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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