Ant-Man Has Started Filming

Looks like Peyton Reed is growing into the job, while production delays have shrunk. Get it?

Filming has started on Marvel’s troubled Ant-Man, director Peyton Reed confirmed this morning. “Alright, gang. Today is the day,” Reed said on Twitter. “LET’S. GET. small. #AntMan”. There you have it people: Ant-Man lives.

This announcement is marks a somewhat happy end to a very rough summer. On May 23, director Edgar Wright, attached to the film since 2006, abruptly left over unspecified creative differences. While no one associated with the film has revealed precisely what led him to leave, several anonymous reports have it that Wright bolted due to conflict over control of the script, as well as the film’s extremely tight July, 2015 release date.

His departure caused a serious headache for Marvel/Disney. In the days after his resignation, friends of Wright, including Simon Pegg and Avengers director Joss Whedon tweeted in support of his decision, and the overwhelming conventional wisdom was that Disney had made an enormous mistake. The company scrambled to find a replacement, but every rumored choice – at one point the list included Adam McKay, Rawson Thurber and Ruben Fleischer – declined to take the job. Reed, best known for Bring It On, Down With Love and Yes Man was finally hired two weeks later, with Adam McKay along as a script doctor.

Marvel was mostly silent after Reed was hired, likely to let the cloud hanging over the production after the departure of a beloved director dissipate. However, Reed was officially introduced to fans during Marvel’s Hall H panel at Comic Con 2014, during which first official footage, created almost entirely from pre vis shots made before Edgar Wright left, was unveiled. Reed also took great pains to make it clear he isn’t just a hired gun. Among other bits, Reed revealed that he drew himself as Ant-Man for a flyer he made for a band he performed with in the early 90s. Fortunately, he already had my heart at least thanks to Bring it On.

Meanwhile, while Ant-Man is widely assumed to be set in New York City, key filming will happen in San Francisco. Flyers posted in the city’s Tenderloin neighborhood over the weekend (thanks to The Bold Italic for the image) confirm that prep and rain effects testing will occur today, with “exterior shots with a rain effect and dialogue” filming tomorrow. Here’s the flyer:

If you live in San Francisco and manage to catch a glimpse of the shoot, let us know!

Ant-Man stars Michael Douglas as original Ant-Man Hank Pym, Paul Rudd as reformed thief and Pym protege Scott Lang, Evangeline Lily as Pym’s daughter Hope Van Dyne, and Corey Stoll as Yellowjacket. It hits theaters July 17, 2015.

Source: Peyon Reed on Twitter, via Comic Vine.