ANT MAN ANTMAN

Ant-Man is a 2015 American superhero film based on the Marvel Comics characters of the same name: Scott Lang and Hank Pym. Produced by Marvel Studios and distributed by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures, it is the twelfth installment of the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU). The film was directed by Peyton Reed, with a screenplay by Edgar Wright & Joe Cornish and Adam McKay & Paul Rudd, and stars Rudd, Evangeline Lilly, Corey Stoll, Bobby Cannavale, Michael Peña, Tip "T.I." Harris, Anthony Mackie, Wood Harris, Judy Greer, David Dastmalchian, and Michael Douglas. In Ant-Man, Lang must help defend Dr. Pym's Ant-Man shrinking technology and plot a heist with worldwide ramifications.

Development of Ant-Man began in April 2006, with the hiring of Wright to direct and co-write with Cornish. By April 2011, Wright and Cornish had completed three drafts of the script and Wright shot test footage for the film in July 2012. Pre-production began in October 2013 after being put on hold so that Wright could complete The World's End. Casting began in December 2013, with the hiring of Rudd to play Lang. In May 2014, Wright left the project, citing creative differences, though he still received screenplay and story credits with Cornish, as well as an executive producer credit. The following month, Reed was brought in as Wright's replacement, while McKay was hired to contribute to the script with Rudd. Principal photography took place between August and December 2014 in San Francisco and Metro Atlanta.

Ant-Man held its world premiere in Los Angeles on June 29, 2015, and was released in North America on July 17, 2015, in 3D and IMAX 3D. Upon its release, the film received positive reviews and has grossed more than $518 million worldwide. A sequel, titled Ant-Man and the Wasp, is scheduled to be released on July 6, 2018.

ANT MAN MOVIE - CAST

Paul Rudd as Scott Lang / Ant-Man:

A former systems engineer at VistaCorp and petty criminal who acquires a suit that allows him to shrink in size but increase in strength. Regarding Rudd's casting, producer Kevin Feige said, "Look at that origin of the petty crook who comes into contact with a suit and does his best to make good, and then look at someone like Paul Rudd, who can do slightly unsavory things like break into people's houses and still be charming and who you root for and whose redemption you will find satisfaction in." Director Peyton Reed compared Lang to George Clooney's character Danny Ocean from Ocean's Eleven, saying, "He's a guy trying to create a new life for himself and find redemption." To get in shape for the role, Rudd worked with trainers and cut alcohol, fried foods and carbohydrates out of his diet. Rudd stated that in preparation for his role, he "basically didn't eat anything for about a year ... I took the Chris Pratt approach to training for an action movie.

Eliminate anything fun for a year and then you can play a hero." Rudd signed a multi-film contract with Marvel, with Feige saying it was "three [films]-plus-plus to appear in other things."

Evangeline Lilly as Hope van Dyne:

The daughter of Hank Pym and Janet van Dyne and a senior board member of Pym Technologies, who helps Darren Cross take over the company. Lily described her character as "capable, strong, and kick-ass", but said that being raised by two superheroes resulted in Hope being "a pretty screwed up human being... and the clear message sent by my name is that I'm not a big fan of my father and so I took my mother's name." She added that van Dyne's "arc in the movie is trying to find a relationship" with Pym. Originally cast by Wright, Lilly was reluctant to take the role after he left the project until she read the revised script and got a chance to meet with Reed. Feige said that van Dyne was the more obvious choice to take up the mantle of Ant-Man, being "infinitely more capable of actually being a superhero" than Lang, and that the reason she does not is because of Pym's experience with losing her mother, rather than sexism, which Feige felt would not be a problem for Pym in modern times. Subsequently, Feige stated that the film would hint at van Dyne eventually taking up the identity of Wasp from her mother. Lilly signed a multi-film contract with Marvel.

Corey Stoll as Darren Cross / Yellowjacket:

A former protégé of Pym's, who takes over his mentor's company and militarizes a similar version of the Ant-Man technology to create the Yellowjacket suit. Stoll described the suit as "the next generation of Ant-Man's suit" with a sleeker, more militaristic look as "if Apple had designed a battle suit." As for his character, Stoll said that Cross was more like Hank Pym than "Thanos or Loki, who are villains that know it," since Cross is a "brilliant scientist, who is not ethically pure" with shades of gray. Unlike Rudd, who wore a practical costume as Ant-Man, Stoll wore a motion capture suit while performing as Yellowjacket. Reed explained that this decision was made early on when creating and filming with a real Yellowjacket costume was found to be impractical.

Bobby Cannavale as Paxton:

A police officer who is engaged to Lang's former wife Maggie. Cannavale stated that Rudd and McKay convinced him to join the film during the rewriting process before Marvel approached him, saying, "They sort of pumped [my] part up a bit... I really went on good faith [taking the role] because they're so secretive [at Marvel] about the script. I just trusted them." He also added that the process felt like an indie film instead of a large-scale blockbuster, and that he was able to improvise frequently along with the other actors. Patrick Wilson was originally cast in the role before leaving the film because of scheduling conflicts brought on by the filming delay.

Michael Peña as Luis:

Lang's former cellmate and a member of his crew. Peña stated that he modeled Luis' vocal style and positive outlook on life "on a friend of a friend", saying, "That's just the way he talks and the cadence. He's got this grin on the entire time and he doesn't care. He's the kind of guy where you're like 'Hey, what'd you do this weekend?' and he's like 'I went to jail, dawg,' with a smile on his face. Not a lot of people do that. Not a lot of people think of life on those terms." Peña signed a contract with Marvel for three films.

Tip "T.I." Harris as Dave:

A member of Lang's crew. Harris described Dave as Lang's "homeboy". Harris also revealed that he was not permitted to read the entire script, explaining "You're just handed scenes as the film [went] along, and when you do that, it's like a blank canvas, 'This is what I'm going to do for this scene,' and you can remember previous performances and remain consistent with that. The energy created by the ensemble you have around you, it contributes to the outlook or the final view of what your character has become, and what he meant to the story."

Anthony Mackie as Sam Wilson / Falcon:

An Avenger who is a former pararescueman trained by the military in aerial combat using a specially designed wing pack. On including Falcon, Reed said that it was not done just to include the character, rather "[i]t served a plot point; a purpose in our story" and allowed them to enhance Peña's "tip montages", which were written by production writers Gabriel Ferrari and Andrew Barrer, also adding Falcon "seemed like the right character — not a marquee character like Iron Man or Thor, but the right level of hero." Rudd and McKay decided to include Falcon after watching Captain America: The Winter Soldier.

Wood Harris as Gale: A police officer and Paxton's partner.
Judy Greer as Maggie: Lang's estranged former wife.

David Dastmalchian as Kurt:

A member of Lang's crew. Dastmalchian worked with actress Isidora Goreshter to learn how to speak in his character's Russian accent. On his character, Dastmalchian said that he "had this idea that Kurt was born and raised in a town even further out than Siberia and he was just an amazing computer wizard who fell in with the wrong people. But he was obsessed with two things: Saturday Night Fever and Elvis Presley, hence the polyester shirts unbuttoned too far and the hair in that pompadour."

Michael Douglas as Hank Pym:

A former S.H.I.E.L.D. agent, entomologist, and physicist, who became the original Ant-Man in 1963 after discovering the subatomic particles that make the transformation possible. He later mentors Lang to take over the role. Douglas compared his decision to join a superhero film to his role in Behind the Candelabra saying, "Sometimes - like they didn't see you for Liberace - you've got to shake them up a little bit and have some fun." Describing Pym, Douglas said, "He's sort of a Northern California, formal guy. He's lost control of his company. He lives in sort of a time warp. He was always a bit of a tinkerer. He's got a lab, plus a lot of other stuff, in his basement that we find out about. He's certainly bitter about what happened with his company and deeply scared of what the future might hold - because he himself, after having gotten small so many times, it's difficult. He looks and tries to find a guy that he can work with and has the right characteristics, which is [Scott]." Douglas indicated that he would not be wearing the Ant-Man suit.

Additionally, John Slattery and Hayley Atwell reprise their roles as Howard Stark and Peggy Carter, respectively, from previous MCU media. Slattery stated that his involvement in Ant-Man was "not that much more" than his participation in Iron Man 2, while Atwell described her appearance as being "more of a cameo". Abby Ryder Fortson portrays Cassie, the daughter of Lang and Maggie; Gregg Turkington appears as Dale, the manager of a Baskin-Robbins store; and Martin Donovan plays Mitchell Carson, a former member of S.H.I.E.L.D. who works for Hydra and looks to purchase the Yellowjacket technology. Garrett Morris, who portrayed Ant-Man in a Saturday Night Live sketch, appears as a man in a car. Ant-Man co-creator Stan Lee makes a cameo appearance in the film as a bartender. Chris Evans and Sebastian Stan make uncredited appearances during the post-credits scene as Steve Rogers / Captain America and Bucky Barnes / Winter Soldier, respectively. Hayley Lovitt makes a nonspeaking cameo as Janet van Dyne / Wasp. Tom Kenny provides the voice of "Hideous Rabbit", a children's plush toy.

FILM PLOT

In 1989, scientist Hank Pym resigns from S.H.I.E.L.D. after discovering their attempt to replicate his Ant-Man shrinking technology. Believing the technology is dangerous, Pym vows to hide it as long as he lives. In the present day, Pym's estranged daughter, Hope van Dyne, and former protégé, Darren Cross, have forced him out of his company, Pym Technologies. Cross is close to perfecting a shrinking suit of his own, the Yellowjacket, which horrifies Pym.

Upon his release from prison, well-meaning thief Scott Lang moves in with his old cellmate, Luis. While visiting his daughter Cassie unannounced, Lang is rebuked by his former wife Maggie and her police-detective fiancé, Paxton, for not providing child support. Unable to hold a job because of his criminal record, Lang agrees to join Luis' crew and commit a burglary. Lang breaks into a house and cracks its safe, but only finds what he believes to be an old motorcycle suit, which he takes home. After trying the suit on, Lang accidentally shrinks himself to the size of an insect. Terrified by the experience, he returns the suit to the house, but is arrested on the way out. Pym, the homeowner, visits Lang in jail and smuggles the suit into his cell to help him break out.

At his home, Pym, who manipulated Lang through an unknowing Luis into stealing the suit as a test, wants Lang to become the new Ant-Man to steal the Yellowjacket from Cross. Having been spying on Cross after discovering his intentions, van Dyne helps Pym train Lang to fight and to control ants. While van Dyne harbors resentment towards Pym about her mother Janet's death, he reveals that Janet, known as the Wasp, disappeared into a subatomic quantum realm to disable a Soviet nuclear missile. Pym warns Lang that he could suffer a similar fate if he overrides his suit's regulator. They send him to steal a device that will aid their heist from the Avengers' headquarters, where he briefly fights Sam Wilson.

Cross perfects the Yellowjacket and hosts an unveiling ceremony at Pym Technologies' headquarters. Lang, along with his crew and a swarm of flying ants, infiltrates the building during the event, sabotages the company's servers, and plants explosives. When he attempts to steal the Yellowjacket, he, along with Pym and Hope, are captured by Cross, who intends to sell both the Yellowjacket and Ant-Man suits to Hydra, led by former S.H.I.E.L.D officer Mitchell Carson. Lang breaks free and he and Hope dispatch most of the Hydra agents, though Carson is able to flee with a vial of Cross' particles. Lang pursues Cross as he escapes, while the explosives detonate, imploding the building.

Cross dons the Yellowjacket and attacks Lang before Lang is arrested by Paxton. His mind addled by the imperfect shrinking technology, Cross takes Cassie hostage to lure Lang into another fight. Lang overrides the regulator and shrinks to subatomic size to penetrate Cross' suit and sabotage it to shrink uncontrollably, killing Cross. Lang disappears into the quantum realm but manages to reverse the effects and returns to the macroscopic world. In gratitude for Lang's heroism, Paxton covers for Lang to keep him out of prison. Seeing that Lang survived and returned from the quantum realm, Pym wonders if his wife is alive as well. Later, Lang meets up with Luis, who tells him that Wilson is looking for him.

In a mid-credits scene, Pym shows van Dyne a new Wasp prototype suit and offers it to her. In a post-credits scene, Wilson and Steve Rogers have Bucky Barnes in their custody. Unable to contact Tony Stark because of "the accords", Wilson mentions that he knows someone who could help.

ANT MAN - PRODUCTION

Development of an Ant-Man film began as early as the late 1980s, when Ant-Man co-creator Stan Lee pitched the idea to New World Entertainment, Marvel Comics' parent company at the time. However, Walt Disney Pictures was developing a film based on a similar concept, Honey, I Shrunk the Kids, and although Ant-Man went into development, nothing came to fruition.

In 2000, Howard Stern met with Marvel in an attempt to purchase the film rights to Ant-Man. In May of that year, Artisan Entertainment announced a deal with Marvel to coproduce, finance and distribute a film based on Ant-Man. In 2003, Edgar Wright and his writing partner Joe Cornish wrote a treatment for Artisan, with Wright explaining that it revolved around Scott Lang as a burglar "so he could have gone slightly in the Elmore Leonard route", though Artisan wanted the film to be "like a family thing". However, Wright believed that the treatment was never sent to Marvel. A year later, the duo pitched the film to Marvel Studios' then head of production, Kevin Feige. In April 2006, Marvel Studios hired Wright to direct Ant-Man as part of the company's first slate of independently produced films, buoyed by a $525 million revolving film-financing facility. Wright also signed to co-write the screenplay with Cornish, based on a comic book series about an electronics expert who can shrink to the size of an insect and communicate with ants via telepathic/cybernetic helmet, and to co-produce the film with his Big Talk Productions partner, Nira Park.

At the 2006 San Diego Comic-Con International, Wright said he was intrigued by the story's high concept and character. Wright also stressed that the film would not be a spoof but an action-adventure with some comedic elements and would incorporate both the Hank Pym and Scott Lang incarnations of the character. Wright said that he was looking to "do a prologue where you see Pym as Ant-Man in action in the 60's, in sort of Tales to Astonish mode basically, and then the contemporary, sort of flash-forward, is Scott Lang's story, and how he comes to acquire the suit, how he crosses paths with Hank Pym, and then, in an interesting sort of Machiavellian way, teams up with him." The next February, Wright said that the project was in "a holding pattern" while the script was being revised, and that he had been doing research for the film by studying nanotechnology. In March 2008, Wright said that the first draft of the script had been completed and he was working on the second.

Stan Lee tweeted in February 2010 that Marvel was prepping the film and that he met with Wright for lunch to discuss the character. Wright noted that there was no timetable for the film because Marvel did not consider the character to be one of their bigger, tentpole properties, so "It's more like me and Kevin Feige saying...'Let's make a good script that works, that's all about a great genre film, and that isn't necessarily relying on anything else'". At the 2010 San Diego Comic-Con International, Wright said that Ant-Man would not fit in the chronology of The Avengers due to the origin story he had written not working in the MCU. In January 2011, Wright stated that he had resumed writing the script for the film following the conclusion of the international promotion for Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, and by April he and Cornish delivered the second draft of Ant-Man to Marvel. At the 2011 San Diego Comic-Con International, Wright revealed a third draft had been handed in.

In May 2012, Feige said that the project was "as close as it's ever been" while Wright teased the film by tweeting a pictogram of Ant-Man. In June, Wright spent just under a week shooting footage for a reel that would be used to test out the potential look and tone of his movie, as well as to decide how convincing Ant-Man's powers look on screen. The test footage was screened to audiences during the Marvel Studios panel at the 2012 San Diego Comic-Con International, with Wright confirming that Ant-Man would be happening. Germain Lussier of /Film felt the footage worked and was "awesome", as "it had a totally different vibe from the other Marvel films. It was much more like something you'd recognize from Hot Fuzz." Lussier, along with Katy Rich of CinemaBlend, also enjoyed the costume design choice. That October, Disney scheduled the film for release on November 6, 2015.

Feige stated in January 2013 that Ant-Man would in fact be part of Phase Three of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and indicated in May that the screenplay needed to be modified in order to fit into the universe, as the project had been in development before the first Iron Man film. Feige also stated that shooting was slated to begin sometime in 2014, and that casting would begin towards the end of 2013. In July 2013, Wright said that he and Cornish had completed the script for the film and that Marvel allowed him to delay its production so that he could complete The World's End, as that film's producer Eric Fellner was diagnosed with cancer.

In August 2013, after Joss Whedon, director of Avengers: Age of Ultron, announced that Hank Pym would not be Ultron's creator, Wright said Ultron was never a part of the story of Ant-Man, explaining that "just to sort of set up what Ant-Man does is enough for one movie". Wright described Ant-Man as a stand-alone film but said it would fit into to the larger continuity of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, explaining, "I like to make it standalone because I think the premise of it needs time. I want to put the crazy premise of it into a real world, which is why I think Iron Man really works because it's a relatively simple universe; it's relatable. I definitely want to go into finding a streamlined format where you use the origin format to introduce the main character and further adventures can bring other people into it." Wright also stated that pre-production for Ant-Man would begin in October and filming would begin in 2014. The next month, Disney moved the film's release date up to July 31, 2015.

ANT MAN - FILMING

Principal photography began on August 18, 2014 in San Francisco, under the working title Bigfoot. Scenes were shot in the Tenderloin neighborhood and Buena Vista Park. By the end of September 2014, production on Ant-Man moved to Pinewood Atlanta Studios in Fayette County, Georgia, and David Callaham completed a rewrite of the film. Filming also took place at the State Archives building in Downtown Atlanta, to double as Pym Technologies, which is located on Treasure Island, San Francisco in the film. In October 2014, Martin Donovan was added to the cast, and Feige revealed that Ant-Man would no longer start Phase Three of the Marvel Cinematic Universe and would instead be the final film of Phase Two. When told by /Film's Germain Lussier that this placement between Avengers: Age of Ultron and Captain America: Civil War made the film feel like an afterthought, Feige replied,

It's not [an after thought]. The truth is the phases mean a lot to me and some people but...Civil War is the start of Phase Three. It just is. And Ant-Man is a different kind of culmination of Phase Two because it very much is in the MCU. You meet new characters and you learn about Hank Pym and his lineage with the MCU over the years. But at the same time, it also picks up the thread of Age of Ultron in terms of heroes—major heroes, Avengers—coming from unexpected places... And in that way it connects a lot. Also, Hank Pym's attitude towards Avengers, towards S.H.I.E.L.D., and kind of the cinematic universe in general, is much more informed after the events of Age of Ultron, and in a certain way, before the events of Civil War.

Feige later expanded on this by saying, "[W]e put Ant-Man at the end of Phase Two as opposed to the beginning of Phase Three, because it sets up a lot of the things you're going to see heading into Phase Three, one of which is this mind-bending, reality-altering landscape [in Doctor Strange]. On December 5, 2014, Reed announced on social media that principal photography on Ant-Man had been completed.

For the film, cinematographer Russell Carpenter used a 1.85 aspect ratio shot with Arri Alexa XT and M cameras, using the M for fight sequences and helicopter filming. Camera operator Peter Rosenfeld said, "Russell and Peyton's decision to shoot in 1.85 was a good call, since at 2.35 there's insufficient height in frame to appreciate the vertical aspects of [Ant-Man] going from standing full-size to falling through a crack in the floor." Carpenter and Technicolor also devised a lookup table (LUT) to darken the color palette. Carpenter said, "For a lot of recent comedies I've kept my LUTs kind of 'Kodak' – saturated and upbeat. But this show needed something different that affected skin tones and the Ant-Man suit, which dates back to the 1980s, so it looks a little run-down. What I loved about this LUT was how it allowed the costume to retain the color but took it from fire-engine red to something a little more weathered."

The filmmakers made extensive use of macro photography. Production designer Shepherd Frankel said, "It's more visually interesting to depict things from Ant-Man's point of view instead of seeing him from a normal perspective. But we wanted a realistic realization, not Honey, I Shrunk the Kids with its oversized set pieces." Rebecca Baehler served as the director of macro photography, taking cues from Carpenter. Carpenter said vibration became "a tremendous problem" when moving the camera during the macro photography because "one inch off the ground is like fifteen feet in the air. From an ant's perspective, you move four inches, to a human perspective, that's a football field!" The solution required the filmmakers to think outside of the box so they turned to Baehler, who had a background in "commercial 'tabletop' photography." In order to add Rudd's performance as Ant-Man when in the macro world a Centroid facial capture set up was used, with a 5-camera array of Alexas surrounding Rudd. Rosenfeld explained, "One camera was set up vertically while the others were horizontal with overlapping image areas, all set to record at 48 frames per second. This maximized resolution and provided 3D modeling [of] Paul's performance." Reed would then call out story moments with Rudd performing "facial expressions that would later be composited on a CG Ant-Man."

ANT MAN - MARKETING

In March 2014, ABC aired a one-hour television special titled, Marvel Studios: Assembling a Universe, which included a sneak peek of Ant-Man. In July 2014, Reed, Rudd, Douglas, Lilly, and Stoll appeared at Marvel Studios' panel at the 2014 San Diego Comic–Con International to help promote the film and screen a visual effects test featuring Rudd and Douglas. In October 2014, Marvel Comics' Editor-in-Chief Axel Alonso stated there are comic tie-in plans for the film. In November 2014, ABC aired another one-hour television special titled, Marvel 75 Years: From Pulp to Pop!, which featured behind the scenes footage of Ant-Man. Marvel Comics' February 2015 solicitations released in December 2014, revealed a two-issue comic tie-in, Marvel's Ant-Man Prelude, following Hank Pym as Ant-Man on a mission during the Cold War. A second comic tie-in, Marvel's Ant-Man—Scott Lang: Small Time, was released digitally on March 3, 2015. It explains Lang's circumstances at the beginning of the film.

In January 2015, Disney officially began the film's marketing campaign by releasing a miniature "ant-sized" teaser trailer, a full-sized version of the same teaser trailer, a poster, a cover on Entertainment Weekly, and a full-length trailer during the premiere of the television series Agent Carter. Scott Mendelson of Forbes, said, "It was darn-clever for Disney to put out a miniature 'can't see anything without a microscope' version of the now-standard trailer for the trailer. I sighed just a little when they 'gave in' and released a human-sized version, realizing that Disney had just released what amounted to a teaser to a teaser to a trailer... But nonetheless, credit where credit is due, Disney was able to turn a single theatrical trailer into three separate news drops in about five days." Mendelson went on to say that "the peppy, witty trailer above is a general audience sell. Marvel knows the geeks will come if only to throw stones, but it's the mainstream audience that needs to be sold. So far, so good." However, Graeme McMillan of The Hollywood Reporter criticized the trailer for its placement during the broadcast premiere of Agent Carter, its tone, its soundtrack, and for being thematically similar to other trailers from Marvel Studios. McMillan concluded, "The Ant-Man trailer isn't bad, per se; it is, however, impressively underwhelming, which almost seems worse. Thanks to the last-minute exit of original writer-director Edgar Wright and the subsequent struggle to find a replacement, Ant-Man has become the movie that people are expecting to be Marvel's first failure, in critical if not financial terms, at least; this trailer, which fails to convince and gets by on goodwill for those involved and the Marvel brand as much as anything else, doesn't do enough — or anything, really — to persuade audiences that that's not the case." The trailer generated 29 million views worldwide in three days, the third-largest viewership for a Marvel Studios film, behind trailers for Iron Man 3 and Avengers: Age of Ultron.

In April 2015, Marvel debuted a second trailer for Ant-Man. Mendelson said it was "frankly the Ant-Man trailer that we've been waiting for. It's not just funny and exciting, it's an 'Ah ha!' moment when we realize just what exactly an Ant-Man movie has to offer." Also in April, miniature billboards promoting Ant-Man with battery-powered LED lights began appearing in Brisbane, Melbourne and other areas around Queensland, Australia as part of a street marketing campaign for the film. In May 2015, Marvel, in partnership with Dolby Laboratories, Visa, and Raspberry Pi, announced the "Ant-Man Micro-Tech Challenge", aimed at females aged 14 through 18, to create DIY projects involving micro technology and readily accessible and found materials. Winners teamed with STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics education) programs in their areas to lead teams in recreating their projects. On June 11, 2015, Marvel released posters featuring Ant-Man juxtaposed with Iron Man's armor, Captain America's shield, and Thor's hammer Mjolnir. Mendelson compared this to Disney's marketing campaign for Lilo & Stitch that put the protagonist into iconic scenes from other Disney cartoons. Beginning June 12, a six-minute IMAX preview of the film was screened before showings of Jurassic World. Additionally, beginning June 19, scenes from the film were shown at Disney California Adventure's Bug's Life Theater in 3D with in-theater effects.

In early July 2015, Marvel began a viral marketing campaign featuring Leslie Bibb, reprising her role from the Iron Man films as journalist Christine Everhart, reporting for a faux news program. In the program, Everhart discuses the fallout from the events of Avengers: Age of Ultron, Lang's imprisonment, and events leading to Captain America: Civil War. Also in July, Michael Douglas and executives from Marvel Entertainment rang the closing bell of the New York Stock Exchange in celebration of the release of Ant-Man. Disney spent $34.8 million on television advertising for the film, more than the $26.9 million spent for Avengers: Age of Ultron, since the former was a new property.

In December 2015, to commemorate the home media release of Ant-Man, Marvel UK launched a website that offers visitors a view of various London landmarks from the perspective of an ant in a Google Street View-type experience. The company commissioned photographer Will Pearson to capture ten different locations including Tower Bridge, Oxford Circus, the British Museum, St Paul's Cathedral and Nelson's Column using a 360° miniature camera that sat centimeters off of the ground.

ANT MAN - RELEASE

Ant-Man premiered at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood on June 29, 2015, and opened the 2015 Fantasia International Film Festival on July 14, 2015, along with Miss Hokusai. The film was released in France on July 14, and was released in North America on July 17, in 3D and IMAX 3D. The film was released in the United States in 3,800 theaters, with the breakdown of 3,100 3D screens, 361 IMAX screens, 388 large format screens and 133 D-Box screens. Ant-Man had originally been scheduled for release on November 6, 2015. In September 2013, the release was moved to July 31, 2015, before changing for a final time to July 17, 2015 in January 2014. An unfinished version of the film was screened on June 24, 2015, at CineEurope.

BOX OFFICE RECEPTION

As of November 29, 2015, Ant-Man has grossed $180.1 million in North America and $338.4 million in other territories for a worldwide total of $518.5 million.

Ant-Man made $6.4 million from its Thursday night showings in North America, with 48% of tickets sales for IMAX and other large-format showings, and $23.4 million on its opening day, including Thursday's previews, making it the second-lowest opening day for a Marvel film, only ahead of 2008's The Incredible Hulk ($21.4 million). It fell 18% to earn $19.25 million on Saturday, and for its opening weekend total, earned $57.2 million. It marked the second-lowest debut for Marvel behind the $55.4 million debut of The Incredible Hulk in 2008. IMAX contributed $6.1 million to the opening gross, with premium large format screens comprising $6.4 million and Cinemark XD comprising $1.3 million, respectively. Though the film fell below its $60 million estimate, Disney nonetheless said it was content with the results, which continued Marvel's streak of number one opening films, giving the studio its twelfth consecutive win. Disney also reported that the film drew the largest share of families (28%) and women (32%) of any Marvel superhero title. It was also the biggest live-action opening ever for Rudd (breaking Knocked Up??'?s record of $30.7 million) and a record opening for Douglas. It continued to be the top film at the box office in its second weekend.

Outside North America, it earned $55.4 million in its opening weekend from 37 countries, debuting in third place at the international box office behind the Chinese film Monster Hunt and Minions as well as an IMAX opening of $9.1 million. The top openings were the UK ($6 million), Mexico ($5.6 million), and Russia ($4.9 million). It had the biggest opening for a first-installment Marvel film in Hong Kong, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Taiwan, and Thailand. The film's opening in South Korea in early September 2015 earned $9.3 million, the highest opening for an international market at the time, before being surpassed by the Chinese opening in mid-October 2015, which earned $42.4 million, with $5.1 million coming from IMAX. The large opening weekend in China helped Ant-Man place first at the international box office for the first time, with the Chinese opening the second largest for an MCU film in the country behind Avengers: Age of Ultron. The film stayed at number one in China for a second week, earning an additional $22 million. As of November 1, 2015, the largest markets are China with $101.3 million, followed by the UK with $25.4 million, and South Korea with $18.9 million.

CRITICS

The review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes reported a 79% approval rating with an average rating of 6.8/10 based on 248 reviews. The website's consensus reads, "Led by a charming performance from Paul Rudd, Ant-Man offers Marvel thrills on an appropriately smaller scale – albeit not as smoothly as its most successful predecessors." On Metacritic, the film has an average score of 64 out of 100, based on 43 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews". CinemaScore reported that audiences gave the film an "A" grade on an A+ to F scale.

Justin Chang of Variety said the film "succeeds well enough as a genial diversion and sometimes a delightful one, predicated on the rarely heeded Hollywood wisdom that less really can be more." Todd McCarthy of The Hollywood Reporter remarked, "Although the story dynamics are fundamentally silly and the family stuff, with its parallel father-daughter melodrama, is elemental button-pushing, a good cast led by a winning Paul Rudd puts the nonsense over in reasonably disarming fashion." Kenneth Turan of the Los Angeles Times wrote, "Playful in unexpected ways and graced with a genuinely off-center sense of humor, Ant-Man (engagingly directed by Peyton Reed) is light on its feet the way the standard-issue Marvel behemoths never are." Kim Newman of Empire wrote that it "straddles as many genres as the Avengers films have characters but manages to do most of them pretty well. Extremely likable, with a few moments of proper wonder." A. O. Scott of The New York Times said, "This film is a passable piece of drone work from the ever-expanding Marvel-Disney colony."

Conversely, Alonso Duralde of TheWrap said the film "serves up jokes that don't land and thrills that don't thrill." Richard Roeper of the Chicago Sun-Times said Ant-Man "is a lightweight, cliché-riddled origins story that veers between inside-joke comedy, ponderous redemption story lines and admittedly nifty CGI sequences that still seem relatively insignificant compared to the high stakes and city-shattering destruction that take place in most of the Avengers movies." Catherine Shoard of The Guardian wrote, "Ant-Man is a cut-and-shut muddle, haunted by [Edgar Wright's] ghost, produced by a high-end hot dog factory, by turns giddying and stupefying." Joe Morgenstern of The Wall Street Journal said that it is "a film that will surely be popular, given Marvel's marketing might, but one that's woefully short on coherence and originality." Christopher Orr of The Atlantic said, "It's difficult to shake the sense that the film was assembled hurriedly and somewhat haphazardly. Which, from all available evidence, is exactly what happened."

POSSIBLE SEQUEL / PREQUEL

In June 2015, Reed stated, "If we were lucky enough to be able to do a sequel or even a prequel, I'd be way into it. I've really fallen in love with these characters... [T]here's a lot of story to tell with Hank Pym." In July 2015, Douglas expressed the desire to have his wife Catherine Zeta-Jones play Janet van Dyne, while Lilly hoped to see Michelle Pfeiffer in the role. Douglas also revealed he was not signed for any additional films, but "would look forward to more if it comes my way". Also in July, Feige revealed that the studio had "a supercool idea for the next Ant-Man film, and if audiences want it, we'll find a place to do it." Reed also mentioned that there had been talks of doing a standalone adventure with Hank Pym as Ant-Man, possibly including the original opening to Ant-Man that featured Jordi Mollà, which had been cut from the final film. Eric Eisenberg of Cinema Blend opined that a standalone adventure with Pym and the cut sequence would be a good candidate to revive the Marvel One-Shots short film series. By the end of the month, Dastmalchian expressed interest in returning for a sequel. In October 2015, Marvel Studios confirmed that a sequel, titled Ant-Man and the Wasp, is scheduled for release on July 6, 2018. By late October, Reed entered negotiations to direct the sequel, and was confirmed to return in November 2015, along with Rudd and Lilly.

Armed with the astonishing ability to shrink in scale but increase in strength, con-man Scott Lang must embrace his inner-hero and help his mentor, Dr. Hank Pym, protect the secret behind his spectacular Ant-Man suit from a new generation of towering threats. Against seemingly insurmountable obstacles, Pym and Lang must plan and pull off a heist that will save the world.

Rating: PG-13 (for sci-fi action violence)
Genre: Action & Adventure, Mystery & Suspense, Science Fiction & Fantasy, Comedy
Directed By: Peyton Reed
Written By: Joe Cornish, Edgar Wright, Adam McKay, Paul Rudd, Stan Lee
In Theaters: Jul 17, 2015 Wide
On DVD: Nov 30, 2015
US Box Office: £180.1M
Runtime: 1 hr. 55 min.

CAST

Paul Rudd as Scott Lang/Ant-Man
Michael Douglas as Dr. Hank Pym
Evangeline Lilly as Hope Van Dyne
Corey Stoll as Darren Cross/Yellowj...
Michael Peña as Luis
Hayley Atwell
Bobby Cannavale as Paxton
Judy Greer as Maggie
David Dastmalchian as Kurt

MISTAKES

LINKS

http://www.facebook.com/antman
https://twitter.com/AntMan?ref_src=twsrc^google|twcamp^serp|twgr^author
http://marvel.com/antman
http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/antman/
http://www.theguardian.com/film/2015/jul/21/uk-box-office-ant-man-victory-amy-andre-rieu-bollywood