Two bits of Marvel news tonight: Director Joe Johnston, who’s helming the upcoming The First Avenger: Captain America, recently told Sci Fi Wire that they need to cast the Cap soon, “We have a very short list, but we’re still juggling actors here. I’d say within the next couple of weeks we’ll have ourselves a Captain America, I hope.” The film is “fairly early” in preproduction, and shooting isn’t expected to start until the end of June. I wouldn’t be surprised if we start to catch wind of this short list sometime soon. I recommend any of you with an investment in this franchise to start prepping for the fanboy/fangirl fury.
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Making a coherent Avengers film that somehow bridges the styles of the other Marvel universe movies probably won’t be an easy job for whoever gets the job. Fans of the comic series are fairly well prepared to see discordant arrangements of characters both crossover and team up, but for a mainstream crowd, the collage might seem a little jarring.
Kevin Feige, the man that Marvel has awarded with the tricky role of orchestrating the whole multi-movie shebang, has recently given an interview to SFX magazine here in the UK. As well as discussing how on earth they’re going to pull these disparate strands together, he also let slip the line-up of established characters we can expect to see in the Avengers picture.
…its three people, four including Hulk , five including Nick Fury - who you have seen before in other movies, coming together for the very first time.
That’s good to know. But will Edward Norton be returning to the role, or will Dr. Banner have to be recast again?
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Albert Pyun’s (Kickboxer 2 & 4) notoriously horrible Captain America is now up on Hulu. The film stars Matt Salinger as Steve Rogers/Captain America, who must save the President from his arch-nemesis Red Skull. We recommend watching with friends and beer for optimum enjoyment. I’d say we’ve learned a thing or two about comic book movies by now, but then Wolverine makes me wonder.
Thanks to /Film reader Oscar for the tip. View the film on Hulu, or embedded after the break.
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As you’ve probably heard by now, The Walt Disney Company is in the process of acquiring Marvel for $4 billion. But what does this mean for the future of Marvel Comics and Marvel Films? Disney CEO Bob Iger responded to questions on a conference call this morning, and here is some of the information that you need to know.
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So much info comes out of Comic Con about comic-related projects that it sometimes takes a couple days to filter through. Collider and CHUD have posted interview bites with Marvel Studios prez Kevin Feige, who reveals some interesting things about both the The First Avenger: Captain America and Avengers films. First up is the roster for The Avengers, not that it really takes rocket science to figure it out. Feige says:
I think we know. It’s going to be Iron Man, Thor, Captain America, Nick Fury. I think it’s safe to assume that there will be some members of the Hulk universe in the film as well. In terms of the additional, I think Black Widow for sure. SHIELD’s organization for sure. And, again, what’s exciting to me about the Avengers movie are seeing those four characters together and interact with each other.
He hedges on whether or not the Hulk will actually be part of the team, so the rumor/suspicion that the Hulk would be the initial villain in the film is still hanging. But Devin at CHUD found that Marvel still owns the rights to shape-changing alien race the Skrulls, and supposes that they’ll be the real villain in the film. As he explains, that makes the scope of the movie truly huge, and allows for all sorts of screenwriting fun. What if one incarnation of the Hulk was revealed to be a Skrull (the sort of thing that often happened in the comics) or if a character from an earlier Marvel film (say…Terrence Howard’s Jim Rhodes) had been a Skrull? Regardless, it’s good to see that Marvel seems determined to keep the team from becoming a sprawling organization. At least at first. Zak Penn is outlining The Avengers now. More details on Captain America after the break. Read More »
Posted on Thursday, March 12th, 2009 by David Chen
Marvel has announced a series of new release dates for its upcoming comic book films. The new dates make more sense from a production standpoint than the old ones, and logically lead to the eventual release of The Avengers film, which promises to combine many of Marvel’s characters, in 2012. Hit the jump to see the new dates.
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Posted on Thursday, November 13th, 2008 by David Chen
In this episode of /Filmcast, Dave, Adam, and Devindra lament the prevalence of American remakes, compare 28 Days Later with 28 Weeks Later, review Role Models, and remember one of their favorite authors of all time.
Have any questions, comments, concerns, feedback, or praise? E-mail us at slashfilmcast@gmail.com or call and leave a voicemail at 781-583-1993. Join us next next Monday night as we review the new James Bond film, Quantum of Solace.
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You might remember that in June we reported that director Louis Leterrier was making the claim that Captain America had a brief cameo/easter egg in The Incredible Hulk.
“As a filmmaker and as a fan, I like to go see movies and watch them several times, … and every time I see it, discover little things in the background,” director Louis Leterrier said. “Did you know that in Iron Man, Captain America’s shield can be found somewhere? Well in Hulk you might see Captain America Himself!”
Of course, everyone went to the theater and saw the movie, but no Captain America. The director then changed his claims, saying the scene in question was actually in one of the scenes that was cut from the finished film:
“There’s a point when Bruce Banner gives up on his quest for the cure and decide to kill himself. So he travels far North and reaches the Arctic Circle. You might have seen bits of it in some of the promos. The result was a very dark and strong scene, which Marvel, me and everyone else’s considered to be too hard to young audiences to take, so we’ve cut it. Having that said, when Bruce arrives at his destination he meets up with Captain America! At some point this week, we will make it available on the internet but I cannot tell you where or when and the material will definitely be on the DVD.”
Well now the DVD is out and our friends at FilmSchoolRejects went through the deleted scenes frame by frame. The result is the screenshot of the Captain buried in the Arctic. If you look closely you can see his shield. I’ve been told its much clearer on the blu-ray disc, but no one has been able to do a HD screen capture yet.
Update: We’ve since added a few clearer photos which were posted in the comments.
I still get a lot of emails asking me how if the Captain America movie is set during World War II, how the Captain will appear in The Avengers film. This is the answer, he becomes frozen in the Arctic.
Yesterday, Derek Luke was quoted as saying that he heard that Will Smith was offered the role of Captain America by Marvel Entertainment. Thankfully, AICN quickly debunked this report. Marvel claims that they never entertained Smith as a choice, never mind had a conversation or approached Smith for the role. So now that the rumor is officially killed, who do you want Marvel to cast as the Cap?
UPDATE: So, Harry Knowles says there is no truth to the rumor. Ohlalala. I do think Luke’s quote is trivial, but we’ll see…
Not much to go on, but during an interview with MTV, actor Derek Luke (Miracle at St. Anna) said that “[Marvel] offered Will Smith Captain America” and added that “it just shows you how times have changed.” Other actors recently rumored for the Marvel character include Matthew McConaughey (thankfully, not happening) and Brad Pitt (who’s also been mentioned for Thor).
Entitled The First Avenger: Captain America and set for a May 6th, 2011 release—just weeks before The Avengers—Marvel Studios President of Production, Kevin Feige, confirmed over the summer that the film will be a WWII period epic. On a recent /Filmcast, I was the only one who thought this movie would not underperform at the box office, believing it possessed similar potential to Iron Man. And compared to Superman—a character that’s even more alien in the context of today’s blockbusters and trendy manchild masculinity—Captain America seems like a smarter cinematic outlet to address the current political climate and state of the nation for a wide audience.
As for Smith in the role, I think it could work. He has the iconic stature down, and is generally seen as an all-American everyman a la Tom Hanks. Of course, this is where I’m supposed to blabber on about race and if it would be accepted by the mainstream, but personally, I think it’s lame and pointless to do so. “It just shows you how times have changed.” Maybe if you’re 30+, but I disagree with that statement per casting a film like this. I grew up watching this dude on TV after school (I’m not doing the theme song, don’t worry). Smith is one of the most successful actors of all time, why would he not be up for the part? Because it’s not Black Panther or a Green Lantern or Blade or an alcoholic superhero who flies? Laughable.
Discuss: Will Smith for Captain America (not just Isaiah Bradley)? Some commenters are equating the hypothetical casting to reeinvisionist history. Agree? And Clint Eastwood and Spike Lee, please sit out on this comment sesh, thanks.
To the reader who emailed me, no, I do not think my laughing at Candyman being recast as a white guy is hypocritical. Ha. Candyman was the son of a slave who was tortured for his relations with the white daughter of a plantation owner. Different.
