Captain America: The First Avenger

Spoiler Alert: This Post Reveals Several Plot Points In The Captain America Film

Fingers crossed!

LA Times:

It's one thing to take Batman off the comic-book page and make his costume still look good in a live-action feature, but Captain America presents a far bigger challenge — the hero is essentially a walking flag, which might leave many average moviegoers giggling instead of saluting.

But director Joe Johnston and the team at Marvel Studios have a plan for "The First Avenger: Captain America," which is due in Summer 2011: They've added a new wrinkle to the classic mythology to explain why a scientifically enhanced super-soldier would venture out in the WWII battlefields in a costume that leans a bit heavy on the old Betsy Ross imagery.

"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. 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."

That's a whole new concept and it's one that sounds pretty promising. "It was never in the comics," Johnston said, "because they didn't really need it. In comics, he puts on the costume and the reader just justifies because of the nature of the medium."

Filming starts in London at the end of June. "There's a lot of work we have to do on it," the 59-year-old director said.

And who will wear the costume and carry the shield? "Well, we're testing five or six guys," Johnston said. "The youngest is 23, the oldest is 32. Most of the guys in the war are just kids, 18 or 19, but we want to go a little bit older. We have to have somebody locked in before I leave March 1 for London."

A challenge, he said, is finding an actor that can play scenes as "98-pound-weakling" Steve Rogers and also pull off the brawny hero scenes, although some visual effects wizardry will come into play. Johnson has plenty of experience on that front as the director of "Jumanji," "Honey, I Shrunk the Kids" and "Jurassic Park III" He also had art director credits on major Lucasfilm projects, including "Raiders of the Lost Ark" and "The Empire Strikes Back."

Johnston also directed "The Rocketeer," an underrated 1991 film based on the retro-hero created by the late great Dave Stevens. I asked Johnston if he thought the vintage flair of that film might have caught the eye of the Marvel brain trust as they looked around for a filmmaker to handle a 1940s action movie.

"I think it's probably possible that it was an influence," he said. "I think they were looking for somebody that could handle the visual effects. I think that was a big part of it. And with visual effects, all you really need to know is what is possible. And these days, actually, that's almost anything. Not everything is affordable, but almost everything is approachable."

I wanted to come back to the idea of Steve Rogers as a reluctant performer with United Services Organizations, which famously brought Bob Hope and other entertainers to morale-boosting events for troops overseas.
"So he's up on stage doing songs and dances with chorus girls and he can't wait to get out and really fight. When he does go AWOL, he covers up the suit but then, after a few things happen, he realizes that this uniform allows him to lead. By then, he's become a star in the public mind and a symbol. The guys get behind him because he embodies something special."

There will be more than one costume in the film, too.

In the first USO sequences, the frustrated patriot will be wearing a version that is closer to the classic Jack Kirby-designed costume, but then later as the super-soldier hits the war zone he will be wearing a sturdier, more muted version that he makes himself that is more like battle togs. The stripes across his mid-section, for instance, will be straps, not colored fabric.

"He realizes the value of the uniform symbols but he modifies his suit and adds some armor, it will be closer to the Cpa costume in some of the comics in more recent years . . . this approach, it's the only way we could justify ever seeing him on a screen in tights, with the funny boots and everything. The government essentially puts him up there as a living comic-book character and he rips it off and then reclaims some of its imagery after he recognizes the value of it. We think it's the best way to keep the costume
and explain it at the same time.".
 

Montana Smith

Active member
If Cap's with the USO he can ditch Bucky and team up with Bob Hope, then it won't matter that he's running around in his underwear and tights. Everyone'll think it's just part of the act.

I like the way they portrayed his uniform in the Ultimates - sort of a blue GI with a placard front tunic.

UltimateCap.jpg
 
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caats

New member
spoilers on the blacked out parts posted above


i'm hoping they keep the USO stuff to a minimum. Cause that's just gonna be awkward and unfunny on the screen. I just don't see how it would jive with the war setting background. Captain America should be THE hope the symbol against a gritty war movie. not too gritty obviously. but do you want to make fun of the suit? i dunno. I like where the end up with him recognizing him as the symbol. but there's gotta be a less hokey way of getting there. like he's gonna sing and dance? really?

AND WHY in the world would the military put their SUPER soldier in the USO show? Johnson says cause he's the only one? so what, he's better suited singing and dancing than being the only mf-BADASS ON THE BATTLEFIELD?

i also read the invaders are gonna be in the 2nd half, which gives me superhero x-men3/wolverine overload.

i actually don't even read marvel, but this stuff strikes me as :eek:
 

Montana Smith

Active member
caats said:
spoilers on the blacked out parts posted above


i'm hoping they keep the USO stuff to a minimum. Cause that's just gonna be awkward and unfunny on the screen. I just don't see how it would jive with the war setting background. Captain America should be THE hope the symbol against a gritty war movie. not too gritty obviously. but do you want to make fun of the suit? i dunno. I like where the end up with him recognizing him as the symbol. but there's gotta be a less hokey way of getting there. like he's gonna sing and dance? really?

AND WHY in the world would the military put their SUPER soldier in the USO show? Johnson says cause he's the only one? so what, he's better suited singing and dancing than being the only mf-BADASS ON THE BATTLEFIELD?

i also read the invaders are gonna be in the 2nd half, which gives me superhero x-men3/wolverine overload.

i actually don't even read marvel, but this stuff strikes me as :eek:

I agree, caats, that it does sound quite awkward, not to say odd. What's the point of going through all the expense and effort of creating a super soldier and not putting him to the test? It's wartime so every moment of research counts, otherwise you might as well be building better tanks or aircraft.

That's why I really like the Ultimates take on the Marvel heroes, as it re-imagines them as how heroes might be if they were real (just as Batman Begins re-imagines how a non-superpowered human might become a hero).

Captain America was best as seen on the covers of his comics punching Hitler, or going up against Red Skull's minions.
 
Fellas...if I had to guess, it's because he's a 98lb weakling that he's a song and dance man and because he wants to do more/be more that he agrees to the program.

That sounds likely to me.
 
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Montana Smith

Active member
Rocket Surgeon said:
Fellas...if I had to guess, it's because he's a 98lb weakling that he's a song and dance man and because he wants to do more/be more that he agrees to the program.

That sounds likely to me.

I must have misread it - I thought it said that he was still in the USO after he was made into the super solider. That would seem to be a waste of good scientific research and development, like not using your brand new tanks because they'll get muddy and paint-chipped!
 

caats

New member
i don't think you misread where Rocket Surgeon quoted the director saying "after he's made into this super soldier"
 

Dr Bones

New member
Now, I hate all the making the past, current crap that Hollywood does just because it's target demographic is too young or too ignoranrt to realise what is odd today was possibly acceptable yesterday.

Set it in a realistic albeit "audience friendly" WWII. Cap can wear any version of his suit because it was the done thing to be overtly patriotic then.

Sure even in 1930's the costume may be seen as gawdy but perhaps not so much as today.

Cap is a reflection of the past so let him reflect that era.

Nothing more annoying than the modern senisbilities and tastes of today's people and modern pc, vernacular etc in what should in theory be a period piece.


Heck...they'll be taking the swastikas off the german troops in Indy the game....oh. ;)
 

Montana Smith

Active member
Dr Bones said:
Set it in a realistic albeit "audience friendly" WWII. Cap can wear any version of his suit because it was the done thing to be overtly patriotic then.

Sure even in 1930's the costume may be seen as gawdy but perhaps not so much as today.

Cap is a reflection of the past so let him reflect that era.

I totally agree - the very purpose of Catapin America was propaganda backed by muscle. He was really a muscular version of Uncle Sam.

I really like the Ultimates take on his uniform. It says GI Joe, but with a patriotic twist. It says "target" to the enemy: "come and get me if you think you're hard enough".

The trouble with the later skintight uniform is the trouble that always rises when you transfer a comic book to the screen. There's always the danger that the hero will look silly with his underpants over his tights. In artwork it isn't a problem, but when you see a man in tights standing amongst regularly dressed people, well, there's always the chance that it'll raise a snigger.

That's where Indiana Jones' costume choices are winners - he never really looks out of place, but then he isn't setting himself up as a hero.

Dr Bones said:
Nothing more annoying than the modern senisbilities and tastes of today's people and modern pc, vernacular etc in what should in theory be a period piece.

Heck...they'll be taking the swastikas off the german troops in Indy the game....oh. ;)

Political correctness taken to unwarranted extremes is a pet hate of mine. As long as the Swastika doesn't glorify the Nazi Party or associatied ideologies, then it should remain as an historically accurate symbol of the period being presented. If you remove it, you're actually taking some of the real horror out of history for kids.

The Hammer and Sickle isn't banned, yet the Soviets were responsible for a far greater number of atrocities, long before Hitler came to power, and long after he died.

History is written by the victorious.
 

Montana Smith

Active member
caats said:
i don't think you misread where Rocket Surgeon quoted the director saying "after he's made into this super soldier"

No, I re-read it again. It looks like a very strange plot decision. Though it'll probably be there to create conflict and suspense. Steve Rogers will be fighting the generals to put him into the action, and the audience will be itching to see that action unfold.
 

TheMutt92

New member
Dammit, Jim!

http://www.empireonline.com/news/story.asp?NID=27124

With The First Avenger: Captain America set to start shooting in the coming months, Marvel and director Joe Johnston have naturally been lining up possible leading men to hoist the shield and don the flag-happy uniform. And now they?re calling in a big group of likely lads to screen test, including John Krasinski, Scott Porter and Mike Vogel.

Krasinski, of course, is best known for the US version of The Office, but has been seen on the big screen in the likes of Away We Go and Leatherheads. Porter is a veteran of TV?s Friday Night Lights, while Vogel was part of Cloverfield?s ensemble. Also testing out in the coming days are Smallville?s Michael Cassidy, Patrick Flueger (formerly of TV drama The 4400 and seen in Brothers alongside Tobey Maguire).

And then there are those who were considered but probably have scheduling clashes, including Tron Legacy?s Garrett Hedlund and Supernatural?s Jensen Ackles.

But don?t go thinking that anyone on the list so far is a shoe-in for Steve Rogers: as Marvel?s sources tell the Heat Vision Blog, there?s always the chance that Johnson and the studio could see everyone and still find someone else, just as Kenneth Branagh did with Thor.
 

DocWhiskey

Well-known member
^ Hahaha...

US General: Captain America, your country needs you!

Cap: Ok...

US General: We have been threated yet again this time by a Nazi who calls himself the Red Skull!

Cap: Sooo, why's he called the Red Skull again?

US General: His head is inexplicably a Red Skull.

Cap:
42pow.jpg
 

YouNeverKnow

New member
NO way. I love John Krasinski, and I'd love to see him in a dramatic role because I think he could pull it off. But he is no Cap.
 

kongisking

Active member
Apparently Marvel is offering the role to Chris "The Human Torch" Evans.

Stewie Griffin: Say WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAT?
 

kongisking

Active member
kongisking said:
Apparently Marvel is offering the role to Chris "The Human Torch" Evans.

Stewie Griffin: Say WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAT?

Update: Apparently Chris has accepted! Go over to AintItCoolNews to see for yourself!
 

TheMutt92

New member
I'm kinda mixed on this decision. He's certainly not the greatest-actor-that-ever-walked-the-earth, but then again that's not really what you need. Bu seeing as its Captain America, I was kinda hoping someone w/ a bit more presence I suppose (Sam Worthington would've been interesting, but then again, he's not American :p ), not wise cracks: for the Avengers, it should be Iron Man, not Captain, using his mouth. I'm gonna have to see him in costume or acting in a trailer before I feel inclined to make a judgement one way or another. (Personally, I'm still on the train of though that John Krasinski would've been badass, but thats another discussion...)
 
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