Feast your compound eyes on this: an exclusive look at an Ant-Man image that Marvel Studios will be sharing this weekend at Comic-Con. The illustration is a piece of pre-production concept art specifically made for San Diego Comic-Con, which kicks off Wednesday night. So expect to see the movie heavily showcased on Saturday in Marvel’s always bombastic presentation. It hasn’t been an easy couple of months for Ant-Man. Production was expected to be underway already, but director and co-writer Edgar Wright jaw-droppingly dropped out of the production after eight years of labor on the project.
After some rudderless weeks, Marvel signed Peyton Reed (The Break-Up, Bring It On) to direct the story of a hero who can shrink to tiny sizes while still packing a heavyweight punch. Adam McKay, a writer-director best known for the Anchorman movies, also signed up to rewrite the script by Wright and Joe Cornish (Attack the Block.)
Now the film is set to start shooting in August with the original cast still in place. As this poster makes clear: That’s Paul Rudd taking on the central role of Scott Lang, a thief who, according to the comics, stole the technology behind the shrinking suit from the original Ant-Man, Hank Pym. And there’s Michael Douglas, joining the Marvel universe as Pym, a scientist with Tony Stark-levels of ingenuity. He not only builds a miniaturizing mechanism, but also constructs a method of communicating with tiny creatures. (Better to have them on your side than trying to eat you.)
Although Lang only steals the suit to make it easier to lead a life of crime—it’s simple to sneak in and grab other things of value when you are microscopic—he inevitably follows a reluctant hero arc. In the full image below (created by Andy Park from Marvel’s in-house visual development department), we get a look at the suit in action, the two leading men in profile, and a nice close-up of our hero riding bareback on a winged ant.
12
Have you forgiven Marvel yet for parting ways with Edgar Wright, ONTD? Or are you more focused on the upcoming potentially disappointing Doctor Strange announcement now?
