The film legend and recent Oscar winner Michael Douglas will play in his first comic book movie, Ant Man.
Douglas, who recently won an Oscar for Best Actor in a TV Movie or Miniseries for his portrayal of Liberace in HBO’s Behind the Candelabra, will now star as the superhero and scientist Hank Pym, alongside Paul Rudd who will star as Scott Lang.
According to RollingStone, “in the comics, Pym became the original Ant-Man after creating the story’s shape-shifting chemical, which allowed him to shrink down to the size of an ant. Pym then passed the torch to Scott Lang (Paul Rudd) after retiring, but it’s unclear exactly how Douglas and Rudd will share the Ant-Man handle in the film.”
RollingStone also noted that Marvel President Kevin Feige said, “we knew we needed an actor capable of bringing the weight and stature to the role that the character deserves” because of “Hank Pym’s rich history in the Marvel Universe,” which is why “we felt incredibly relieved when Michael Douglas” agreed to step into the role.
The film is based on the Marvel comic franchise and is scheduled to be released on July 31, 2015.