Marvel Comics has taken another step towards getting Captain America, one of their first characters, a shot at big screen stardom with the announcement that Joe Johnston will be the film’s director, says Hollywood Reporter.
Producer Kevin Feige waxed enthusiastic about the choice, saying, “This is a guy who designed the vehicles for Star Wars, who storyboarded the convoy action sequence for Raiders of the Lost Ark…” Johnston’s other credits include Jumanji, Hidalgo, and the upcoming The Wolfman.
The studio is currently hearing pitches for the First Avenger: Captain America storyline, but I have to say honestly… how complicated does this story have to be? Hell, I could bang out a pitch right now:
Rebecca Barnes, a journalist for The Stars and Stripes is starting an assignment about an embedded Army platoon when they come under fire, and under overwhelming odds. She notices one soldier in particular do things that seem inhumanly possible, a soldier she didn’t see before when she met the platoon, and who seems to disappear right after the firefight. Becky reports back to her superior officers about this amazing man, wanting to switch her focus to doing the story on him. But her superior officers dismiss her, telling her that she’s not cleared to know or write anything about it, and tell her to write about puppies and kittens instead, like a good woman.
Becky’s a true-blue muckraker at heart, though, and starts doing some digging, uncovering some nasty secrets about the U.S. army getting involved in human scientific experimentation… and the world’s best soldier at the same time. Now the race is on, for Becky’s superior officers are trying to squelch the story, and the enemy is trying to get at Becky for what she knows…
See? Box office gold, I tell ya.
Gordon says:
Hm… I think they want something a little more faithful to the comics. But Joe Johnston is a good choice. He did Jurassic Park 3 (which I thought was very fun and well-directed, despite a weak-ass story), too.
He’s also an interesting choice in light of the fact that he directed Jumanji. Jon Favreau’s last movie before Iron Man was Zathura, a sort-of-sequel to Jumanji (in that it was based on the follow-up by the same children’s book writer and had a similar premise).
Nice work, Marvel.
Corvis says:
I am kinda tired of origin stories, still your pitch sounds interesting. It, however, shows the problems of tying all Marvel movie projects into a comic-like continuity. Your pitch would draw its dramatic potential from the fact that Captain America remains an enigma – the more Becky finds out, the more conflicting the accounts become. She gets entangled in a web of narratives, partly adding up, partly conflicting. Captain America emerges as inscrutable and conflicted, a manifestation of the best and worst America is capable of. I, for one, would find such an approach interesting. I’m probably alone, though, and they will go for a more traditional format. Which can, of course, also kick serious (Nazi) ass. “Iron Man” was great, after all, and “Hulk” at least passable. I am still hoping for a movie that challenges the notion of superheroism a bit more.
Tsiwt says:
I kind of a big fan of the “man out of time” take on Captain America that was doen in the recent “ultimate Avengers” book … focusing on Cap as a man of the 40’s pulled forward to the 2000’s, and the conflict of him fighting for a modern America he defecds even as he struggles to understand. Could be pretty topical trying to link the greatest generation with the new generations of America.
I’ve also heard the recent Captain America stories have been very good, but I’m not familiar with those.
Just to say …there ARE great Cap stories out there, even if the one’s we’ve seen in the movies to date have been realtively flat.
If I was writing it, I might start it out inthe 40’s, with an Iniana-Jones or Hellboy type setting, then falsh forward to the present.
Hey … maybe Stan Lee coudl get a cameo as Bucky. š
Jason says:
I’d bet the movie is set in the 1940’s since it ties into the Avengers movie, which is set to come out months later. I can’t imagine a better way to open an Avengers movie than with the true-to-comic tale of them finding Cap frozen in a glacier.
Gordon McAlpin says:
My guess is the Cap movie will end with him frozen in ice, leading directly into The Avengers ā hence the clunky “First Avenger” tag in the title.
Trisha Lynn says:
I never said my script couldn’t end with him frozen in ice. And hey! a female reporter in the 1940s who gets told to go back to reporting on kittens and puppies like a good girl? Also very topical to that age.
MaskedVigilante says:
I like Trisha’s pitch! DON’T like the “clunky” title.
Pedro Steckecilo says:
I’d watch that movie. It’d be a deeper character piece and an interesting take on the origin story, one that won’t bore us to death.
MaskedVigilante says:
But the more I think about it, how interesting is the movie going to be when we know the ending already?
Lincoln says:
I’m with Gordon on this one. The end will involve the freezing of Cap. And if Red Skull doesn’t show up in here as the villain I will be very disappointed.
Trisha Lynn says:
@Masked Vigilante: I suspect they’ll go for the Pyrrhic victory approach wherein there will be a huge battle with massive explosions, awesome hand-to-hand combat, and orphaned children will be saved or something like that, but at the expense of Cap’s life, and there will be a funeral at sea, etc., but then–!
At the end of the credits, there will be a coda scene wherein you see a finger twitch, and lie still again.
Sabine Griffin says:
Oh, god. It’s a multi-billion dollar preface to the Avengers movie.
I feel like it’s going to pull a League of Extraordinary Gentlemen move, great big set up at the end, then no real follow up. Except it’ll probably do well, I guess.
I am notoriously bad at guessing about movies. :/
MaskedVigilante says:
I’m sure you’re right, Trisha, but is that a movie worth seeing? Is that the movie Captain America deserves? No. Sabine is dead on. It’s just a preface. And duh, look at the clunky title.
Ack. The whole Marvel plan is souring, IMHO.