'Captain America: The First Avenger' Update 02.05.11

A buttload of pictures, plus some interviews, what more do ya want?

I have to say that I'm still kind of undecided about Captain America: The First Avenger, and it seems like Marvel Studios is trying to convince us beforehand with the amount of pics they have been releasing. Regardless of how I feel about the news and shots we've seen so far, but I'll wait until the trailer during Superbowl. 


We start with the cover of Empire Magazine from over at SuperHeroHype, with some tidbits from the article:

"Scripts had been developed that took place half in World War Two, half in the modern day and none of those scripts were particularly successful because the costume ended up overshadowing the man," says Marvel chief Kevin Feige. "So we finally said, 'If we could make a Captain America movie any way we wanted to make it, how would we make it?' Well, we'd set the entire movie in the past, in that period, with all of the Marvel trimmings. And so we made the fun, kick-ass Captain America movie we wanted to."

"I've always loved Raiders and the tone that it had," says director Joe Johnston. "It was period but didn't feel like it was made in the period. It felt like a modern-day film about the period, which is what we're doing on Captain America. It will not feel like a war movie. It's funny where it needs to be and emotional where it needs to be and serious and full of action."

And he's not just an American hero, argues Evans. "I think he's the ideal human," says Evans. "Not just American. It's what being a good person is. Steve's managed to overcome all the shortcomings he's had in life and he does what's good and what he believes is right."

Now some more pics from SuperHeroHype showing all the characters plus a peek at Tommy Lee Jones:

Captain America: The First Avenger is directed by Joe Johnston and stars Chris Evans in the title role. It also features Hugo Weaving as The Red Skull, Hayley Atwell as Peggy Carter, and Sebastian Stan as Bucky, Cap's ill-fated sidekick in the comics. 


What we know of the film is that it will take part in the past and the present, taking place primarily during World War II. Basically the beginning of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, so I would expect the film to be full of interesting tidbits from all the previous films.



Red Skull, as a member of Hydra, will be searching for the Tesseract, which we know better as the Cosmic Cube. He will be aided by Dr. Arnim Zola, played by Toby Jones, and of course, the rest of Hydra, which we see in  a lot of the pics presented. A great set up for a huge organization that plagues the Marvel U for the next 70 years.


We haven't heard a lot of other plot details emerge yet, but expect cameos from Sam Jackson/ Nick Fury, who reported he will be filming them soon.


We now move on to...well... more pics. Our first look at Bucky, who in the comics died a tragic death during the war, and then returned alive in the present. He eventually inherits the mantle of Captain America after Steve Rogers "death" after Civil War.


From SuperHeroHype:


New shots from Captain America: The First Avenger have appeared in the French edition of Premiere and scans are now available thanks to French website Les toiles Heroiques.

(This) is the first shot of Cap's sidekick, "Bucky" Barnes as portrayed by Sebastian Stan. Also included in the magazine are new images of HYDRA troops and Hugo Weaving's Red Skull (still pre-transformation).

The site also notes that one of the articles features an update from Chris Evans who says that he is not contracted for nine Marvel films as was previously rumored.

"To be honest," he says in a quote translated back from French, "it was quite intimidating to commit to nine films in a row. Thankfully, we reduced the number to six... If all goes as planned, I will be playing Captain America until I'm 40."

That's pretty interesting that they reduced the number of films, but when he puts it that way, you can really see some of the thoughts you have to have when accepting a role like this. 


Every actor has got to be afraid of being typecast in a certain role, and signing a nine-movie deal pretty much guarantees you'll be playing that character for a long, long time.


Over at Splashpage they have another luck at Bucky with Cap, and a look at Stan's version of the character.

"Sebastian brought something really interesting and slightly on the dark side and really compelling to watch — when he’s on camera, you’re fascinated by watching him," Johnston said. "In a great cast, I thought he really stood out and brought some unexpected things to the role. Everyone brought something to the movie and a lot of them brought something great, but I was most pleasantly surprised by what Chris brought and what Sebasatian brought in a much smaller role as Bucky."

Johnston didn't go into tremendous detail, but he did say that some liberties have been taken with the relationship between Bucky and Cap.

The two characters' ages are closer, for one, and they are both orphans who grow up together as brothers. Bucky enlists in the Army, but the pre-Captain America Steve Rogers is too sickly to do so himself. So, when Rogers gets the super-soldier serum and heads off to war, his next encounter with Bucky has these added layers to play off of.

"You know, he was originally up for the lead, for the Steve Rogers role, but he didn’t have quite the same earnest, I-want-to-fight-for-my-country aura that Chris has for this role," Johnston said. "Sebastian has a little bit of the bad boy, he’s a little bit of the James Dean type and that goes somewhat counter to the general perception of Steve Rogers."

"He wasn’t quite right for Captain America, but I think he’s perfect for Bucky because, really, he can have a little bit of that dark side," he said.

I am interested to see how Marvel, and more importantly, Joe Johnston handle what really is the centerpiece of the Marvel Avenger movies. Cap is the one who ties all of them together, which could also be a bit of a problem for the movie. 

Hopefully it won't get bogged down trying to tie into Avengers too much, and we still get a really great Steve Rogers story. I'll end this with the first official teaser poster from SuperHeroHype:

Captain America: The First Avenger opens 7.22.11