Captain America movie info
Joe Johnston isn't the most recognizable director out there. His resume includes The Rocketeer (which is criminally underrated if you ask me) and the upcoming The Wolfman. Aside from really liking the word "the" in his titles, his main importance to comics though comes in 2011, when The First Avenger: Captain America hits theaters. Johnston sat down with the LA Times over the weekend and talked briefly about the film's direction.
Please note there are minor spoilers ahead (nothing that would completely ruin the film or anything though). I'd also avoid clicking the link if you don't want spoilers (although they need to learn a thing or two about posting spoiler alerts when their headline boasts the spoiler).
LA Times columnist Geoff Boucher asked Johnston how they would explain Cap wearing the starts and stripes uniform.
"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."
When Captain America was created, a patriotic suit was a given. I mean, he was punching out Hitler on the cover of Captain America Comics #1, so of course he'd be in patriotic grab. But making him USO is an interesting take and adds a general acceptability to his costume. Johnston adds however that there will be more than one costume in the movie. The USO sequence will feature a costume closer to the classic Jack Kirby design, but when Cap becomes Cap and starts kicking ass he'll be wearing a more muted version (think more modern).
"He realizes the value of the uniform symbols but he modifies his suit and adds some armor, it will be closer to the Cpa [sic] 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."
Now the biggest question is who's going to be Captain America and Steve Rogers? Johnston is actually further along in the testing than you'd think.
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."
Between 23 and 32. Well, considering Will Smith is close to 40 I think that rules him out (despite early talk of him being considered for the role). Channing Tatum fits in that range (just barely) at 29, and I've still go to think he's a frontrunner. Beyond those two though, I'm not really sure who Johnston et al would be looking at. If he's trying to cast it before March 1 though, we should be finding that out much sooner than later.
Update: Johnston has confirmed to Hitfix that the main villain will be Red Skull. Are you really that surprised?
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