No, Really: Seriously, Now…

Ant-Man? *Ant*-Man?!? Seriously? They do Ant-Man before they produce a Black Panther film?! Really? *Scratches Head* I thought that was a joke—YouTube fan trail-er. *Ant* Man…

25 Comments

  1. Dave Van Domelen says:

    It got greenlit initially because a couple of people with Hollywood Pull wanted to do it. Not sure either of them is still on the project, but too late, it’s already in the pipeline.

    • Thad says:

      Yeah, that’s pretty much it. Edgar Wright (Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz, Scott Pilgrim) was a big Ant-Man fan and he wanted to make an Ant-Man movie. But then Marvel pushed for it to fit into the wider Marvel Cinematic Universe and he walked, leaving the director of Guardians of the Galaxy to take over.

      Guardians of the Galaxy was, of course, ANOTHER really surprising choice.

      Hell, here’s a short, by-no-means-exhaustive list of comic book characters who have appeared in a feature film before Wonder Woman:

      Howard the Duck
      Batroc the Leaper
      Fredzilla
      Pete Ross
      Victor Zsasz
      Faora
      Banshee
      Typhoid Mary
      Leech
      Sandman
      Malekith the Accursed
      Baron von Strucker
      Jasper Sitwell
      Willie Lumpkin
      Groot
      The Shoveler

      • circ says:

        —-
        Guardians of the Galaxy was, of course, ANOTHER really surprising choice
        —-

        Yup. I thought Blade was a bolder choice (a lesser-known character carrying a decent movie? who knew?), but it paid off for them. After years of waiting for BP and WW, I don’t want to see them anymore. I could barely stand the Cap movies and MOS. If this is the era of Bey and Snyder fluff, I’m going to have a lot of time to do more important things.

        • Thad says:

          I actually liked the Cap movies a lot. The first one was definitely Johnston’s followup to The Rocketeer (hey, there’s another one for the list of obscure comic book characters who made it to the big screen before Wonder Woman), and the second seems like the whole thing was built around looking at Arnim Zola’s character design and realizing it functioned as a metaphor for the modern surveillance apparatus, which I thought was a solid hook.

          Thor didn’t do it for me as much, but it was the best job anybody’s ever done of translating Kirby’s visual style to film. Haven’t seen the second one.

          I’m with you on Man of Steel, though. Hated it. (I’ll grant it had a great cast. But it was clearly a Superman movie made by people who don’t like Superman for people who don’t like Superman.)

          I’ll withhold judgement on Black Panther and Wonder Woman until they’re actually made. I’m actually cautiously optimistic on those.

          • circ says:

            This is why I like having grown-up convos 🙂

            I can’t argue the Zola thing. Although that motif was done better in Enemy of the State and Three Days to the Condor (how spy net/intel is cool til it bites you in arse), it is nice to see a lower tier character get some playtime.

            I’m just bored with the JJ Abrams style of movie-making. Most of the movies of late are 50% sploshuns/cosmetic, 30% commercial for the next chapter, 15% nonsensical filler and 5% story…

            There was a time I thought this rich comic history couldn’t be screwed on-screen. I wish your optimism was contagious.

          • Priest Priest says:

            Thor was visually breathtaking. So was Green Lantern. But Thor had (well, half) a script: The Asgard stuff was very well written w/Loki upstaging Thor in terms of character depth and some really excellent and inventive writing I’ve not seen in comics where Loki is typically 1-dimensional (including my one at-bat with him). Everything that happened on earth sucked. Flat characters, silly robot fight. Skipped Thor 2 as well. Love the Superman line, think I’ll add it to my favorite quotes 🙂

    • Priest Priest says:

      Well, I hope it’s good, I just mean… was the world clamoring for Ant-Man??? I thought it was a fan joke or maybe Pixar, which Marvel really needs: a SH movie *for kids.* Ant Man and FF: if these are not good films, will Avengers be enough to balance the books for Marvel? A streak of bad SH films could ruin the SH film fad.

      • Ralf Haring says:

        Clamoring for an Ant Man movie? No. An Edgar Wright movie? Yes. The reason for its continued existence post-Wright remains nebulous. The people involved now are not untalented, but I’m not sure it’s bringing anything new to the table. Can two bombs derail Avengers 2? Highly doubtful.

        • Priest Priest says:

          Edgar who…? -Coma Boy

          • Ralf Haring says:

            He directed the British show Spaced, then moved on to movies. Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz, Scott Pilgrim. His theoretically off-kilter Marvel movie would have been a welcome addition to some of the more cookie-cutter, glowing-macguffin, world-conquerer plots. That’s part of why I enjoyed the latest Wolverine. It was so … small. No earthshattering consequences.

          • Priest Priest says:

            Ant-Man trailer looks ho-hum Marvel formula with (Hank Pym?) mocking the name “Ant-Man.” Not sure why every Marvel hero now has to be Peter Parker (i.e. a quick wit). Hank, as I understood him, was basically the Anthony Edwards character from “ER” (or, as David Letterman liked to call it, “The Errr.”

            I would have actually welcomed a Pixar Ant-Man or a combo live action/Pixar thing. Something really, way different and a clean break from what is shaping up to be the new corporate standard for approved Marvel plotlines.

            Actually, I’m hoping that for Avengers but, thus far, have very little reason to believe Av will even be a good film. My rule of thumb: if the filmmakers can cleanly explain the premise to me in 2 minutes, the writing is likely very strong. If hey cannot, they go straight to Things Blowing Up, which is a fair indication of a possibly weak script.

            Ultron trailers are thus far not compelling or intriguing on any level. But the action looks *kewl.* That puts butts in seats.

            Strong writing, however, brings them back. That’s what makes the loot: me going back to see Iron Man (1) seven times.

          • Ralf Haring says:

            It’s not Pixar, but there was just bleedover to Disney Animation proper with Big Hero 6.

          • Thad says:

            Don’t know if it makes a difference or not, but that’s not Hank Pym, it’s Scott Lang. (Pym is being played by Michael Douglas.)

            But I definitely agree that there’s a trend toward DC and Marvel turning every character in their TV and film adaptations into either Batman or Spider-Man.

          • Priest Priest says:

            Who’s Scott Lang? *Bangs head* Every time I turn around, they’re always changing stuff… This SH movie fad must be something to get Douglas to suit up.

          • Ralf Haring says:

            The other Ant-Man after Pym since like 1979…

            http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ant-Man_%28Scott_Lang%29

      • Bill says:

        Hopefully they’ll do for AntMan what they did for Guardians of the Galaxy.

        • Priest Priest says:

          Didn’t see GG. It just looked stupid. And it made a ton of money, so what do I know. But, when I hear “GG,” I think of little blue men. What happened?! Drax used ot be one of my favorite characters way back in the Starlin Mar-Vell days. What happened? Now, if they want to produce something for me, let’s see a well-written movie covering all that Starlin stuff. It was well ahead of its time.

          • Bill says:

            My kids and I loved it. It isn’t Starlin, but GG was a perfect mix of humor and adventure. Actually reminds me of some of your best work.

            I think that it is this generation’s Star Wars. It’s not too deep, but a lot of fun.

            You should check it out. It’s worth a rental.

          • JD DeMotte says:

            Keith Giffen reinvented Drax into Vin Diesel from the Pitch Black/Riddick films in a Drax mini-series. So less flying brick and more of a leaner, smarter guy with knives (still good at destroying things, of course). This series kind of served as the prelude to Annihilation and its sequel Annihilation: Conquest, a couple of events that pulled a bunch of stuff from Marvel’s cosmic characters. A reworked Guardians of the Galaxy series resulted and was written by Dan Abnett & Andy Lanning (aka DnA) and pooled a bunch of those characters together. So we get a talking tree from Stan & Jack’s 50s monster comics, Rocket Raccoon, Star Lord etc etc. It was actually really good, though an odd choice to make a movie about. But the movie was more Star Wars than space superheroes, so it seemed to work. I love both the comic and the movie, but they filll two seperate niches for me personally.

          • Priest Priest says:

            Sorry, not so much with the raccoons.

      • Thad says:

        Yeah, I liked Big Hero 6.

        Oddly, Disney didn’t seem to want to put the “Marvel” brand anywhere on it. (Though it’s got a Stan Lee cameo, which kinda counts.)

  2. I might end up skipping Ant-Man– though mainly it’s because **giant bug** footage/photos have always freaked me out. Thus, bug-centric nature documentaries have tended to be off-limits for me (though the narration is usually intriguing). I had to cover my eyes during the entire Shelob sequence in “Return of the King”, alas.
    My guess is that the general public doesn’t care about making Hank Pym into Michael Douglas. Reportedly this film plays up the Scott Lang character’s ex-con background, and involves some elaborate caper/heist of some sort. The 11th hour defection of Wright apparently scared a lot of folks, but Adam McKay and Paul Rudd’s script rewrite seemed to allay some fears. Director Peyton Reed’s first feature was the teen cheerleader comedy “Bring it On”, (and he also directed “The Break-Up”) which inevitably sent howls through fandom. We’ll see how this goes. Given Ant-Man’s core conceit/gimmick (shrinking), I don’t anticipate a sequel, but if it’s profitable I guess it’ll clear the way for Paul Rudd and Mike Douglas to appear as guests in future Marvel films (e.g., a “Fantastic Voyage” sequence to save a gravely injured Tony Stark, or something.)

    • Priest Priest says:

      I could be wrong, but I think the giant bug/freak-out is actually a major part of the film’s appeal… to little boys, at least. I’ll probably skip it unless, until I see a more compelling trailer that says “great writing” or “breaks w/Marvel formula.” So far, this all seems by the numbers. don;t blaspheme “Bring It Own,” a film best watched with your thumb on the fast forward button to skip to the next glimpse of the lovely Gabrielle Union. Which, yes, yes, yes, makes me a dirty old man ogling (an actor portraying a ) teenager, but that’s my cross to bear. BIO is a gift to all mankind, damn you.

  3. Mario Di Giacomo says:

    To be fair GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY isn’t so much a superhero movie as an old-fashioned 80’s sci-fi adventure movie.

    As such, it is both funny and fun AS HELL.

    Similarly, ANT-MAN looks to be more along the lines of a caper film, a la the Clooney OCEAN’S trilogy. I’m willing to give it a shot.

    Tangentially, set photos are starting to leak for CA3. It would not surprise me if we get a good shot of Boseman’s T’Challa, in suit and/or out, before the end of the month.

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