Paul Rudd In Talks To Star In Marvel’s ‘Ant-Man’ Movie

Following months of rumors, Variety and The Wrap are reporting that Paul Rudd is in negotiations to star in Marvel's Ant-Man movie. Directed by Edgar Wright (Scott Pilgrim vs. the World), with a script by he and Joe Cornish, the film is set for a July 31, 2015 release. As usual, Kevin Feige is producing. Which Ant-Man? Sources apparently indicate that it's going to be Hank Pym.

The first of three Ant-Men in the Marvel universe (which include Scott Lang and Eric O'Grady), Dr. Henry "Hank" Pym debuted in 1962 in Tales to Astonish #27 by Stan Lee, Lee's brother Larry Lieber and Jack Kirby. Ant-Man's size-changing and... um... ant-talking-to-ing powers, along with those he provided to his love interest Janet Van Dyne a.k.a. the Wasp, lead the bug buds to found The Avengers with Thor, Iron Man and the Hulk in The Avengers #1 in 1963. Despite enjoying prominence on The Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes and other Marvel multimedia, neither Ant-Man or Wasp have been introduced into the Marvel movieverse yet, but The Avengers and its related films making the kind of money that artificial intelligences like Ultron are built to fully process surely gave Disney the confidence they needed to make the long-rumored film happen. Seriously, Wright's been attached to this movie since like 2006.

Marvel has yet to release a high quality version of the Ant-Man teaser footage, but a few shaky vids remain on YouTube if you haven't caught the footage yet.

[Via ScreenCrush]