Ant-Man and the Wasp filmed at Pinewood Atlanta
Marvel’s superhero sequel Ant-Man and the Wasp filmed from a production base at Pinewood Atlanta Studios in Georgia.
By Nick Goundry 6 Jul 2018
Marvel’s superhero sequel Ant-Man and the Wasp filmed from a production base at Pinewood Atlanta Studios in Georgia.
The movie follows the further adventures of Paul Rudd’s engineer Scott Lang who can change his size with the aid of a special suit designed by Michael Douglas’ older physicist Hank Pym.
Pinewood Atlanta Studios has been a regular home to Marvel’s superhero movies – including the first Ant-Man film – and offers 18 stages and back lots.
Georgia’s generous filming incentive support helps make Atlanta one of the top locations in the US for big-budget movie production.
Ant-Man and the Wasp spent 80 days filming in the state, generating over $63m in local “economic activity”, according to figures from the Motion Picture Association of America.
Director Peyton Reed’s production team built a series of sets on Pinewood’s stages, including a multi-storey structure that became Pym’s home and laboratory. Steel framework was used in the construction so that the set would be strong enough to handle the weight of the full crew and filming equipment.
The immense set took four months to build and was finally encircled by a vast green screen so that the visual effects team could add San Francisco backgrounds in post-production.
Scenes involving the characters shrunk in size were shot with the actors using motion capture technology, with the footage then digitally inserted into a specially designed "macro world".
Various Atlanta locations stood in for San Francisco story settings, but the production team also headed east to the city of Savannah to recreate the Argentinian capital Buenos Aires for flashback scenes.
“We took over a portion of the busiest restaurant in Savannah for about a month and transformed it into 1980s Buenos Aires, complete with an outdoor cafe, street vendors and vehicles,” says Mike Fantasia, the film’s supervising location manager, in comments to KFTV.
“All of this culminated in the production filming at the same time as the Savannah Film Festival was in full swing a couple of blocks away! The city of Savannah was great to work with, closing down and detouring streets for long periods of time. The local businesses were welcoming and the crew really enjoyed the change of venue.”
As with the first film, limited location filming took place on the streets of San Francisco to create a sense of the film’s story setting.
Despite its status as an iconic Californian city, San Francisco lacks Los Angeles’ production profile. Filmmakers frequently use Vancouver or New Orleans as stand-ins, both of which have stronger filming incentive support and local studios.
Fantasia, however, has great enthusiasm for San Francisco as a filming location.
“It’s not easy to film action sequences there, but it’s worth every ounce of effort you put into it,” he tells KFTV. “The San Francisco Police Department is committed to working with filmmakers and helped us determine the best place to film specific sequences. They were a lifesaver!
“More and more projects have filmed in the Bay area since the incentive was enacted and I suspect more will do so in the future. One limiting factor is the lack of a proper sound stage.”
Marvel will shoot a new Spider-Man movie in the UK this summer and a third Guardians of the Galaxy film is scheduled for production from early next year, also in the UK.
See KFTV's production guide for more on filming in Georgia.
Images: Disney/Marvel Studios
Pinewood Atlanta Studios has been a regular home to Marvel’s superhero movies – including the first Ant-Man film – and offers 18 stages and back lots.
Georgia’s generous filming incentive support helps make Atlanta one of the top locations in the US for big-budget movie production.
Ant-Man and the Wasp spent 80 days filming in the state, generating over $63m in local “economic activity”, according to figures from the Motion Picture Association of America.
Director Peyton Reed’s production team built a series of sets on Pinewood’s stages, including a multi-storey structure that became Pym’s home and laboratory. Steel framework was used in the construction so that the set would be strong enough to handle the weight of the full crew and filming equipment.
The immense set took four months to build and was finally encircled by a vast green screen so that the visual effects team could add San Francisco backgrounds in post-production.
Scenes involving the characters shrunk in size were shot with the actors using motion capture technology, with the footage then digitally inserted into a specially designed "macro world".
Various Atlanta locations stood in for San Francisco story settings, but the production team also headed east to the city of Savannah to recreate the Argentinian capital Buenos Aires for flashback scenes.
“We took over a portion of the busiest restaurant in Savannah for about a month and transformed it into 1980s Buenos Aires, complete with an outdoor cafe, street vendors and vehicles,” says Mike Fantasia, the film’s supervising location manager, in comments to KFTV.
“All of this culminated in the production filming at the same time as the Savannah Film Festival was in full swing a couple of blocks away! The city of Savannah was great to work with, closing down and detouring streets for long periods of time. The local businesses were welcoming and the crew really enjoyed the change of venue.”
As with the first film, limited location filming took place on the streets of San Francisco to create a sense of the film’s story setting.
Despite its status as an iconic Californian city, San Francisco lacks Los Angeles’ production profile. Filmmakers frequently use Vancouver or New Orleans as stand-ins, both of which have stronger filming incentive support and local studios.
Fantasia, however, has great enthusiasm for San Francisco as a filming location.
“It’s not easy to film action sequences there, but it’s worth every ounce of effort you put into it,” he tells KFTV. “The San Francisco Police Department is committed to working with filmmakers and helped us determine the best place to film specific sequences. They were a lifesaver!
“More and more projects have filmed in the Bay area since the incentive was enacted and I suspect more will do so in the future. One limiting factor is the lack of a proper sound stage.”
Marvel will shoot a new Spider-Man movie in the UK this summer and a third Guardians of the Galaxy film is scheduled for production from early next year, also in the UK.
See KFTV's production guide for more on filming in Georgia.
Images: Disney/Marvel Studios
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