If you thought that Werner Herzog eating his shoe was weird, you might be interested in this conceit: what if the famous German film director (of Grizzly Man and Signs of Life fame) helmed one of the latest cinematic installments in the Marvel Universe, Ant-Man?
Credited as a product of "Werner Herzog Filmproduktion," the short goes all-immersive in true '70s-esque, grainy, low-contrast style. A fake Herzog (played by Scott Thomas) narrates in voiceover over the travails of Scott Lang/Ant-Man, whose supersuit malfunctions, trapping him in his minute state. From there, we travel with Ant-Man, accompanied by riffs on Herzog's philosophical meanderings about nature and nihilism.
For example: when Ant-Man lifts a walnut that is "100 times worth his body weight," Herzog concludes, "but what does this achieve, but to increase his burden, his capacity for suffering?" Very cheery man, that Herzog.
Did we mention there is also ant copulation? There is ant copulation. There is also a large, looming, ant-eating chicken. Guess that's nature, folks.
Unfortunately, this isn't a Herzog short — it's written by Matt Torpey and directed by Patrick Willems, whose past shorts include Breaking Bad Jr., which features a diabetes-diagnosed mini-Walter White building a Heisenberg-esque candy empire, and What If X-Men Were Directed by Wes Anderson?, which is everything you could probably imagine, with even more twee and dead-panning.
Watch the spectacular speculative trailer in the clip below.
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