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Ant-Man Today Heroes Don’t Get Any Bigger

The next evolution of the Marvel Cinematic Universe brings a founding member of The Avengers to the big screen for the first time with Marvel Studios’ “Ant-Man.”

THE MARVEL CINEMATIC UNIVERSE

In 2015 Marvel Studios continued its streak of pleasing fans and critics alike with the release of the box-office blockbuster sequel “Avengers: Age of Ultron.” The film opened to over $191 million at the box office and has gone on to gross more than $1.2 billion at the worldwide box office and counting.

Marvel Comics first introduced Hank Pym/Ant-Man in 1962 in “Tales to Astonish #27” and later Pym appeared alongside The Avengers in the team’s debut in “Avengers #1” in 1963. Pym became Ant-Man after discovering a chemical substance—the Pym Particle—that allowed him to alter his size and possess superhuman strength. With the development of another of Pym’s technologies, Ant-Man also has the ability to control armies of ants.

The Marvel Cinematic Universe’s new action-packed adventure brings us master thief Scott Lang as the present-day Ant-Man. Marvel’s “Ant-Man” stars Paul Rudd (“I Love You, Man,” “Role Models”) as Scott Lang aka Ant-Man; Evangeline Lilly (“The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug,” “Lost”) as Hope van Dyne, daughter of Hank Pym; Corey Stoll (“House of Cards,” “The Bourne Legacy”) as Darren Cross aka Yellowjacket; Bobby Cannavale (“Chef,” “Blue Jasmine”) as Paxton; Michael Peña (“End of Watch,” “American Hustle”) as Luis; Tip “T.I.” Harris (“American Gangster,” “Identity Thief”) as Dave; Wood Harris (“Above the Rim,” “Remember the Titans”) as Gale; Judy Greer (“13 Going on 30,” “Dawn of the Planet of the Apes”) as Maggie; David Dastmalchian (“The Dark Knight,” “Prisoners”) as Kurt; and Michael Douglas (“Behind the Candelabra,” “Wall Street”) as Dr. Hank Pym.

BUILDING A SUPER-HERO SUIT

Costume designer Sammy Sheldon Differ and head suit designer Ivo Coveney were tasked with designing and creating from scratch all of the practical Ant-Man suits that Paul Rudd and the stunt team would wear.

Following a successful test shoot of the helmet and suit, Differ and Coveney began the long process of designing and building the Ant-Man suit and helmet for the film itself. The first step in the process was deciding on the style and materials that would comprise the suit design.

One of the biggest challenges for Coveney was building and perfecting the helmet, which gives Ant-Man the power to control armies of ants. “When you look at the costume and the concept art as we were given, it looks fairly straightforward, but then when you start breaking it down you start to see just how many circuits there are for lights, you see how much the belt needs to move and all the parts of the helmet as well and you start to say this is not as simple as it looks. In fact, it is one of the more complicated suits built for Marvel because everything needed to work practically in this suit and helmet and that became a daunting task.”

Coveney continues, “For example, the way that the respirator had to sit on Paul and the way it was drawn basically made me realize that the helmet was going to have to be made in many different individual components. Believe it or not, each helmet has 54 different pieces to it as well as 10 LED lights. Then obviously there are all the nuts and bolts and you also have your lining inside the helmet as well, so at the end of the day you’re well over 60 individual components just for each helmet.”

CREATING ANT-MAN’S PERSPECTIVE

One of the things that was most important to director Peyton Reed was realizing that at its core Marvel’s “Ant-Man” is a shrinking movie. “There’s a long history of cinematic movies from ‘The Incredible Shrinking Man,’ ‘Honey, I Shrunk the Kids’ and just on up,” says Reed, “but this had to be 2015’s version of a shrinking movie, and by that it means the bar is very, very high in terms of technology. It’s got to look photorealistic. We have to believe that he’s shrinking and part of that is what are the methodologies? How are we going to do this? It used to be that you’d bring in the giant pencil or the giant baseball, but we didn’t use any of that in the movie.”

One of the most exciting things about Ant-Man is that his perspective shifts very quickly. To bring the audience into that, the filmmakers created an immersive experience for the audience so that they feel as if they are to scale in Ant-Man’s world. “If a flying ant comes down, it’s almost like a Black Hawk helicopter coming down and you are really going to be in the middle of this action,” says the director.

HOW ABOUT THOSE ANTS?

Director Peyton Reed thinks it is interesting that when people talk about Ant-Man they tend to only talk about shrinking down to the size of an ant and stealth technology. But the thing that is less talked about is Ant-Man’s ability to control ants. “On the face of it, it sounds ridiculous but one of the things that I’m proudest of about the movie is that we show you in grand fashion what can happen with ants,” says Reed. “We introduce the audience to different types of ants—bullet ants, crazy ants, fire ants, carpenter ants— and each of those ants has their specific skill set and we see how those skills are used to help out in this heist. It really is one of the fun parts of the movie, and when you see the movie, it absolutely answers the question, ‘What can you do with ants?’ When you see the movie you’re going to realize what can be done, and that to me is one of the secret strengths of the movie.”

SYNOPSIS

The next evolution of the Marvel Cinematic Universe brings a founding member of The Avengers to the big screen for the first time with Marvel Studios’ “Ant-Man.” Armed with the astonishing ability to shrink in scale but increase in strength, master thief 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.

Marvel’s “Ant-Man” stars Paul Rudd as Scott Lang aka Ant-Man, Evangeline Lilly as Hope Van Dyne, Corey Stoll as Darren Cross aka Yellowjacket, Bobby Cannavale as Paxton, Michael Peña as Luis, Tip “T.I.” Harris as Dave, Wood Harris as Gale, Judy Greer as Maggie, David Dastmalchian as Kurt, and Michael Douglas as Dr. Hank Pym. Directed by Peyton Reed and produced by Kevin Feige, Marvel’s “Ant-Man” delivers a high-stakes, tension-filled adventure.