Ant-Man’s move away from 007 pays off

A Jack Kirby cover featuring Ant Man

Ant-Man, the newest Marvel movie, came in at No. 1 in the U.S. movie box office this weekend, according to BOX OFFICE MOJO.

The film had estimated ticket sales of $58 million. (UPDATE, July 20: final, actual figure was $57.2 million.) Ant-Man was originally scheduled for Nov. 6, but was moved up to July when SPECTRE (then just titled Bond 24), also got scheduled for Nov. 6 in the United States.

Ant-Man features one of Marvel’s oldest — but most obscure to the general public — characters.

The lead character, Scott Lang (Paul Rudd), was actually the second version of Ant-Man, introduced in comic books in the late 1970s. Michael Douglas plays Hank Pym, the original version, who made his debut in 1962.

The new movie has been in development since 2006, before Marvel began making its own films with 2008’s Iron Man. The project’s original director-writer, Edgar Wright, departed the project. The new movie establishes connections with previous Marvel films.

In any case, Ant-Man had been seen as a relatively risky project for Marvel. It’s not a blockbuster on the scale of other Marvel films, but it has gotten off to a good start at the box office. Avoiding 007 as competition appears to be a wise move.

The FBI season 6: Erskine takes on the ’70s

Efrem Zimbalist Jr.

The sixth season of The FBI is now available on DVD. The sales pitch from Warner Archive, which markets manufactured-on-demand home video products for Warner Bros., reflects the changing era for the show.

At the dawn of the Seventies the Culture War captured as much attention as the Cold War, and the storylines seen in this sixth season of The FBI (drawn from real Bureau files) reflected this. While still on the watch for saboteurs and spies acting as agents for foreign powers, the dedicated crimebusters of the Bureau, as personified by Inspector Erskine (Efrem Zimbalist, Jr.), Special Agent Colby (William Reynolds), and Assistant Director Ward (Philip Abbott) were just as likely to be tasked with tracking down psychotic Vietnam veterans or stopping college kids with a terrorist bent.

The series still was coming up with some espionage stories such as The Target, an episode featuring one-time James Bond actress Karin Dor.

The sixth season also has a mix of actors who’d gain fame later, including Martin Sheen (who had already done a guest shot back in the third season), Michael Douglas (shortly before being employed by producer Quinn Martin) and Diane Keaton (a year before doing The Godfather). Also, the roster of guest stars includes William Shatner being, well, William Shatner.

For Quinn Martin, The FBI was now his flagship show. The creative team led by producer Philip Saltzman remained in tact from the previous season. For QM Productions, it was steady as she goes amid the changes in society that were affecting storylines.

For information about ordering the season 6 set, you can CLICK HERE. There’s a sample clip from The Condemned, the first episode of the season.

UPDATE (Oct. 18): Here’s the preview clip from The Condemned:

Soderbergh discusses his U.N.C.L.E. plans

Last month, the Omaha World-Herald reported on an appearance by Steven Soderbergh in which the director referenced his plans to do a movie based on The Man From U.N.C.L.E. Now a recording of that appearance has surfaced.

On the Studio 360< Web site, there's a short story that includes an audio recording of Soderbergh’s comments in Omaha. In the recording, Soderbergh, 48, confirms he’s down to two unproduced films before he retires as a director.

“Liberace and The Man From U.N.C.L.E. are the only things I’m obligated to do,” Soderbergh said starting about 40 minutes into the session. “To do Liberace with Matt Damon and Michael Douglas and to do Man From U.N.C.L.E. with George (Clooney)…that’s a great way to have a sort of farewell tour. George and I found ourselves at the right time…For years we’ve both been trying to find something to do.”

In response to a questioner, Soderberg says Clooney would play Napoleon Solo. The Liberace film is a movie biography with Douglas the entertainer and Damon as his lover.

No other details were disclosed and all of Soderbergh’s comments come at the end of the recording. But it is an on-the-record confirmation of what has been reported so far in the entertainment press. Meanwhile, Clooney, who turns 50 on May 6, is directing and starring in a movie called The Ides of March, which is being filmed in Michigan, according to the Detroit Free Press.