'Ant-Man': Director Peyton Reed Talks About Hero's Powers, Chemistry Of Michael Douglas, Paul Rudd

In his discussion with Collider, “Ant-Man” director Peyton Reed revealed another power of Ant-Man (Paul Rudd) besides shrinking. The diminutive superhero will reportedly also have the power to control ants -- and will create an army of the insects to help him plot a heist.

Reed termed Ant-Man’s ability to control ants as a “weirder power” and said as a director it gave him “freedom to create these situations and this sort of army of ants, and see how something so small can be mobilized as an actual really formidable thing.”

Macro-photography was used to shoot real ants, and their images were mixed in with those of digitized ants, Reed said. The 50-year-old director also spoke about Michael Douglas’ character Hank Pym, calling Pym one of the most enthralling characters in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Pym will be shown as a really “conflicted” character who will have a certain amount of guilt that will push him to do the right things in his life.

“To have Michael Douglas play that guy where there’s just clearly a huge gray area with this guy, and sometimes with that character you wonder if he’s sane, that’s perfect casting to me. I think he’s fantastic,” Reed said. Douglas shares most of his scenes with Rudd and watching them work together was a thing of joy, Reed added.

“Ant-Man” opens July 17. It also stars Evangeline Lilly, Corey Stoll, Bobby Cannavale, Michael Peña, Tip "T.I." Harris, Wood Harris, Judy Greer and David Dastmalchian. The main antagonist in the film will be Darren Cross/Yellowjacket, played by Stoll. He will be shown as a brilliant scientist who is not ethically driven -- and just like Pym will have shades of gray.