BPS 119: How I Wrote Ant-Man with Joe Cornish

You guys better get ready for a hell of a ride because our guest
today brought a great conversation. We have accomplished
screenwriter and director Joe Cornish on the show today. The
English comedian and filmmaker burst onto the scene in 2011 with
his very successful film directorial debut, Attack The Block,
starring John Boyega, who played Moses, a low-level crook, teenage
gang leader, an orphan looking for respect around the block. The
British sci-fi comedy horror film centers on a teenage street gang
who have to defend themselves and their block from predatory alien
invaders on Guy Fawkes Night.

Commercially, the film did not perform as it was acclaimed
critically. It is rated at 90% on Rotten Tomatoes, won the Audience
Award for Best Film (Midnights) at SXSW 2011, and many other awards
from all major film festivals that year.

Cornish and his comedy partner, Adam Buxton form the successful
duo, Adam & Joe an ironic pop culture sketch show which gained
a lot of success in the UK alongside Cornish’s long-term work in
the UK TV entertainment industry.

In 2011 he joined iconic directors, Peter Jackson and Steven
Spielberg as a writer for the screenplay and story for the 3D
animated action-adventure film, The Adventures of Tintin: The
Secret of the Unicorn --- co-written alongside Edgar Wright and
Steven Moffat.
Intrepid reporter Tintin and Captain Haddock set off on a treasure
hunt for a sunken ship commanded by Haddock's ancestor.

This $135 million budget film grossed $374 million at the box
office and received a plethora of nominations including Oscars for
Best Original Score, a Golden Globe for Best Animated Feature Film,
two BAFTA nominations for Best Animated Film and Best Special
Visual Effects.

Cornish co-wrote the screenplay for the Marvel Comic character,
Ant-Man, along with Wright, Adam McKay, and Paul Rudd in
2015.


Rudd, starring as Ant-Man is armed with a super-suit with the
astonishing ability to shrink in scale but increase in strength,
cat burglar Scott Lang must embrace his inner-hero and help his
mentor, Dr. Hank Pym, plan and pull off a heist that will save the
world. Similar to most Marvel Studio movies, the film carried a big
budget of $169.3 million and grossed $519.3 million.

His latest film, The Kid Who Would Be King (2019), which I highly
recommend everybody to watch, joins a band of kids who embarks on
an epic quest to thwart a medieval menace.



Joe honestly, was extremely forthcoming and transparent about a lot
of things; like what happened behind the scenes of Ant-Man and what
it's like to write inside the Marvel machine. And we also discuss
his craft, how he is as a director, how he likes to approach his
writing and many more.

Enjoy this conversation with Joe Cornish.

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