While there’s always something stirring about one Marvel project or another, there’s one property that’s been suspiciously quiet as of late. It’s been a good six weeks since we’ve had any news on their troubled title, Ant-Man. Even then, it was a straw-clutching report about Evangeline Lilly’s haircut.
Now, however, we have something a bit more exciting, as THR reports that Weeds star Martin Donovan has joined the cast. As secrecy surrounding the pic is paramount, there’s very little they can reveal about who it is he’ll be playing. In fact, this is all they would offer:
Donovan’s role is being kept under wraps, but sources say it is pivotal to the story.
A key character in Ant-Man’s story is a rather broad description. As comic book adaptations go, there’s always the tendency to borrow characters from different storylines to suit a new cinematic angle. While it’s a shame there’s no more information, Donovan always puts in solid, unassuming performances that you don’t realize were phenomenal until long after the fact. His stand-out role for me was in the 1998 Don Roos indie gem, The Opposite Of Sex. Whoever it is he plays in Ant-Man, he’ll no doubt be brilliant.
With shooting well underway in San Francisco, production on the pic seems to have settled down considerably. After the loss of original director Edgar Wright, the film underwent a long, arduous process of scoring a new helmer. Yes Man‘s Peyton Reed eventually landed the gig, and is now lensing the film’s considerable cast.
Paul Rudd leads the flick as Scott Lang. The latest in a line of Ant-Men, he is given the duty by former Ant-Man Hank Pym (Michael Douglas) after Pym’s friend steals the technology. Pym enlists Lang to help him retrieve it, but it’ll be no small feat.
Ant-Man crawls into theatres on July 17th, 2015. Check out the plot summary below and let us know if you’re still hopeful that this one will turn out alright.
Armed with the astonishing ability to shrink in scale but increase in strength, con-man Scott Lang (Paul Rudd) must embrace his inner-hero and help his mentor, Dr. Hank Pym (Michael Douglas), 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.
Set for release in the United States on July 17, 2015, the film is directed by Peyton Reed (“Bring it On,” “The Break-Up”) and stars Paul Rudd (“I Love You Man,” “Role Models”) as Scott Lang aka Ant-Man, and Michael Douglas (“Behind The Candelabra,” “Wall Street”) as his mentor Dr. Hank Pym and Evangeline Lilly (“The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug,” “Lost”) as Hope Van Dyne, daughter of Hank Pym.
The film also includes outstanding additional cast including Corey Stoll (“House of Cards,” “The Bourne Legacy”), Bobby Cannavale (“Danny Collins,” “Annie,” “HBO’s “The Long Play”), Michael Peña (“End of Watch,” “American Hustle”), Abby Ryder Fortson (“Togetherness”), Judy Greer (“13 Going on 30,” “Dawn of the Planet of the Apes”), David Dastmalchian (“The Dark Knight,” “Prisoners”), Wood Harris (“Remember the Titans,” “The Wire”), John Slattery (“Mad Men,” Marvel’s “Iron Man 2”) and Gregg Turkington (“The Comedy,” “On Cinema”) and multi-hyphenate T.I. (“American Gangster,” “Takers”).