Edgar Wright On The Ant-Man Film

If it ever gets made, it’ll be high concept, reckons the Hot Fuzz / Scott Pilgrim director…

Scott Pilgrim director and frequent Simon Pegg collaborator Edgar Wright has been talking to Box Office Magazine about his long-in-gestation Ant-Man movie, based on the Marvel comic character*:

“I haven't actually started the second draft yet – I'm not going to be able to until Scott Pilgrim is out – but what we wrote for the first draft, and what Marvel really liked, is that it's funny, but it's a genre film. It's about the level of comedy that Iron Man has. The idea is to make a high-concept genre film where it's within another genre. His suit and its power is the big gadget and it takes place in the real world. I just wanted to do something that was slightly different than the superhero origin film. I felt that between that and the various mad scientist, crazy doctor films that we've all seen, this would be a way into an origin that was slightly different. I'm not really a multi-tasker – I haven't done anything since Marvel liked our first draft.”

* Ant-Man is a bit of a weird one. He’s just one of a number of superhero (and, indeed, supervillain) identities assumed by neurotic genius Henry Pym – although most of them have had some kind of size-changing abilities involved. Over the years he’s been variously known as Ant-Man, Giant-Man, Goliath, Yellowjacket, The Wasp and Scientist Supreme, and not always in strict succession – he's returned to his Ant-Man identity a few times. He was married to and then divorced the female The Wasp (Janet Pym/née Van Dyne), has had various mental breakdowns, was a wife beater, created the evil robot Ultron and founded the Avengers Academy. It’ll be interesting to see how much of this is alluded to in the Wright’s film if it ever gets made. Can he make the first film about a mentally ill superhero? (Though some would argue Batman could do with some time in psychotherapy…) You also have to wonder if there might be any mentions of or cameo appearances by Henry Pym in the Avengers movie? Could Marvel cast someone in that who would then go on to appear in his own top-lining film?

(Oh, and I actually own that comic pictured here, so I have a personal reason for seeing the film getting made and becoming a big hit, ’cos then I can flog the comic on eBay for a vastly increased price. So go on Edgar, I’m counting on you to make me a millionaire…)