A lesson in film production and man management : ANT-MAN vs FANTASTIC FOUR (2015)

There is actually a great conversation to be had about Ant-Man and Fantastic Four which is actually about competent/incompetent movie production and basic man management skills.

Film director starts work on a singular, perhaps risky, vision of an existing property. Studio backs him initially.

• Marvel Studious with Edgar Wright
• Josh Trank with Fantastic Four (2015)

Movie/movies are released during production which makes the studio hesitate;

• Iron Man and Avengers create a connected world which doesn't fit with Edgar Wrights vision
• Guardian of the Galaxy proves bright and cheery space opera and superheroes is a valid mix after all

Studio has to make a decision;

• Marvel amicably splits with Edgar Wright but salvages most of his vision for another director to complete. Result - Ant-Man is somewhat faithful to Edgar Wright and pretty much everyone is happy.
• Fox lets Josh Trank complete the majority of his movie, then spreads rumours about his onset behaviour, then sacks him and reshoots it. Result - a complete car crash.

And lets not forget this is Fox's second disaster of this kind with this iconic comic property. In their previous failed attempt to adapt the most famous plotline from this set of characters Fox executives similarly got cold feet during production and slashed the budget, resulting in one of the most famous and recognisable characters in comics being portrayed onscreen as a cloud.

UPDATED Hank and Janet Pym make Marvel's 1980s look very interesting (ANT-MAN review)

Marvel's Edgar Wright  'disaster' is actually the most Pixar of Marvel movies, great for a pre-teen audience, and rich in fascinating alt-history for Marvel's already rich alt-Universe. I'm going to list how much has now changed.
This has now been updated to show the original Ant-Man opening scene.

****LOTS OF SPOILERS******

In the very first scene we have a flashback to Marvel's 1989. It has a Hank Pym, played by Michael Douglas - amazingly de-aged to look as it he's just walked off  Oliver Stone's Wall Street, quitting SHIELD before Peggy Carter (Hayley Atwell aged to look in her 70s) and Howard Stark (John Slattery).

After this we can make a few assumptions

WHAT WE KNOW SO FAR

1972
Arnim Zola, HYDRA survivor and corruptor of SHIELD dies and is digitised
Tech note : presumably digitised on IBMs ...which would be appropriate for IBMs links to he Nazis pre WW2.

1974
Stark Expo flasback in Iron Man 2 has Howard Stark neglecting Tony.

Late 1970s
SHIELD ANT-MAN propaganda movie made (shown in another Ant-Man flashback)
Hank Pym refuses to hand suit over or the technology and becomes Ant Man himself.

1984
Natasha Romanov (Black Widow) is born in USSR,

Mid-80s
Pym and Van Dyne active as Ant Man and the Wasp.

1987
Janet Van Dyne becomes lost in Quantum Realm after disarming a Soviet ICBM by shrinking to sub atomic size.

1988 ?
Pym active as Ant-Man solo? The original Ant-Man opening scene apparently has Pym stealing microfilm from a Panamanian general. (In the first Edgar Wright draft this is set in the 1960s which would have put it outside the continuity listed here).

1989 
Pym quits because SHIELD (HYDRA?) is trying to replicate his work
Alexander Pierce secretly joins HYDRA

1991
Howard Stark and wife assassinated by HYDRA

Early 1990s (?)
Alexander Pierce (Robert Redford in Winter Solidier) has his life saved by up and coming SHIELD agent Nick Fury in Bogota.
Alexander Pierce gives up Directorship of SHIELD to Fury.


Notes
* In Ant -Man HYDRA sure is interested in the Pym's technology - and weirdly during the Project Insight revelations in Winter Soldier neither Hank, either of the Van Dynes (or Darren 'Yellowjacket' Cross) is listed as a threat to HYDRA. Hank quits only shortly before Howard Stark is killed and from what we know HYDRA must be aware of him. Does Pym know a lot more about the workings on SHIELD at that time than the others? Did he quit at HYDRA's insistence or was he tipped off?

* Hank Pym - an actual agent for SHIELD is not listed as a threat by HYDRA but Dr Steven Strange is on that list. So Steven Strange is known to HYDRA but not apparently to SHIELD. How long? Ant Man treated us to 1980s flashbacks - how far back could Dr Strange go? Anything is possible.... 1960s Greenwich village is my vote.

* Pym worked with Stark - did he work with Anton Vanko? Anton was father of Ivan from Iron Man 2, now revealed to have with a very similar grudge to Pym, in that convinced Howard was stealing his work.The reputation of the Stark's in starting to look less glorious with every movie.

* Unlike Howard Stark, Pym's treatment of daughter Hope looks like that an obsessive parent - what did he think of Howard Stark's neglect of young Tony? With similarly obsessive busy parents did Tony and Hope Van Dyne grow up together?

* When Pym revolts he refuses to hand suit over and becomes Ant Man. This is very reminiscent of Tony Stark's later behaviour with Iron Man suit. Was a young Tony a witness to some of that debate? How much of Tony's behaviour is actually inspired by Pym? <cough> Ultron

* The suited up Janet Van Dyne really looked the part as the original Wasp in another brief flashback. Her daughter, Hope, with her marital arts skills  and gun collection, hardly looks science material - can we assume she takes from her mother in this regard? Put it this way - would SHIELD allow a scientific asset as valuable as Pym go on tactical missions without backup? Suddenly Janet Van Dyne looks more likely to be a tactical field agent than Hank's lab partner and if a field agent she is most likely a protege of Peggy Carter,  This would make Janet Van Dyne Peggy Olsen to Peggy Carter's Joan, with Roger Sterling as Howard Stark of course. (Sorry - just watched the end of Mad Men).

* If so Janet's disappearance would be doubly traumatic for Carter who similarly lost Steve Rogers without trace. When did Carter retire? After Howard Stark's death in 1991? If so these few years, roughly contemporary to the fall of the Berlin wall and the end of the Cold War, look almost like a sudden coup by HYDRA, perhaps prompted by their failure of their Soviet project, LEVIATHAN (seen in Agent Carter).

* Van Dyne would also probably the same generation as Jenny Agutta's Councilwoman Hawley of the World Security Council (from Avengers, Winter Soldier), who is British and likely another Carter protege.

* Possibly Van Dyne (as Wasp?) recruited Romanov from the clutches of the KGB to make another generation of Carter protege's along with Maria Hill and Agent 13, Susan Carter (Winter Soldier again).

* Perhaps more likely - did Pym and Van Dyne ever cross swords with the Winter Soldier?.. I guess we might find out next year.

Finally - we all know who is going to be cast as Janet Van Dyne, so stop haggling over money and give her a call!

CZJ in Entrapment

Agent Carter vs Black Widow of 1946 should be some showdown

You are not watching Agent Carter and The Americans because.. There is something better on !?!

I blacked out in a pub night before last, just after seeing Kingsman for a second time (it gets better). Because I can't get over this bloody flu I'm still stranded in London and had to get car MOTed here instead of Devon.
Would London garage this mean it is more expensive?
Apparently it is £700 in  - I'm sure-  essential break disk replacements.
I am Jack's total lack of surprise.

*Whatever*

What keeps me perky is my favourite tv of the moment, which is so good I'm unable to wait for the entire thing to become available before I watch it. This usually happens to me at the end of long runs series like Breaking Bad. Agent Carter has been instant watching material right from the off. There is enough Internet gushing over this as it is so I'm not going to add to this things already said.

It is actually teaching a creaking old misogynist it's like myself some things about how men relate to women that I wish I'd known long ago. In last weeks penultimate episode Peggy has to come clean completely with her male coworkers. After dealing with 1940s attituades in the workplace for first half of the series she loses it and tears a strip off them all, not just listing their sexist attitudes but categorising them, showing that their treatment of her varies from dismissive to over protective depending on their attitude to her - AND SHE DOESN'T NEED ANY OF IT.

Example : poor office nice guy Daniel Sousa (Enver Gjokaj, even better than he was in Whedon's Dollhouse) gets ripped into for putting her on a pedestal...
I must have hit That button a few times over the years myself. It is the supposed proto feminist angle to Agent Carter that is putting viewers off so I won't lay it on any thicker than I have but a tv that makes you question you own attitudes for the better has to be good.

It's as instructive and funny about the period as Mad Man. Automats, all women boarding accommodation.... It almost seems more alien than 1920s Atlantic City.

And, it's funny. Cast members obviously aren't afraid to adlib and the banter between Carter and Jarvis fizzes like a unlikely cocktail of Fleming and PG Wodehouse. Atwell is obviously adding her own Britishisms, calling out Tony Stark's father as a 'wanker' at one point and breaking the seriousness with classic old school profanity like "Crikey Oh Riley!"
- the next.

The combat is about the best on tv. Actually its about level with The Americans to be fair, which I really should have covered on this blog before now. (Actually I'd probably also be watching that future classic series as fast as I can get hold of it if it wasn't so generally ignored and low profile that I'd not idea it had re-started. I promise to cover it when I get to season 3. Is The Americans the most ignored quality small screen drama ever?)

Here is ..Peggy and Jarvis dealing out bruises in refreshingly period fashion. You feel Bogart would have loved this, music is the very period Peggy Lee - "It's a Good Day"

Post by Agent Carter.

In what might be Agent Carter's final episode next week she will finally get to face the Black Widow of this era, "Dottie" (chilling performances from Bridget Regan) who has been skillfully built up as a scary superKGB psychopath, trained and indoctrinated from childhood. Dottie is  a character easily recognisable from  the doomed KGB recruits in The Americans in that she's been brutalised since infancy and sleeps handcuffed to her own bed, and easily recognisable as a Marvel character in that she can parkour down the levels of in an open stairwell like Daredevil.

Up against that Peggy's main superpower seems to be that she's ex S.A.S., and is an adorably feminine  total badass. I can't wait.

Aside from the pulp period thrills there is something deeply satisfying about the world buiding here if you are into this level of nerd-dom. History of the Marvel universe is being filled in from Agent Carter, slowly colouring in the background with the care of a landscape painter. Nothing so far looks out of place.
Serial incompetence at Strategic Scientific Reserve obviously leads to formation of S.H.I.E.L.D., less concerned with HYDRA now a new soviet threat, Leviathan, is making its presence felt. Leviathan's girl assassin program obviously leads to Scarlet Johonsenns Black Widow of 2012. If the path of Natasha Romanov from KGB to S.H.I.E.L.D. doesn't follow a similar path to Elizabeth (Keri Russell) in The Americans I'll be amazed.

Peggy Carter will after this be seen in May in her 1960s incarnation recruiting Michael Douglas as Ant-Man, probably not long before Stark senior and his wife discover the truth about S.H.I.E.L.D and are assassinated  in an apparent car accident.

Hayley Atwell looks like has a career for life now, she can appear in flashbacks for various others characters for years and she can return to playing Carter in different eras as she matures herself. I would say though that if they want to cover Peggy Carter in 1940, busting out super soldier scientist Erskine from a Bavarian Castle under the rapidly mutating noses of HYDRA
(as depicted in the tie in comic CAPTAIN AMERICA : FIRST VENGEANCE)

and they want to use Hayley Atwell  - don't keep us waiting.

Marvel's WHERE EAGLES DARE starring Hayley Atwell, Hugo Weaving and Stanley Tucci ?
Please god give me this now.

Marvel One-Shot: Don't Wait Up Tony

 INT.

STARK TOWER, NEW YORK after the events of THOR THE DARK WORLD

Around a large table in a sumptuous high tech multi million dollar environment Stark Enterprises CEO PEPPER POTTS and DR. JANE FOSTER. enjoy a glass of wine over what looks like a very expensive meal.
Nearby DARCY LEWIS pours herself another large glass of red wine from a carafe.

PEPPER POTTS
But it's Asgard Jane.. surely...

JANE FOSTER
Oh sure, it is amazing, on so many levels. But try and get a Burrito for breakfast .. I guess if I talked to Volstagg..

DARCY LEWIS
<interrups, slurring>
You can't get Burritos for breakfast in London either.

Pepper and Foster ignore her and continue to talk about Asgard. Darcy gets up from the table with her wine glass and approaches a dancing head up display filled with lights and graphics. This is run by JARVIS.

DARCY LEWIS
<waving her hand at the graphics> So err.. Jarvis.. are you an actual artificial intelligence?

JARVIS
I believe Mr Stark would refer to me as a Cognitive Simulant

DARCY LEWIS
<struggling to be interested>
What's the difference exactly?

JARVIS
Miss Lewis according to my records you took a political science major?

DARCY LEWIS
Science. Yeah. Political Science.

JARVIS
<wearily> Then yes - I'm an artificial intelligence.

Darcy has lost interest. She plays with the music controls on the headup display. Jarvis tries to protest.
As Duran Duran comes on Darcy kicks of her shoes, climbs onto the table and starts to dance.
The song is "Is There Something I should Know?"

Jane ties to apologise to Pepper but Pepper is smiling

 JANE FOSTER:
Sorry its jetlag

DARCY LEWIS
<dancing>

no it isn't

 PEPPER POTTS
<amused>
I like this song

 JANE FOSTER
<considers her wine and the remains of the meal>
We're not used to high living

DARCY LEWIS

She doesn't pay me

 JANE FOSTER
No I don't pay her

<some inebriated guilt leaks out>

You know Darcy we should talk about that

Darcy shrugs

 JANE FOSTER:
<returns to Pepper>
So are you going to give me the S.H.I.E.L.D. sales pitch?

 PEPPER POTTS

I don't do sales. We have a Division for that. Its fair to say though that we've seen the best of them and you've seen the worst.

 JANE FOSTER
You make  S.H.I.E.L.D.  sound like the I.R.S.

 PEPPER POTTS

I wouldn't have taken you for one of the anti-government types

 JANE FOSTER:
Is  S.H.I.E.L.D. government though? Who are they?

 DARCY LEWIS
<still dancing>
 I didn't vote for them

TONY STARK enters. He is surprised.

 PEPPER POTTS
Well rather than wait for us all to bump into each other in some extreme situation that you or S.H.I.E.L.D , Steve, or Bruce or...
<shrugs>

 DARCY LEWIS
Jane's boyfriend

 PEPPER POTTS
.. kicks off I thought we'd bring everyone together here for a civilised

STARK :
Girls night out?

 PEPPER POTTS
Well, night in - for me.

JANE FOSTER
<looks around Stark Tower interior> : For us, this is definitely a night out

STARK
Is there a reason Jane's boyfriend isn't here?

 PEPPER POTTS
Yes. I didn't invite him.

STARK :
You socially snubbed an Asgardian? You should be running S.H.I.E.L.D.

 PEPPER POTTS
I know 

<Stark tastes wine from carafe>

STARK
Is that the Domaine le Roy '64?

 PEPPER POTTS
<mischievous smile>
How would you know if it was?

STARK
<Tony runs the wine over his palate - it's just not interesting enough a subject for him>. Oh - OK

<raises a toast to Foster and Lewis>
Dr Foster, I've admired you work

JANE FOSTER
I know - You tried to make it a compulsory purchase through S.H.I.E.L.D. after New Mexico.

STARK
I thought you needed supporting

JANE FOSTER
I need to be left alone

STARK :
Be nice to talk some time.. about .. I could ask your opinion of ..String Theory?

 JANE FOSTER
<looking surprised/amused> String theory?.. sure.. I could ask your opinion of.. biplanes?

 PEPPER POTTS
<Pepper beams>
It's nice to have guests isn't it?

STARK :
You two have obviously really hit it off

JANE FOSTER
<seriously>
It is an honour to meet Tony Stark

STARK
<ignores her, raises his glass and smiles at Darcy>
Princess

<Darcy gives a snarky smile in return and adjusts her glasses>

STARK
Careful on the table, it can double as an automated medical facility. So, three of you - hardly a party?

DARCY :
We've left the other two, we think they have some issues to work out

<Camera pans to balcony, behind soundproof glass NATASHA ROMANOV and BETTY ROSS, have not touched their drinks and are in heated discussion. Betty is wiping away tears.>

<Stark and Foster have in an instant science competitive edge>

STARK
It's a shame you weren't around to see more of the action in New York

JANE FOSTER
I've seen plenty of similar since

STARK
Word is you are working with Eric Solveig again

JANE FOSTER
He is a genius in the field. A valuable member of my team

STARK
He's also a diagnosed schizophrenic dabbling in a new science we barely know

JANE FOSTER
I would guess he's already forgotten more on the subject of wormhole tech than you'll ever know

STARK :
Well that much is true. And the fact that that British papers call Solvieg is a traitor to the human race isn't an issue?

 JANE FOSTER 
I've known Eric for years and he built a life on sound science and being a human being without selling any weapons

<Darcy and Foster high five each other and Darcy climbs down from the table>

STARK :
You should meet Banner, he's high on the morals as well. I'd try and keep the irritant levels to a minimum with him though.

<Stark leaves, with a wink at Darcy. She grimaces back at him>

JANE FOSTER
<to Pepper>

I've got to ask - what do you see in that guy?

PEPPER POTS

He's obviously not your type

 JANE FOSTER 

Obviously

PEPPER POTS

Well, he's smart - but not that smart. There is one technical challenge he'll never work out.

DARCY LEWIS
Is it taking a crap in the Iron Man suit?

PEPPER POTS
No he got around that early on
<face wrinkles>
no the one thing he'll never solve is the thing that looks back at him from the bathroom mirror every day.

 JANE FOSTER:
So he's your technical challenge?  

PEPPER POTS

No. I'm CEO of Stark. These days he's just my hobby.

DARCY LEWIS
"Behind every great man there is a great women"

PEPPER POTS

We are not behind them, its just that they are standing in front of us

 JANE FOSTER
I could relate to that better if mine wasn't immortal

 JANE FOSTER
And somehow Tony Stark isn't doing it for you either Darcy

LEWIS :
No

<Darcy looks warily at Pepper>

DARCY LEWIS 
well you know that story about my dad being a mechanic in Oakland 

<the other two stop and loop at Darcy. who takes a huge glug of wine>

DARCY LEWIS 
Well.. yeah.. ok.. errr .. promise you won't freak out

FOSTER
<she knows just has not faced up to it>
Go on..

DARCY LEWIS 
Oh what the hell
<looks directly at Jane>
Tony Stark is my dad

 I could have written a review of THOR : THE DARK WORLD but instead I though I'd post this to show my appreciation of a really fun movie
it was inspired by http://www.themarysue.com/jane-foster-dexters-laboratory/

Joss Whedon, Avengers Connections

When Buffy The Vampire Slayer ended one of the mainstream critics (in  The Times) was clued in enough to say that with its comedy, charm and martial arts it was the modern equivalent of the  British Avengers tv series of the 60s and 70s.

For those in the know this shouldn't be a surprise. References to the Chris Claremont X Men comics are littered throughout Buffy, notably Willow being decribed as going "Dark Pheonix", and that classic comic storyline itself is influenced by an infamous episode of the Diana Rigg classic.

So it's nicely ironic that the much maligned and mistreated creator of Buffy has just broken box office records with the another Avengers, the American collection of Earths Mightiest Heroes.


Whedon is now effectively God of the Marvel universe (The Watcher?). Studio suits that previously looked at a series of books and thought wow we have three or four stories to wring out of this now have a almost unlimited source of material to adapt. He won't be doing any more tv, so time to savour what he has done. I'm about to start watching one of his interesting tv failures, Dollhouse.

The Filmspotting podcast covering this subject suggested the success of the Avengers is that it plays like a tv miniseries, perhaps as a series finale to this...

"Avengers Assemble"—Evaluating the 9-Hour Cut 

'SnakeCharmer' here has edited together all of the prequel marvel movies (plus connecting scenes) so they play chronologically as
First part of Thor, then
Captain America
Iron Man
Then events of Incredible Hulk, Iron Man 2, and Thor happening concurrently.

.. And apart from odd stylistic juxtapositions they all apparently play better, particularly the bad ones (Iron Man 2), which suffered most from pointless episodic indulgence when released alone.

Aside from this 8 hour miniseries edit, the "prequel" movies now look much better in context, (though stylistically only Thor stands out) I've just watched Ang Lee's Hulk and even that is 10% better having seen the Avengers, interestingly nothing in the Ang Lee film is particularly contradicted in the official films and I think Whedon re-introduces some of the ideas from it, like Banner only surviving his Gamma accident because of the "other guy" within him.

They and we should be grateful to Ang Lee, if he'd not made such ambitiously arty flop the rights to use the Hulk would never have reverted back to Marvel to be able to use the character in Avengers! (Compare with fate of endless Spiderman/Daredevil/Fantastic Four sequels and reboots)

In the course of returning to what we are now calling "The Prequels" I also watched Daredevil again, the superior Directors Cut even. Don't make the same mistake, unless you subconsciously want to give the whole subject of movie super heroes a serious rest...

UPDATE: re: the Claremont X-Men and the Steed/Peel Avengers, this covers the subject in more detail
http://www.bleedingcool.com/2012/05/23/swipe-file-steed-and-mrs-peel-0-and-the-x-men/