Doing the promotional rounds for the home-entertainment release of Joss Whedon’s blockbuster superhero ensemble The Avengers (which hit UK shelves today), Marvel Studios co-president Louis D’Esposito has taken a few moments to discuss several forthcoming projects in an interview with the German website FilmJunkies (via ComicBookMovie), including Edgar Wright’s long-in-development Ant-Man, the Shane Black-directed sequel Iron Man 3, and further instalments in the studio’s short film series, Marvel One-Shots.
“Edgar [Wright] is just adding the finishing touches and then we will once again make the final visual effects editing,” said D’Esposito with regards to the Ant-Man test reel that was screened at Comic-Con, before confirming the recent talk that the footage will eventually receive a release. “The process is almost complete. Then we will decide when and how we can make it available to the fans… I was there when he made the test reel. I now know how it works and it’s going very methodical and planned. First, he designed the concept, then the storyboard, then he produced an animatic, so he knows exactly what he’ll turn. Every morning we visited him, and he had added new material, which we then looked at together. He is a passionate filmmaker and it that’s contagious. We’ve only looked at it yesterday and every time we see it, then we think, ‘Wow! We cannot wait to make this film!’”
Despite his enthusiasm, D’Esposito refused to be drawn into pinpointing a definite start-date for Ant-Man, while he was also somewhat vague about confirming a release date for the first trailer for Iron Man 3, which sees Robert Downey Jr. returning as Tony Stark for a loose adaptation of the ‘Extremis’ comic book story arc: “I don’t have the exact date [for the trailer]… it’s just not ready. But I think mid-to-late October, you can watch a first teaser trailer.”
As well as discussing Ant-Man and Iron Man 3, D’Esposito – who directed the latest Marvel One-Shot Item 47 – also touched upon the upcoming slate for Marvel’s series of direct-to-video short films: “We are just in the development process. I currently have about 15 different concepts to be on my desk… I love Black Panther, he is one of my favorite characters. But before we have a filmmaker on board, it is difficult to do anything, because we want to involve them in the processes such as casting or design issues or even other areas for which one hires a director. So if we have a director on board and knew that we would turn Black Panther or Luke Cage or Ms. Marvel or whatever figure it is, then we would maybe [use them to introduce the characters]. But right now it is logistically a difficult hurdle.”
