baby Driver next if possible," he told us. "On this film and other things I’ve been blogging furiously and putting up a photo every day, but I think when I do that one I’d like to go completely silent for once. Probably because it’s not an adaptation or anything, or a sequel to anything else. I’d like to just make it in private, basically."We hoped that this might be a tale about a baby driving stuff around, but Wright set us straight: "No, you’re thinking of Baby Transporter, which is the Muppet Babies of the Transporter series." Instead, a quick online search showed that this is in fact a "a wild spin on the action and crime genre which will be set in the US.”
So is this going to be next on Wright's To Do list? Well, looks like. "Simon’s [Pegg] not involved in Pilgrim. And I was kind of involved with Paul as a producer at the start, but basically I can’t be in two places at once. I’m not one of those people who can do three things at the same time, even though I try to be. So once I’m doing one thing, like this, I’m only doing this. Other things – like Ant-Man and me and Simon’s next film – have all gone away until I’m done with this."
God, what do I have to do to see a movie about a crime-fighting scientist who use his skills to invent technologies that enable him to shrink and a helmet that allows him to control ants? I've waited long enough, world.
A helpful commenter on Cinematical has pointed out a recent interview PiQ magazine did with Edgar Wright. In it, the writer/director briefly discusses his upcoming projects, Scott Pilgrim, The World's End, Them, and Ant-Man, and reminds you he was directing the amazing British comedy Spaced at 24. If you're like me, this last point will cause you a few moments of head-in-your-hands self-evaluation/self-pity. Don't worry; as usual, this will pass.
Here's what he said regarding Ant-Man:
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.
I've already decided this will be my favorite superhero movie alongside The Dark Knight, which I'm also just assuming will be very good. So don't screw anything up over the next several years, Wright, or it's going to completely eff up my entirely speculative list of great superhero movies.
Riding high on the overwhelming success of Iron Man this weekend, Marvel has decided to reveal its feature film slate for the next three years. This way, we'll say, "Ooh, goody, Thor will totally be the next Iron Man!" instead of, "A Thor movie? Are you f***ing kidding me?" Which will probably be the more likely sentiment after The Incredible Hulk. Here's the tentative schedule:
The Incredible Hulk - June 13, 2008
Iron Man 2 - April 30, 2010
Thor - June 4, 2010
The First Avenger: Captain America - May 6, 2011
The Avengers - July 2011
Ant-Man - Writer/director engaged
Here is additional schedule I've made up, but suspect may come true:
Another Stab at The Hulk - May 2012
Iron Man Ruts Against Thor (see exclusive first shot above) - June 2013
The Avengers IV - August 2013
Darkhawk: Why Not? - July 2015
Hulk: No, This Time We Got It - May 2020
Hulk 5 - June 2020
Whoever's Left - 2020-?
Marvel Reports Q1 [Business Wire]
After a long silence about the man-who-can-shrink-and-also-communicates-with-ants project, director Edgar Wright has finally has some good news about his forever-in-development Ant Man adaptation. Preview: he's still working on it, and handling it perfectly.
It’s written and [Joe Cornish and I are] doing a second draft of it. 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.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.
Words can't describe how excited this makes me (OMFG! comes close, but isn't really a word, and is obnoxious). I can't imagine anyone better to handle an oddly-powered B-list superhero than the man behind Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz. How could this be any better? Maybe if he were also doing a Blue Beetle/Booster Gold action buddy comedy, but that's the only way.
Edgar Wright Talks Ant Man [Empire]
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I Watch Stuff is a movie and video blog dedicated to bringing you the best and worst that Hollywood and the Internet have to offer and then, more often than not, making fun of it because it sucks.
