Exclusive Interview with Marvel Ant-Man Director

The 12th film from Marvel Studios, and the final film in Phase 2 of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, is in theaters now! Marvel’s Ant-Man hit #1 at the Box Office opening weekend, and there is still time to put on those 3D glasses and experience it for yourself! Whether you’ve seen the film or not, learning about the Making of Ant-Man in this Exclusive Interview with Marvel Ant-Man Director Peyton Reed and Producer Kevin Feige is pretty interesting! (PS: May contain Ant-Man Spoilers)

Ant-Man is interesting because he was one of the original Avengers, which a lot of people might not know. I also like that there is a passing of the mantle from Hank Pym to Scott Lang that sets up a great mentor-pupil dynamic between the characters. That’s a classic Marvel Comics dynamic and something that we really haven’t seen in the Marvel Cinematic Universe so far. – Ant-Man Director Peyton Reed

I was provided with this experience by Disney/Marvel/Disney XD. Any opinions are 100% my own.

Photo credit: Louise Bishop /MomStart.com

Exclusive Interview with Marvel Ant-Man Director Peyton Reed and Producer Kevin Feige

Marvel Ant-Man Director Peyton Reed is a Fanboy at heart. He brought to the film, ideas that he wanted to see in as a fan. When creative minds like Peyton Reed and producer Kevin Feige agree on a project, the final result is very enjoyable.

I wanted to do this kind of movie, and specifically I had wanted to do a Marvel movie, for a long time. Years ago, too many years, probably 2003, I developed Fantastic 4 for a time, and that’s where I first met Kevin Feige. I did not end up doing that movie, but it was something that I really wanted to do. I actually came in and pitched on Guardians of the Galaxy. So, when Ant-Man came about and the opportunity came up, I really jumped at the chance. I knew the character from the comics, I’d wanted to work with Paul Rudd for a long time and we’d never had a chance to work together so it just made sense. – Ant-Man Director Peyton Reed

When it comes to directing a movie that involves shrinking, we as the audience really want to feel it. Like running through blades of grass from a lawn mower in Honey I Shrunk the Kids feel it. And I did. I was running through grass, surfing down water pipes, and riding on ants with Ant-Man! Watching Marvel’s Ant-Man in 3D in a must because the special effects shrink-tastic!

There are over 1600 visual effects in the movie. It’s a big deal in that regard. It really is what Marvel does extremely well. I spent a lot of time with Jake Morrison, our Visual Effects Supervisor, talking about the look of the movie and the realism that we wanted. We were going to be doing what’s hopefully the definitive shrinking movie for 2015….unless there are other shrinking movies I don’t know about? It had to look as photo realistic as possible. It really had to put the viewer down in that environment. When he shrinks down we are going to be shrinking the audience down with us. ‘What would that look like? How would it feel? How are we going to achieve that?‘ If he’s running across the table, I wanted to really feel the texture of the table and all of that. Marvel just happens to employ the top people in Hollywood for doing that. It’s amazing, and the stuff they are able to pull off is kind of mind boggling. – Ant-Man Director Peyton Reed

One of the big things that makes Ant-Man stand out among other Marvel films is the relateability it offers. It’s not all about the super powers and saving the world. It’s about family and fighting for those you love. What parent doesn’t want to protect their child? What parent hasn’t made mistakes and needed forgiveness?

One of the things that appealed to me about Ant-Man in the first place is that, particularly in the context of Marvel movies, it was a smaller more intimate Marvel movie. It did kind of revolve around family. Scott Lang, his one goal in the movie when he gets out of prison, is to become a part of his daughter’s life. That’s it. That’s all he wants. It’s a really strong relateable personal goal. He has to go on a crazy journey and achieve a lot of crazy things to become a part of her life. – Ant-Man Director Peyton Reed

It’s not just Scott Lang that shows heartache in the fatherhood department. Hank Pym (Michael Douglas) and Hope (Evangeline Lilly) have a strained relationship due to her mother dying when she was 7, and Hank disappearing when she needed him most. What daughter hasn’t looked up to their father and wanted nothing more than for him to be there and believe in her?

I also like that Michael Douglas and Paul Rudd’s characters both have daughters and they both have strained relationships, and want to be closer to their daughter. That’s sort of a bond they have. They may not realize that’s their bond at all, but it is. With Hank Pym and Hope, it’s crucial to the success of pulling off the heist. They have to repair that relationship. They’re never going to achieve that goal unless they find some peace with each other. I love that, I thought that was a strong relateable aspect about the movie. – Ant-Man Director Peyton Reed

Speaking of Hope, watching her take control of the ants within seconds, it can be hard to understand why Hank Pym doesn’t just put her in the Ant-Man suit already. By the end of the movie you understand his protective instincts as a father, and see him realize what Hope is capable of. Trust me when I tell you to stay for the credits. All. Of. Them.

The key to Hank Pym’s problem about pulling of this heist and solving it, was right under his nose the whole time. Clearly Hope is the more capable person at the beginning of the movie and Hank can’t see that yet. In his mind his motivation is he’s trying to protect his daughter. He doesn’t want her to meet a fate that his wife might have met in the movie. Throughout the course of the movie, these two find peace with each other and part of that finding peace is Hank starting to realize how capable she is. By the time we get to the end of the movie, there is a sequence that occurs in the credits, and both figuratively and literally she’s finally allowed to spread her wings. It’s because Hank finally realizes that she had value and he’s sort of able to let go and accept that she’s a powerful person. – Ant-Man Director Peyton Reed

Ant-Man is about the shrinking power, it’s about Pym Particles, it’s about ants and the ability to control them. But, it’s also about the heist. Without the heist, there is no reason for Hank Pym to need Scott Lang to wear the Ant-Man Suit. But when it comes to your typical heist movies, they doesn’t offer the comedy Ant-Man does, and work as well as it does.

I actually did go back and look at bunch of heist movies like Oceans Eleven and Thomas Crowne Affair. But there’s a certain rhythm that these heist movies have. I think there is a big correlation between how a comedy plays and how you shoot a comedy, to a heist movie and how you build tension. It was something that was always there in the original scripts that Edgar and Joe wrote. Where it was a heist movie structure and there’s something really fun about that, and when Adam Mckay and Paul Rudd came on to write, I really wanted to enhance that, and we had a lot of fun. – Ant-Man Director Peyton Reed

If you are hearing anything about Marvel’s Ant-Man, it’s probably about the humor. It’s there, and quite often but it’s not over-powering. It works perfectly, and I gotta be honest and say it’s been awhile since I’ve heard a whole theater laugh out loud that many times. Although, I could have moved a few rows away from the cackling chick next to us… 😉

In terms of the comedy, I love the idea that it can have big stakes and have heart, but it’s funny. I wanted to make it a tight fun movie that hopefully is a repeat movie going experience that is fun. And makes you feel good. Particularly when you have Paul Rudd at the center of it, it’s going to be funny. – Ant-Man Director Peyton Reed

While we are on comedy and heist, I have to mention, again, how fantastically amazing Michael Pena was at the role of Luis. Perfect casting.

We knew there was going to be a moment, where Scott Lang was going to be tempted to go back into a life of crime, and he had to know that tip was solid. He goes to Luis (Michael Pena) and says ‘tell me about the tip.’ Now, when you ask Luis about a tip, it might not be a straight answer. We loved the idea, and we sort of added that in pre-production as we were writing. This is a fun element of a guy who sometimes goes off point as he tells these stories. It also helped build Michael Pena’s character as this guy who has an unsuspected depth to him. He’s a connoisseur of wines, and he’s into expressionist art, and cooks waffles for the guys. I loved the idea of how crazy it was. – Ant-Man Director Peyton Reed

The bird was let out of the bag by Marvel about a week before Ant-Man hit theaters. Yes, there is an Avengers Cameo in Marvel’s Ant-Man by Falcon! Both times I watched the film, the theater erupted during this scene the second Ant-man cleared the trees and you could read the roof of the building.

The heist movie idea was a fun structure to work in. Something that comes about, in all the heist movies, is they’ve got the plan in place but ‘oh no‘, there is this one element that we still have to get. I think it was Adam Mckay who came in and said ‘what if that required ant-man, whose not quite prepared, to go in and maybe face this other marvel character?’ I loved that idea. I thought that was fantastic. As a kid, I loved when Marvel characters met each other, and ‘how does this power stack up with this one?‘ That was something that was incredibly fun to shoot in the movie, and really served a purpose to the plot of this because he’s thrown into this way before he’s ready to come up against the guy he came up against. – Ant-Man Director Peyton Reed

It was pretty awesome to learn from President of Marvel Studios and Ant-Man Producer Kevin Feige that ‘in test screenings, often times the movies are rated higher by the women in the audience than by the men‘. Yes, the Marvel Fan Base has a huge portion of women, but that doesn’t mean Marvel makes the movie work for us. Feige’s goal is to ‘make movies we want to go see‘ and in those movies they want to see ‘powerful women because we all have powerful women in our lives‘.

When it comes to Hope, it was a big part of the development of Ant-Man. In particular when Peyton Reed came on board, and when Evangeline Lilly was about to come on board, the big question was why isn’t she in the suit? She could easily be in the suit. She is clearly (in the movie) in some ways more capable than Scott Lang is to be in the suit. It became the crux of her issues with her dad and her issues with the relationship they had growing up, and why it becomes a big reveal in the movie. This is why I’m so adamant about it. Leading up to the moment at the very end of the movie where Hank Pym gets over those issues and Hope says, which I think is one of my favorite quotes of any of our films, ‘It’s about damn time‘ – Ant-Man Producer Kevin Feige

I have to agree with Feige, man I love that line from Evangeline Lilly. Both times I’ve seen it I got goosebumps and this smirkish grin spread across my face. 😀 It’s a good thing Kevin Feige confirmed that The Wasp will be joining Phase 3 of Marvel Cinematic Universe!

Before I wrap things up, we have to talk about one of the most important characters of Marvel’s Ant-Man. The ants. Not only does Ant-Man tell it’s story with distinct types of ants, but they are all based on reality! When kids see this movie and go “Whoa! Ants can do that?” they can go home and look it up online or in a book and it’s real! I recently told you about The Ants of Ant-Man and oddly enough, the ants and Scott Lang’s Powers were the challenging parts to filming Ant-Man for Director Peyton Reed, aside from Paul Rudd’s shirtless scene which we can all agree would be a little challenging. 😉

Probably the most challenging thing was…essentially Ant-Man has a couple of powers. Shrinking – how are we going to realize the shrinking and make it seem absolutely real? But the second power, he controls ants. I was intrigued by that story wise about it’s so absurd as a power. I love that the movie really answers the audiences question of how can that be cool or how can that achieve anything in this heist? We were able to tell this story, that there are these distinct types of ants and they have these specific skill sets. -Ant-Man Director Peyton Reed

I left the best part of the Exclusive Interview with Marvel’s Ant-Man Director and Producer for last. The moment when EznasBargains flipped around her laptop screen and showed Peyton Reed and Kevin Feige and image a fan sent her on Twitter. Showing Ant-Man perched on the end of Hawkeyes Arrow and asked…“When are we going to see Hawkeye and Ant-Man join forces?” – the look on Feige’s face. You could see the creative wheels churning!

That’s a great image. I love that image. Usually images I love find there way into movies. So….. – Ant-Man Producer Kevin Feige
When I started on Ant-Man, I was pouring through the old comic books and finding images that I loved as a kid, or that appealed to me now. ‘That’s a cool use of the power, that’s got to find it’s way into the movie.‘ Those are the kind of images, they’re really iconic. I think in some of the first Ant-Man things, he had in his headquarters a slingshot system where literally some kind of rubber-band shot him across town. That did not find it’s way into the movie, but I love those kinds of things. – Marvel’s Ant-Man Director Peyton Reed

Getting the the chance to sit down with Ant-Man Director Peyton Reed, as well President of Marvel Studios and Producer of Ant-Man Kevin Feige was an honor. Seeing and hearing the passion they have for the films, it makes me a bigger Fangirl than before!

Peyton showed me something after he got the job; it was a drawing that he had done in high school for a punk bandthat he was in, and it was a pencil-drawn re-creation of ‘The Avengers #1,’ where each of the band members was a different Avenger. Sure enough, Peyton had drawn himself as Ant-Man when he was in high school, so that connection to it was very cool.” – Ant-Man Producer Kevin Feige

Photo credit: Louise Bishop /MomStart.com and Marvel

Catch Marvel’s Ant-Man in theaters NOW! Take the family, your friends, shoot, I’d go again solo but I’m thinking maybe IMAX for the third go around….

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