Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige Says 'Ant-Man' Is "Closest It's Ever Been"

Bleeding Cool recently had a chance to check in via remote videoconference with Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige, in anticipation of "The Avengers" U.K. release (over there it's called "Avengers Assemble," presumably to distance it from the beloved British television series). The subject of "Ant-Man" came up, the long developing project that screenwriters Edgar Wright and Joe Cornish have been toiling on for the past couple of years. Turns out it might be closer to actually getting made than many of us have assumed.

"It's somewhere," Feige told the site. "I'll just say it's closer than it's ever been in its long maybe eight year history and I usually email Edgar every two or three days… we are not closer than we've ever been. So I hope it will come together shortly."

For those of you who don't own replicas of your favorite swords, Ant-Man was originally a scientist named Hank Pym, who shrunk himself down to the level of ants and could control them with a thought-producing helmet. He was an original member of the Avengers and over the course of his crime-fighting career would adopt other aliases like Giant-Man and even assume the identity of his girlfriend, Janet Van Dyne's The Wasp, after she was killed during the annoyingly lengthy cross-title "event" Secret Invasion. Other characters have assumed the Ant-Man identity, most notably Scott Lang, a former thief who dated the Brian Michael Bendis-created Jessica Jones (from "Alias"), and, most intriguingly, Eric O'Grady, a scummy low-level S.H.I.E.L.D. operative who mostly used the powers of the Ant-Man suit to spy on women in the shower. (Seek out the "Walking Dead" creator Robert Kirkman's "Irredeemable Ant-Man" run. It's a blast.)

It's been rumored that Wright and Cornish's "Ant-Man" script featured several Ant-Men, and we don't think it was a coincidence that Wright was announced for Disney's "Night Stalker" and now all of a sudden "Ant-Man" is closer to happening than ever before. Whether Wright himself will take the helm or someone else remains to be seen, while the bigger questions is who will put on the funky helmet...