Ant-Man’s Not So Short Journey To Theatres

07/22/2015 06:09 pm EDT

Ant-Man's debut in theatres last weekend represented not only the last movie in Marvel's Studios' Phase 2 slate of films, but also the end of a twelve year journey to bring the diminutive hero to the big screen. The newest Marvel film faced a gauntlet of challenges during its twelve year production run, including multiple studio changes, personnel shifts, script rewrites, changes in filming locations and selling fans and producers on a movie starring the least well known of the founding Avengers. Despite all this, Marvel Studios never gave up on Ant-Man, pushing it towards the finish line even when the most loyal fans doubted the movie would get made.

Marvel explored the possibility of an Ant-Man movie as far back as the 1980s, but shelved the project due to the success of Honey, I Shrunk the Kid. After the success of Marvel superheroes like Spider-Man and X-Men, Marvel sold the rights to fifteen characters, including Ant-Man, to Artisan Entertainment in 2000. Artisan Entertainment, a smaller studio best known for movies like The Blair Witch Project, looked to make Ant-Man the star of a modestly budgeted film and hired Edgar Wright to direct and produce the film.

Wright, the director of films like Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz, was the driving force behind Ant-Man for many years, even after Artisan lost the rights to Ant-Man when it folded in 2004. After Artisan went under, Marvel rehired Wright to direct Ant-Man and put him to work on writing and developing a script. While Wright completed a first draft in 2008, the script process went on for several years, with Wright taking breaks to work on other movies such as Scott Pilgrim vs. the World. Meanwhile, Marvel Studios grew from an unlikely independent studio to a powerhouse, leading to its purchase by Disney in 2011. While Wright completed the script for Ant-Man in 2011, he asked to delay production on the movie so he could work on The World's End after learning his partner for that project had cancer.

While Wright and Marvel openly discussed their plans for an Ant-Man film for years, fans finally got a taste of the Ant-Man film when Marvel aired a test reel showing off Ant-Man's suit and powers to Comic-Con attendees in 2012. Later that year, Marvel formally announced the Ant-Man film and set a release date for November 2015. Marvel would later push the release date of the film up to July 31, 2015 to avoid competing with an upcoming James Bond film.

With production formally announced, Marvel and Wright set to work on preparing for filming. While Wright hoped to film the movie in England, he could not secure a filming studio across the pond and moved production to San Francisco. As production ramped up, Wright and Marvel clashed over the direction of the film and its ties to the larger Marvel Cinematic Universe. While Wright hoped the movie would stand on its own, Marvel wanted it to incorporate more elements of the wider universe of Marvel films. Unable to reach a compromise, Marvel and Wright jointly agreed to split in May 2014, leaving Ant-Man without a director months before the start of filming.

After a frantic search for a new director, Marvel found their man in Peyton Reed, who joined the film in June 2014. Reed only had two months to prepare for filming, as formal filming began in August 2014. The script underwent a final rewrite, with movie stars Paul Rudd, Evangeline Lilly and Corey Stoll all giving input to add more depth to their characters. Rudd also assisted rewriting dialogue and is credited with a screenwriting credit for the movie. Despite the multiple scripts, directors and studios, filming for Ant-Man went (perhaps unexpectedly) without incident. The movie required only minor reshoots, common for films of this size, and wrapped up in time to meet its scheduled release date of July 2015.

Ant-Man at times seemed like a dream at best, a long teased project that would never come to fruition. But from all the positive reviews and early box office figures, it looks like Ant-Man's long journey to the theatres was worth it. So, when you're seeing Ant-Man for a second, third or fourth time, marvel a little bit about all the work and energy it took to bring Hank Pym and Scott Lang to the big screen.

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