Ant-Man: Entertainment Weekly Interview Reveals Plot Details
By Steve Lam
Earlier this week, Marvel Studios treated us to the first teaser trailer for Ant-Man. As exciting as it was, not much was revealed. The biggest question burning on the minds of fans has been “how does Paul Rudd’s Scott Lang help Michael Douglas’s Hank Pym?” In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, the cast and crew dish out some plot points for the highly anticipated film.
On how Lang will be introduced to audiences:
"When we first meet Lang, he is in prison for stealing from the CEO of a company that was itself stealing from its employees. “There’s a prison fight and you’ve got to buy Paul in that role,” says Reed. Lang longs to go straight—he has a young daughter he wants to build a relationship with—but when he leaves the big house, he ends up nabbing Pym’s Ant-Man suit. Was he set up? “There might be stuff going on that Scott doesn’t know about that’s a lot bigger than him,” Reed says."
On why Pym needs Lang, and character arc parallels:
"Having proven his light-fingered bona fides, Lang is trained by Pym, who plans to use him to thwart Darren Cross (Stoll). Cross is a former protégé of Pym’s who has developed his own version of the Ant-Man technology and created the alter ego Yellowjacket. Pym and Lang’s attempt to steal the Yellowjacket suit is both assisted and complicated by Lilly’s Hope Van Dyne. “She’s not been in her father’s life for a long time,” Lilly says. “So her arc in the movie—as Scott’s is with his daughter—is trying to find a relationship.”"
With all the family drama involved, director Peyton Reed reassured audiences that Ant-Man will have all the cool effects expected from a Marvel Cinematic Universe film:
"There’s shrinking! Cool shrinking, Reed promises. “What we’re doing is very different from Honey, I Shrunk the Kids,” he says. “It’s going to be much more experiential.” Instead of having actors perform with outsize props, Ant-Man is utilizing both macro photography—the filming technique used on bug documentaries—and motion-capture technology. “There are cameras and lenses that make small areas look like the most epic landscapes,” says co-producer Brad Winderbaum. “Then we’re shooting motion capture with Paul to insert Ant-Man into those environments.”"
On Rudd’s and Corey Stoll’s (who’s playing Darren Cross / Yellowjacket) fascination with the advanced technology being used to create the spectacular effects:
"Rudd was bummed by the lack of balls. “I thought, ‘Oh, I’m going to get to wear one of those suits that has Ping-Pong balls on it,’” he says. “There are no Ping-Pong balls, just dots. The technology has advanced.” He was pretty wowed when he saw the test scenes, however. “It was mind-blowing,” he says. And surreal, adds Stoll—he also did time in the suit. “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!’” he says. “It was a lot of fun.”"
With compelling underdog characters, strong character arcs, and awesome effects, it seems that Ant-Man is well on its way to becoming another strong installment in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
Ant-Man is being directed by Peyton Reed, written by Gabriel Ferrari, Andrew Barrer, and Adam McKay, and starring Paul Rudd as Scott Lang / Ant-Man, Evangeline Lilly as Hope Van Dyne, Corey Stoll as Darren Cross / Yellowjacket, Bobby Cannavale as Paxton, Michael Peña as Luis, Judy Greer as Maggie, Tip “T.I.” Harris as Dave, David Dastmalchian as Kurt, Wood Harris as Gale, Jordi Mollà as Castillo, and Michael Douglas as Dr. Hank Pym / Ant-Man.
Set to release in the United States on July 17, 2015, Ant-Man will close out Phase Two of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.