In just a couple of short weeks, the world will find a whole new love for ants when Marvel’s Ant-Man hits theaters.
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This weekend, ComicBook.com had the chance to sit down with Ant-Man director, Peyton Reed, to pick his brain a bit about bringing Marvel’s tiniest hero to the big screen.
CB: First of all, thanks for taking the time out to talk. I loved Ant-Man and I can’t wait to see how the fans react when it comes out.
PR: Thank you very much!
Do you feel a little bit of pressure doing a Marvel movie?
I think I feel pressure every time I make movies. Movies are just pressure cookers by design. This one is definitely a bigger movie than I’ve done in terms of visual effects and stuff. I think there’s almost 1,600 visual effects shots in the movie and this is the type of movie I’ve always wanted to make. To be able to do it and to be able to do it at Marvel was just… It was a thrill.
Sure! Now, this was a little bit different than any movie you’ve done before. Super heroes, effects, I mean, you did a great job, but what made you drew you into it? What drew you into this script or this project?
I was a kid who grew up reading Marvel comics. When I got the call from Kevin Feige, I could come in and talk about Hank Pym and Scott Lang and I could converse about Ant-Man and if I were directing the movie, what I’d like to see in the movie. I had very specific ideas about it. What I liked about it: A, it was an origin story. I had known this character in the comics for years and years and years so to be able to be the guy to bring him into the Marvel Cinematic Universe was a thrill. I also like that it was a really different kind of, a smaller, no pun intended, but a smaller, intimate movie about fathers and their daughters and the hero Scott Lang, his biggest goal in the movie is to be a part of his daughter’s life. I thought that was cool and different.
It definitely was. It felt more grounded and even where you’re doing this fantastical things and even when explained with science they’re super heroes and it’s imagination, but the family aspect keeps it very grounded. Now, through that family aspect, with Hank and Hope and Janet, and Scott and Cassie, it seems like seeds were planted for either a sequel or even a prequel. Is that something you would be interested in?
Listen, if we were lucky enough to be able to do a sequel or even a prequel, I’d love to do it. I’ve really fallen in love with these characters. I was always in love with the characters in the comic book world but there’s a lot of story to tell with Hank Pym. Scott Lang has really, sort of, just first become Ant-Man. The big question is what’s next for that guy? We already know he’s gonna show up in Captain America: Civil War which is really exciting.
Who’s side is he on?
You’re not gonna get it out of me!
Now, you had an Avenger in this movie. What was it that made you pick that particular character who Ant-Man encounters?
That was actually something that Adam McKay, who came in and wrote several drafts of the script with Paul Rudd, that was McKay’s idea. We talked about the fact that Ant-Man’s a heist movie and one of the tropes in a heist movie is before the big heist, you know, it’s like, “Okay, we’ve got the plan in place but there’s this one extra thing that we gotta do and we gotta get before the heist can get pulled off.”
In this case, it was a particular item that Pym needs. He sends Scott, sort of into this situation, way before Scott has trained enough to deal with it, and he encounters a certain Avenger. We loved that idea. When Adam pitched that idea we loved it because that sort of thing in the comics – you love it when one hero and another hero and for whatever reason they’re pitted against each other and you’re wondering how’s that power going to stack up against this one and there’s such a wish fulfillment quality to that.
Of all these super hero characters, Marvel or DC, is there and character you would love to get your hands on after Ant-Man?
I grew up a total Marvel kid. I knew that comics came out on Tuesdays and on Fridays and I would have my dad drive me to the news stand and pick up my comics. Like most kids my age I grew up loving Spider-Man, Fantastic Four, Avengers, all of them. We are now in a world where with technology you can really vividly present these characters and their powers.
In the case of the Marvel movies, it attracts A-list talent and you’re able to tell these stories on such a palette. There were so many characters I was a fan of but I have to say Ant-Man, early on, he was one that I loved. Particularly, when he’s in the Avengers because he had this sort of inferiority complex because he’s fighting next to Thor and Hulk and it’s fun in terms of the movie to have Paul Rudd play that. He has that underdog feel to him. He’s not ready to be a hero quite yet.
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For more of our interview with Ant-Man director, Peyton Reed, where we analyzed some of Ant-Man‘s Easter Eggs and big Marvel Universe reference, check back to ComicBook.com after seeing Ant-Man in theaters July 17!
