Ant-Man Interview with Director Edgar Wright

ComingSoon.net was able to have an exclusive interview with director Edgar Wright. (I try to have exclusive interviews, but for some reason they always call the police). But anyway, they talked about the status of the Ant-Man movie. Here are some notes of what they talked about:

- The first draft of Ant-Man has been written.
- The movie might be a stand alone film and not connected to the Avengers Movie.
- It will mostly be an origin tale for either Hank Pym or Scott Lang.
- Wasp may be included but may also have her own spin-off movie.
- Ant-Man has the worst villains (i.e. Living Eraser, The Protractor...).
- There might not have a villain in the movie. Just Ant-Man being Ant-Man.
- Ant-Man doesn't have many die hard fans.
- Stan Lee hopes Ant-Man could be bigger.

Basically Ant-Man sucks and a solo movie shouldn't be made.

For the while interview go here.

Stan Lee and Joe Simon Talk About Their Heroes

Nothing incredibly new, but an article on USA Today talks about the upcoming Marvel movies. Zak Penn (X2: X-Men United, Elektra, X-Men: The Last Stand, The Incredible Hulk) is currently working on a screenplay for The Avengers.

Stan Lee, 85, creator of the Hulk, Iron Man, Thor, Ant-Man and Nick Fury, and Joe Simon, 94, creator of Captain America, (boy these guys are old) talks about the origins of the next few heroes to make it to the big screen. Here's what they said.

Thor
Release date: Solo film to be released June 4, 2010
Screenwriter: Mark Protosevich (I Am Legend)
Origin: Disabled medical student Donald Blake discovers a mighty hammer that transforms him into his alter ego, the Norse warrior Thor. Lee recalls meeting years ago with Fabio, the romance-novel cover boy, about playing the part. "Someone brought him up to my office to see if he could play Thor," Lee says. "Visually, he would have been good, but in those days we weren't even in a position to do a movie." Lee says Thor "will have to be someone big and strong and kind of blondish. And there should be a nobility."

Ant-Man
Release date: Solo film, but timing not yet available
Director: Edgar Wright (Shaun of the Dead)
Screenwriters: Wright and Joe Cornish
Origin: Biochemist Hank Pym can alter his size as well as communicate with and control insects. Ant-Man creator Stan Lee recently had lunch with Wright to discuss the direction of the film. "There's never been a hero like this in the movies," Lee says. "I did one comic book called The Man in the Ant Hill about a guy who shrunk down and there were ants or bees chasing him. That sold so well that I thought making him into a superhero might be fun."

The First Avenger: Captain America
Release date: Solo film to be released May 6, 2011
Origin: Captain America made his debut in 1941 as lowly U.S. Army Pvt. Steve Rogers. "We had him peeling spuds," creator Joe Simon recalls. "The government shot him up with a super-serum, which made him the first of what was to be an army of superheroes." Simon and comic-book artist Jack Kirby, who died in 1994, created the character during World War II as an all-American adversary to Adolf Hitler. "We were a war-consumed nation, just like today," he says. "Hitler was a comic foil for our character, and every comic sold out that first year." Simon now suggests that Osama bin Laden might be an appropriate foe for Captain America to pursue. But Captain America more likely will take on his most famous adversary, the Red Skull — a Nazi (later turned Communist) introduced by Simon in Captain America Comics #1.

Nick Fury
Release date: Not intended as a solo film, but character will appear in The Avengers universe in summer 2011
Origin: Lee introduced the character in 1963 in the war magazine Sgt. Fury and His Howling Commandos. "It did very well," Lee says. "But after a couple of years, I got bored with it and wanted to kill it. Years later, I got a lot of fan mail asking, 'What happened to Sgt. Fury?' In those days, there was a popular show called The Man From U.N.C.L.E., so I brought Nick back as a colonel for S.H.I.E.L.D.: Supreme Headquarters, International Espionage, Law-Enforcement Division."

Hehe, Fabio.

Feige on the Avengers Movie

In a recent interview by IGN Movies, Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige talked a lot of his thoughts on the 2011 live action Avengers movie. Feige says,

"Our instincts are definitely leading us towards some specific directions for it. It will be a challenge. But I think what we've done in the past, and particularly my experience on the X-Men films where we balanced, you know, X-Men 2 had half a dozen villains and more than a half a dozen heroes. And Avengers won't have that many characters in it,"

"I think that it's safe to assume that the world will be populated by characters that the fans of the comics will recognize beyond the solo movies that have come out, but at the same time I want to be very, very cautious of overdoing it and very, very careful not to just cram in. I don't want it to be a movie where every five minutes a character walks by and people smile at the cameo. I really want it to be an ensemble adventure that stands on its own."

So there will be more characters than the ones with their own feature movie. Like Ant-Man, and Wasp. I wouldn't want to watch 2 hours of the origin of the Wasp but I wouldn't mind having her appear in the Avengers. Good choice by Marvel.

[IGN Movies]