First Official ‘Ant-Man’ Photo Features Beat-Up Paul Rudd

[SaP]

After a delay and a tumultuous series of headlines surrounding the departure of Ant-Man director and writer Edgar Wright and the rushed search for a director and writers to take his place at the last minute, production of Marvel’s next superhero origin story is back on track. Ant-Man begin shooting yesterday in San Francisco and today we already have our first official photo from the shoot.

Disney and Marvel Studios just sent out the first official still which features star Paul Rudd, not suited up in the Ant-Man costume quiet yet, but also not dressed as his usual clean cut, handsome self either.

Hoodie up with battered face, black gloves and a leather bag, Rudd plays Scott Lang in Ant-Man and is an underdog – the person you’d least expect to take on the responsibilities of being a hero and putting himself in danger to save the world, let alone being recruited as a member of The Avengers.

He’s an ex-con and a thief and the image above hints that he may be in the act of delivering stolen goods. In the comics Lang was a thief, doing wrong for (mostly) the right reasons, first to support his family financially, later to save the life of his daughter. We don’t quite yet know the details on Lang’s character in the adaptation but in the books, he’s also an electronics expert which makes him quite well-suited to master the high-tech suit and bypass security systems.

We do know that Ant-Man is a high-tech heist film with a strong focus on the mentor-mentee relationship between Michael Douglas’s character, Hank Pym, and Rudd’s Scott Lang. Pym is the original Ant-Man in the comics and creator of the size-altering tech, and we’ve long heard of Wright’s ideas (back when he was writing the screenplay) to have a small portion of the film take place in the ’60s with a young Pym working as an agent during the Cuban missile crisis. Given the recent casting of John Slattery to play Howard Stark again after playing him in Iron Man 2 (along with other potentially spoilery details), and that seems to still be the case.

Official Ant-Man synopsis:

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.

Excited to see Paul Rudd join the Marvel Cinematic Universe?

Ant-Man is directed by Peyton Reed and stars Paul Rudd, Corey Stoll, Evangeline Lilly, Michael Douglas, John Slattery, Judy Greer, Michael Peña, Bobby Cannavale, David Dastmalchian and T.I..

The Avengers: Age of Ultron releases on May 1, 2015, Ant-Man on July 17, 2015, Captain America 3 on May 6 2016, and unannounced films for July 8 2016 and May 5 2017, Guardians of the Galaxy 2 on July 28 2017, November 3 2017, May 4 2018, July 6 2018, November 2 2018 and May 3 2019.

Follow Rob on Twitter @rob_keyes for your Marvel movie and TV news!

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