Though Marvel is currently hard at work on pre-production for Ant-Man, with Paul Rudd in talks for the lead role and the full cast expected to be finalized before 2014, it seems that filming in the U.K. for the superhero "heist" film could either be relocated or delayed. In a report on the tax break and growing revenues of Pinewood/Shepperton Studios, where several major films are scheduled to shoot in the coming months, Deadline heard that “Ant Man had to forgo shooting in the UK due to the lack of space.” And it seems they heard right.
When ScreenDaily asked director Edgar Wright if his recent film The World's End would be his last production in the United Kingdom, he said, “Ironically, Ant Man was meant to shoot in London but London is full because I guess that Pinewood extension got turned down.” Apparently, Pinewood Studios had planned to add 15 studios, but it was rejected by the local council back in May. “While the tax break is good for Hollywood films shooting here, it’s probably not that great for British films shooting in the UK,” he said. “Some middle-to-low budget films are going to find themselves without crew because all the American films are shooting here.”
Since early 2011, Marvel Studios has scheduled to shoot Ant-Man at Shepperton Studios under the alias company Pym Particles Productions UK, Limited. This was before The Avengers: Age of Ultron, whose alias company (Assembled Productions II UK, Limited) was activated earlier this year for the sequel to shoot in Spring next year. There's no word on when or where Ant-Man will now commence principal photography, but the production was initially set for May through September 2014.
Anyhow, Ant-Man director Edgar Wright also spoke about pitching the tiny hero to Marvel long before the Marvel Cinematic Universe debuted with Iron Man. “I met with Marvel and I suggested it as a movie,” he told Fandango recently. “They weren't previously developing it until I came up with a pitch for it. They hadn't necessarily thought about it until I came up with an angle on how to do it. I like the challenge of doing something slightly different,” Wright added, promising his take is something fresh for the superhero genre. “I think there will be some elements of my previous movies in there, and I think that's why Marvel wanted me to do it in the first place. I don't think they hired me to do something completely anonymous. So it's fun – it's got lots of new elements. I'm excited about it.” Anyhow, Ant-Man is scheduled for release on July 31, 2015!