Disclosure: I received an all expense paid trip to Los Angeles California for the #AntManEvent press Junket. All opinions are my own and were not swayed by any outside sources!
I have been dying for today to come ever since I saw a press screening of Marvel’s Ant-Man last month in LA. I have been dying to see it again and to take my family. I wanted to tell them all about it but I couldn’t because I really wanted them to experience it themselves. And tonight they are finally going to see it.
Ant-Man is now in theaters world-wide and I know all the Marvel fans will be rushing to see it. So I suggest you get your tickets ahead of time! I’m a new Marvel fan and while Iron Man is my favorite, I have to say Ant-Man comes in really close as my favorite Marvel character! Paul Rudd did an amazing job playing the role of Scott Lang in this action packed film. (It’s no wonder he received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame!) I wasn’t sure how that would go since he’s known for comedy, but it worked out great because there was a lot of comedy in this movie. Between the improv that Paul Rudd did while filming and the amazing comedic acting talent of the #ANTourage, this filmed definitely didn’t lack laughs. According to Evangeline Lilly, there were a lot more laughs in between takes too!
And in true Marvel fashion, you’ll want to make sure you stay for the credits. There are 2, yes you read that right 2 hints to what is coming up next in Marvel Universe during the credits of Ant-Man. If you are wondering if any of the Avengers make an appearance in Ant-Man, well you’ll have to see it for yourself because I’m not spoiling it for anyone.
In honor of Ant-Man opening in theaters everywhere today, here are some fun facts about the movie… which was GREAT and you have to go see it!
10 Fun Facts about Marvel’s Ant-Man
- The Ant-Man suit is made of leather and resembles a vintage motorcycle suit. It has a worn look and is battle-scarred to harken back to when Hank Pym was Ant- Man and wore the suit on missions.
- Each Ant-Man helmet has 54 different pieces to it as well as 10 LED lights. If you add in the nuts and bolts and the helmet lining, it’s over 60 individual components just for each helmet.
- In each Ant-Man suit there are over 159 LED lights, which are controlled remotely. All the circuitry and batteries for the lights are in a very small backpack. The whole suit can light up, including the gloves and belt.
- For the scaled-down Ant-Man sequences, the filmmakers used a combination of motion-picture macro photography, still macro photography, motion capture with the actors, motion capture with the stunt people, and for every set they built miniature sets, called macro sets. Macro photography is extreme close-up photography that produces photographs of small items larger than life-size.
- Marvel did a lot of research into ant behaviors and what the different species of ants could bring to the movie in terms of what filmmakers needed for the heist. For instance, the Paraponera clavata or bullet ants have a very painful sting and resemble dinosaurs in the movie; the Solenopsis or fire ants are like architects as they can link together and form bridges and rafts to help Ant-Man; and the male Camponotus carpenter ants can fly, providing Ant-Man with a helpful mode of transportation.
- Marvel’s “Ant-Man” is set in San Francisco and many exterior shots were done there, including shots of the Golden Gate Bridge, the Tenderloin District and the exterior of a Victorian home used to portray Hank Pym’s house. Following San Francisco, the production settled into Pinewood Studios’ newly built facilities in Atlanta and Marvel’s “Ant-Man” became the very first movie to film there. The interiors of Hank Pym’s house where the first sets that the production design team constructed on the new soundstages.
- As with all the films in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, much detail went into creating Hank Pym’s old Victorian house set, from furniture, fireplaces, stained glass and even wallpaper. The wallpaper used in the Pym House set came from a store in New York City that specializes in classic, period wallpapers from the 1930s and 1940s. Because there are limited rolls of each design, the production design team had to plan carefully to ensure that there was enough available to do the rooms they wanted.
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When you watch Marvel’s “Ant-Man,” look closely at some of the set dressing in Hank Pym’s house. You’ll see a little chair or a tiny weapon or other miniature everyday items. There are items placed all around the house that hint at the adventures Pym had when he was Ant-Man and suggest the experiments that he made shrinking inorganic objects before he made the breakthrough to shrinking organic objects.
- The Basement set in the movie features a safe room where Pym conducts his experiments. It was built like a corrugated metal tube to resemble a bomb shelter and contains an old vault that secures the Ant-Man suit. The Basement set is also home to a vertical ant farm that the production design team created. It actually houses live ants that went happily about their daily tasks oblivious to the filming around them.
- In the film, Scott Lang (Paul Rudd) has a best friend Luis (Michael Peña) who owns an old brown van that has seen better days. The van keeps changing its appearance through the course of the story, and the different versions were dubbed the Mark 1, the Mark 2 and the Mark 3, in a tongue-in-cheek nod to the Iron Man suits. The Mark 1 is the old brown van that Luis is really proud of, but in reality it is a “beater.” The Mark 2 is accessorized for a job by the thieves and boasts things like bigger mirrors, so they can see who is coming and going, and side boards for fast ins and outs. The Mark 3 is geared up for the Pym Tech heist and is painted and accessorized to look like a Water & Power utility vehicle.
Ant-Man is in theaters July, 17, 2015. Make plans to go see it that night. It’s great and Marvel fans are going to love it!
Want to read more about #AntMan? Check out these interviews:
I have so much more to share from my trip to LA for the Ant-Man press junket. Follow me along on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram with #AntManEvent and on the following social media channels:
Like ANT-MAN on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/antman
Follow ANT-MAN on Twitter: https://twitter.com/antman
Visit the official ANT-MAN site: https://marvel.com/antman
I totally enjoyed reading all these fun facts! I am super anxious to see this movie.