The First Avenger: Captain America

[JackFetch]

Damon is too old now, and too short. The rumor is Sam Worthington will play him, but who knows?

[Stavros]

Damon is too old now, and too short. The rumor is Sam Worthington will play him, but who knows?

I like Sam Worthington, I really do. He was easily the best thing in the last Terminator, and he's great in Avatar. I just worry about a Captain America who's american accent is less than 100%. I mean, you can't tell me there isn't a 6ft or more blonde american guy who can do this role. Its statistically impossible that a casting call for an unknown who could do this could come up with zero prospects. For crying out loud, they found Brendan Routh for Superman, and he was (in my opinion) awesome. Its not even like most of the public have an ideal for this guy to fulfil. I mean, its not the star they are selling this on, is it? Its the hero he plays. Cast someone GREAT as Red Skull and you're home. Look at it like casting Kirk for the last Star Trek, you can't tell me there isn't another Chris Pine out there.

Go with Worthington if need be, I'm sure he'll do a great job. I just can't believe they couldn't find a guy who fits the bill a little better.

[JackFetch]

I don't see how someone being from somewhere else matters. Half the people on tv and in movies are using different accents than where they are from. The first time I saw Hugh Laurie talk outside House I thought he was joking.

[SuaveStar]

Who would be cast as the red skull then?

[Stavros]

I don't see how someone being from somewhere else matters. Half the people on tv and in movies are using different accents than where they are from. The first time I saw Hugh Laurie talk outside House I thought he was joking.

Right, but Sam Worthington does have a little trouble with the american accent. Its fine most of the time but occasionally it slips and that not a great thing when he's supposed to be Captain America.

[JackFetch]

As long as he's not as bad as Kevin Costner doing a British accent, I'd be happy.

[CaptainAmerica2011]

Was super excited when I found this, thought it was a really good teaser poster but found out it was fake which devastated me . Oh well i'll share it anyway.

http://www.google.ca/imgres?imgurl=http://moviecultists.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/11/first-avenger-captain-america-poster.jpg&imgrefurl=http://moviecultists.com/2009/11/05/10-fake-fan-made-posters-that-look-real/first-avenger-captain-america-poster/&h=410&w=300&sz=22&tbnid=h_h5T7oaMnp31M:&tbnh=125&tbnw=91&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dfirst%2Bavenger&usg=__-jeQ1kpDF0R2YMOJDWyTDm-EdaY=&ei=sIA6S7LwJZCasgP2xaC5BA&sa=X&oi=image_result&resnum=5&ct=image&ved=0CBsQ9QEwBA

[Missy]

That is a pretty good fake, but I'd have put a few more bodies on the battlefield.

[Stavros]

As long as he's not as bad as Kevin Costner doing a British accent, I'd be happy.

I'm still waiting to see how good Russell Crowe: Prince of Thieves does in that dept.

[JackFetch]

It's not going to be a Captain America that you expect. It's something different. It is influenced by the comic book, but it goes off in a completely different direction. It's the origin story of Captain America. It's mostly period—there are modern, present-day bookends on it—but it's basically the story of how Steve Rogers becomes Captain America. The great thing about Captain America is he's a super hero without any super powers. Which is why this story, among the hundreds of super hero stories, appealed to me the most. He can't fly, he can't see through walls, he can't do any of that stuff. He's an every man who's been given this amazing gift of transformation into the perfect specimen—the pinnacle of human perfection. How does that affect him? What does that mean for him emotionally and psychologically? He was this 98-pound weakling, he was this wimp, and he's transformed instantly into this Adonis. You'd think he got everything he wanted. Well, he didn't get everything he wanted. The rules change at that point and his life gets even more complicated and dire. For me, that's the interesting part of the story. It's got some great action sequences in it and some incredible stuff that we've never seen before. But at the heart of it, it's a story about this kid who all he wants to do is fit in. This thing happens and he still doesn't fit in. And he has to prove himself a hero—essentially go AWOL to save a friend...

http://superherohype.com/news/captainamericanews.php?id=8985

[JackFetch]

That "next job" is the much-anticipated The First Avenger: Captain America, featuring the Marvel Comics superhero created by Joe Simon and Jack Kirby in 1940 for Marvel's forerunner, Timely Comics.

"We're in prep," Johnston says. "Rick Heinrichs is production-designing and we're set up down in Manhattan Beach [California]. It's the part of the process that I love the most," he enthuses. "We have eight or ten really talented artists, and we all just sit around all day and draw pictures and say, 'Hey, wouldn't it be cool if we could do this?' It's that phase of the production where money doesn't matter: ‘Let's put all the greatest stuff up on the wall and [then later] see what we can afford.'" The film, he says at this early stage, will begin "in 1942, 1943" during World War II. "The stuff in the ’60s and ’70s [comic books] we're sort of avoiding. We're going back to the ’40s, and then forward to what they're doing with Captain America now."

http://www.filmjournal.com/filmjournal/content_display/esearch/e3i84347827022cc793ce558ba986c2e3b9?pn=2

[JackFetch]

Captain America will be cast within a couple weeks.

[JackFetch]

Spoilers about the plot:

In a chat with The Los Angeles Times, Johnston explained why Cap wears a flag costume to begin with. "The costume is a flag, but the way we're getting around that is we have Steve Rogers forced into the USO circuit. After he's made into this super-soldier, they decide they can't send him into combat and risk him getting killed," the director said. "He's the only one and they can't make more. So they say, 'You're going to be in this USO show' and they give him a flag suit. He can't wait to get out of it."

But Cap grows frustrated with being a reluctant performer in the United Services Organizations, the Times reports, and he eventually goes AWOL from the USO because he wants to serve on the battlefield. After initially covering up his costume, Johnston said Cap "realizes the value of the uniform symbols but he modifies his suit and adds some armor, it will be closer to the Cap costume in some of the comics in more recent years." Expect the later suit to have more muted colors and for the red stripes across Cap's mid-section to be straps rather than striped fabric. Johnston believes this USO explanation for Cap's costume is the only way to justify the film character wearing such an outfit in "real" life.

Johnston also said they're currently testing five or six actors for the title role, ranging in age from 23 to 32. He said they want to go a little older than the average age of American G.I.s in World War II, who were generally in their late teens. The helmer expects to cast Cap before he leaves for England on March 1 to start pre-production. Captain America begins filming in London in late June.

And in an interview with HitFix, Johnston confirmed that the story will have present-day bookends and that the villain is Red Skull. That role hasn't been cast yet.

http://movies.ign.com/articles/106/1067314p1.html

I actually like that idea.

[Stavros]

Nothing to complain about there.

The story should be framed within the context of the Avengers, if the film starts out with Cap's discovery in the ice and ends with him opening his eyes to meet the Avengers I'll be very happy. Casting seems fine, I'm very happy with the Red Skull being the villain. Hopefully they leave his end somewhat ambiguous so they can possibly bring him back for a later Avengers film.

Marvel really are sticking close to the fans for these films, I'm so happy that they are taking on responsibility for the production themselves. It helps prevent Catwoman type situations.

[Koete]

I really hope they go with the Ultimate Cap's WW II costume.

[Stavros]

I really hope they go with the Ultimate Cap's WW II costume.

I figure they'd have to use some variation of that to make it look credible.

Also, whatever versions they do they have to ditch the sodding wings. They look stupid in the comics, there is no way on earth they'll work on screen.

Here's hoping for decent casting of Bucky. Maybe with a view to revisiting him later on, I don't want Bucky written off as an old man like in Ultimates. They should end it just like the retcon in Brubaker's cap, Bucky & Cap hanging off the missile as it blows up.

[JackFetch]

More news:

Good news for those worried that Scottish-born John Barrowman or Australian Sam Worthington might be the guy to put on Captain America's red-white-and-blue tights: Director Joe Johnston said categorically that he will cast an American in the title role of The First Avenger: Captain America.

"Casting an American? Absolutely," Johnston said in a news conference in Beverly Hills, Calif., on Saturday while promoting his next film, The Wolfman. "Oh, yeah. I don't think we could make the film without an American playing the part. But we may not be casting in America, because we're going to London. I think we'll probably shoot in the U.K. for most of it, because it takes place in Europe. But, yeah, we'll definitely be casting [an American]."

Johnston also revealed other details about his upcoming film:

♦Expect a casting announcement no later than March 1. And expect an unknown. "I hope it'll be somebody that we discover and who's never been in ... —he's probably been in something, but you won't know who he is. You won't recognize him, and we'll surround him with more prominent names. That's who we're looking for. Will we find him? I don't know. It's tough."

♦It won't be shot in 3-D, but it will be shot on high-definition video that could be converted to 3-D later. "We're not going to be shooting it specifically in 3-D, but this is the first film I will have shot in hi-def."

♦It won't look like other superhero movies. "We're definitely going to shoot it in a different way than any of the other Marvel pictures have been shot. What I'm trying to do is look at the comics, mostly the new ones, mostly the [Ed] Brubaker series [from 2004] and to interpret that sort of visual style into a film in a way that I think has been tried before, but it always looks like it's a little too on the nose. It looks like, oh, they're shooting a comic-book movie. I want to try something a little bit different."

♦Johnston promises big action set pieces. "Right now we have to sort of pick our battles, because it's a little more than we can afford right now, but there are some great action sequences, stuff we haven't seen before."

Captain America is due in theaters on July 22, 2011.

http://scifiwire.com/2010/02/director-captain-america.php

[Stavros]

Taking visual cues from the Brubaker series is a graet starting point. I've no problem with anything this guy says.

[slothian]

More news:

Good news for those worried that Scottish-born John Barrowman or Australian Sam Worthington might be the guy to put on Captain America's red-white-and-blue tights: Director Joe Johnston said categorically that he will cast an American in the title role of The First Avenger: Captain America.

Bryan Singer looked at the House audition tape of Hugh Laurie and claimed that he was exactly the kind of American actor he was looking for. Just saying. And of all the reasons I could find for Barrowman being miscast in the role, being Scottish-born isn't one of them*. And that's a hard thing for me to admit as an Englishman....

One question I'd have is that if this film is going to look stylistically different from the other Marvel pictures, is Captain America not going to look out of place in the eventual Avengers film? I thought the entire point of the project was to get the characters together in a recognisably similar universe.

* I do acknowledge that it'd be damn bizarre for a non-American to play a quintessentially American character, I just don't like the way that sentence was written/typed.

[Stavros]

I think that by stylistically different he means its going to look a lot more like a WWII film, incorporate a lot of those ideas. Really the filming style depends a lot on the movement and action of the hero involved. The techniques for Spider-man differ from DD, just as the Hulk differs from Iron Man. It doesn't mean they aren't cross compatible, it just means the camera uses different ways of filming the action for each one, like a signature. I'm sure a sufficiently talented director will be able to make it all work.

[elnino14]

CHUD recently spoke with Joe Johnson, who will be directing The First Avenger: Captain America, and he confirmed that Captain America will have some help in the film. What help you ask? Johnson confirmed that Captain America's WW2 comrades-in-arms, the Invaders, will appear in the film.

"They'll be in the entire second half."

The Invaders were a Europe-based superhero team that included Namor the Sub-Mariner, the original Human Torch, Union Jack, Toro, Captain America and his sidekick Bucky Barnes. Johnson would not confirm which members would be in the film. Filming for The First Avenger: Captain America begins in late June, in England.

Sounds like Bullshit...and I hope it is because it's an absolutely terrible idea.

[Stavros]

This is exactly what I was hoping for.

The invaders RULE. Human Torch, Namor, Bucky, all these guys should be involved in the story of Captain America in WWII. You don't have to put Namor in tiny pants, he can just wear his later black outfit and look damn cool. The idea of Cap being in charge of the first Superhero team also lends him a lot of credibility when it comes to the Avengers, like its destiny that he's there to lead them as well.

I'd be pissed if they weren't at least seriously considering having the Invaders in this film, even if only for a short time.

[JackFetch]

I don't see why they would put Namor in this when they haven't green lighted his movie yet. Besides, Universal owns the film rights.

[KnightWing]

I think that Bucky and The Human Torch would/will be awesome. Namor I can live without.

This film is sounding more and more perfect all the time.

[Molly]

I know he's pretty similar to Cap, but Kirkman's run on 'Destroyer' really made me want to see the character in the WWII context. Throw him in, along with the rest of the Invaders, because it's not like he's going to get his own movie.