These Ant-Man Images Show Off A Miniature Paul Rudd And A Psychotic Villian
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When it rains, it pours. This is the way it often happens, we won’t hear much form a particular movie for a long time then boom, we barely go a day without something falling into our laps. Such is the case with the next new superhero Marvel is bringing to the big screen, Ant-Man. We got teasers for the trailer (both human and ant-sized), the actual trailer, a new poster, and now a handful of stills that show star Paul Rudd as the titular size-changing champion, as well as some additional plot details.
These images from Entertainment Weekly don’t show us much we haven’t already seen, but they do offer a better look than we’ve had before. Like Ant-Man standing in shower, for some reason, as well as a higher resolution shot of him shrunk down and riding on that flying ant. This is shaping up to be a lot of fun, with or without Edgar Wright at the helm, and Ant-Man is a key figure when it comes to the Avengers, so it’s going to be interesting to see how he fits into that part of the MCU. He will also likely play a big role in the Civil War arc that is coming down the pipe.
The story revolves around Scot Lang (Rudd), a master thief who has to channel his inner hero to help his mentor, Dr. Hank Pym (Michael Douglas), protect his technology that allow you to shrink in size but grow in strength. Lang is not your average hero, and director Peyton Reed draws parallels between him and another recent antihero, saying, “He’s not used to being a hero. He’s more like George Clooney in Ocean’s Eleven. He’s a guy ¬trying to ¬create a new life for himself and find redemption.”
Marvel president Kevin Feige adds, “We wanted Scott Lang to have made mistakes that cost him dearly. But we wanted the audience to be rooting for him despite that. Paul Rudd can do almost anything and you’re still charmed by him.”
As they try to pull off a heist that may very well save the world from a horrible threat, Lang and Pym come into conflict with the supervillain Yellowjacket (Corey Stoll). According to the actor, his human alter ego, Darren Cross, started out as a protégée of Pym’s, a prodigy who went wrong. He says, “He started to become aware of this fabled technology that can shrink people to half an inch while keeping their full-size strength. And I became very obsessed with it and demanded that we move forward. But Pym had sort of buried it for ethical, moral reasons…Now, I’ve discovered my own version of that technology and I’m using it for militaristic purposes.” The goal of the heist is reportedly to get their hands on Yellowjacket’s suit, which is far more advanced than what Ant-Man has, but also has a serious “psychotic effect” on anyone who wears it.
Reed calls the film much more “experimental” than that other well known shrinking movie, Honey, I Shrunk the Kids, and co-producer Brad Winderbaum talks about how they’re using a combination of motion capture and macro photography to render these miniature scenes. He says, “There are cameras and lenses that make small areas look like the most epic landscapes. Then we’re shooting motion capture with Paul to insert Ant-Man into those environments.”
So while movies are always make believe, it sounds like the actors’ imaginations had to work overtime in this situation. Stoll says, “The director shouts out, ‘And now you’re gonna get punched on the left side of your face!’ ‘And now there’s a swarm of ants!’ It was a lot of fun.”
Ant-Man opens everywhere July 17.
