Sci-Fi Film and Television Developments
First
Avenger: Captain America
6/29/10 - Dominic Cooper has joined the cast of Captain America: the First Avenger. Marvel Studios announced that the actor joins the back-in-time film as Howard Stark, the father of Iron Man, Tony Stark. John Slattery played the older version of Howard in Iron Man 2. Chris Evans will play Captain America. The film also stars Tommy Lee Jones, Hugo Weaving, Hayley Atwell, Sebastian Stan and Stanley Tucci.
6/7/10 - Stanley Tucci has joined the cast of the superhero saga Captain America: The First Avenger. Tucci will play Dr. Abraham Erskine, who in the Marvel Comics series was a scientist behind a super-soldier program that gave the title hero his powers.
6/4/10 - Neal McDonough is negotiating to join the cast of Marvel's The First Avenger: Captain America as "Dum Dum" Dugan, according to Variety. The character, whose full name is Timothy Aloysius Cadwallader Dugan, had a central role in the comicbooks as a member of the Howling Commandos, an elite squad of soldiers who battle the Nazis alongside Captain America during World War II. An officer of S.H.I.E.L.D., Dugan made his first appearance in the books in the early 1960s, and is known for his marksmanship talents with a rifle and recognized by his mustache and the bowler hat he wears. He's a former strong man for the circus. The team of Howling Commandos may not be called that in the final film. But Marvel has started eyeing other talent to portray members of the group, which includes Gabe Jones, an African-American who carries a trumpet into battle. As is the case with other characters that appear in Marvel's pics, they may also return for multiple films in other superhero outings the company makes.
5/7/10 - Toby Jones will co-star as a villainous scientist in Captain America, according to The Hollywood Reporter. Jones is in final negotiations to portray Arnim Zola in the production, which already has Hugo Weaving as another bad guy, the Red Skull. The movie shoots this summer in England. In comics lore, Zola was a genetic engineer who created clones and various monstrosities for Hitler. He also captured his own mental self, inserting it into a robot, and survived the war. Joe Johnston is directing the World War II-set movie, which sees Chris Evans as the famed superhero. Sebastian Stan is playing sidekick Bucky Barnes, while Hayley Atwell is the hero's love interest, Peggy Carter.
5/4/10 - Marvel announced that it had officially signed Hugo Weaving to play the Red Skull in Captain America: The First Avenger. Weaving will appear in the highly anticipated movie opposite Chris Evans (as Captain America) and Hayley Atwell (as World War II French Resistance fighter Peggy Carter). The First Avenger will focus on the early days of the Marvel Universe when Steve Rogers volunteered to participate in the experimental program that turned him into the Super Soldier known as Captain America. The film will be released in the U.S. on July 22, 2011.
4/14/10 – Variety reported that Hayley Atwell landed the role of Captain America's love interest in Marvel Studios and Paramount Pictures' The First Avenger: Captain America. Chris Evans plays the star-spangled superhero, that starts filming this summer in England, with Joe Johnston directing. Film will focus on the early days of Steve Rogers as a volunteer in an experimental program that turns him into the super soldier known as Captain America. Atwell will play Peggy Carter, who in Marvel's comicbooks is an American spy who is handy with a gun. She falls in love with Captain America as the two fight together against the Nazis during World War II.
4/2/10 - Sebastian Stan has nabbed the key role of Captain America's sidekick Bucky Barnes, according to The Hollywood Reporter. In comic book lore, Barnes, a teenage orphan, was too young to join the army but became one camp's mascot. When he discovered Captain America's identity, he joined the hero as a partner in his Nazi-fighting escapades. The character died in Captain America's final World War II adventure. After decades of being "dead," the character was revived in 2005 and brought back into modern comic continuity, initially as a covert assassin named Winter Soldier. It is not clear if the movie version of Barnes sets up the Winter Soldier identity. Marvel would only confirm that Stan is playing Barnes.
3/22/10 – Variety reported that Chris Evans will play Captain America. The actor will star in at least three Captain America movies, starting with The First Avenger: Captain America, which Marvel is set to invade theaters with on July 22, 2011. He also would reprise the role in The Avengers, which will unite Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.), Thor (Chris Hemsworth) and the Incredible Hulk (Edward Norton) in one film. That film is scheduled for May 4, 2012. The character also will likely make cameo appearances in Marvel's other pics, to tie together the world Marvel has been creating starting with the first Iron Man. Hugo Weaving will play the villain, Red Skull. Joe Johnston will helm Captain America from a script by Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely. The character, created by Jack Kirby and Joe Simon, was introduced during the 1940s as a sickly young man who, when injected with a super-soldier serum, is turned into the perfect human weapon to aid the United States' effort to fight the Nazis during World War II. His costume resembles the American flag and he flings an indestructible shield as his primary weapon. Pic will essentially be an origin story. Kevin Feige will produce for Marvel, Stephen Broussard serving as co-producer. David Maisel, Stratton Leopold, Louis D'Esposito and Stan Lee will exec produce.
3/12/10 - Hugo
Weaving is in talks to join the Captain America movie as the
villainous Red Skull, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
The Marvel Studios project remains in search of the actor to play
Steve Rogers, Captain America's alter ego. It will be directed by
Joe Johnston. In the Marvel comics, Red Skull has been Captain
America's archenemy since 1941, when he engaged in espionage and
sabotage as Hitler's right-hand man. In his final battle with the
superhero, he was buried under the rubble of a bombed building but
-- as would occur later with Captain America -- fell into a state of
suspended animation. Both were revived in modern times.
2/8/10 – SCI FI Wire reported that director Joe Johnston said categorically that he will cast an American in the title role of The First Avenger: Captain America. "Casting an American? Absolutely," Johnston said. "Oh, yeah. I don't think we could make the film without an American playing the part. But we may not be casting in America, because we're going to London. I think we'll probably shoot in the U.K. for most of it, because it takes place in Europe. But, yeah, we'll definitely be casting an American." Johnston also revealed other details about his upcoming film:
Expect a casting announcement no later than March 1. And expect an unknown. "I hope it'll be somebody that we discover and who's never been in ... —he's probably been in something, but you won't know who he is. You won't recognize him, and we'll surround him with more prominent names. That's who we're looking for. Will we find him? I don't know. It's tough."
It won't be shot in 3-D, but it will be shot on high-definition video that could be converted to 3-D later. "We're not going to be shooting it specifically in 3-D, but this is the first film I will have shot in hi-def."
It won't look like other superhero movies. "We're definitely going to shoot it in a different way than any of the other Marvel pictures have been shot. What I'm trying to do is look at the comics, mostly the new ones, mostly the [Ed] Brubaker series [from 2004] and to interpret that sort of visual style into a film in a way that I think has been tried before, but it always looks like it's a little too on the nose. It looks like, oh, they're shooting a comic-book movie. I want to try something a little bit different."
Johnston promises big action set pieces. "Right now we have to sort of pick our battles, because it's a little more than we can afford right now, but there are some great action sequences, stuff we haven't seen before." Captain America is due in theaters on July 22, 2011.
2/2/10 - Speaking with Film Journal, director Joe Johnston revealed a bit about the preproduction on his upcoming Marvel Comics superhero movie The First Avenger: Captain America, including which versions of Cap will figure in the movie adaptation. Johnston said the film will start in World War II but avoid the version of the hero from more recent times. “The film will begin in 1942, 1943 during World War II. The stuff in the '60s and '70s we're sort of avoiding. We're going back to the '40s, and then forward to what they're doing with Captain America now." Johnston says. "Rick Heinrichs is production-designing and we're set up down in Manhattan Beach. It's the part of the process that I love the most," he enthuses. "We have eight or ten really talented artists, and we all just sit around all day and draw pictures and say, 'Hey, wouldn't it be cool if we could do this?' It's that phase of the production where money doesn't matter: 'Let's put all the greatest stuff up on the wall and see what we can afford.'"
1/14/10 - Director Joe Johnston has revealed his plans for the upcoming The First Avenger: Captain America, saying it'll differ from the Marvel comics series. In an interview with BoxOffice.com, Johnston said to expect a new Captain. “It is influenced by the comic book, but it goes off in a completely different direction. It's the origin story of Captain America. It's mostly period—there are modern, present-day bookends on it—but it's basically the story of how Steve Rogers becomes Captain America. The great thing about Captain America is he's a super hero without any super powers. Which is why this story, among the hundreds of superhero stories, appealed to me the most. He can't fly, he can't see through walls, he can't do any of that stuff. He's an everyman who's been given this amazing gift of transformation into the perfect specimen—the pinnacle of human perfection. How does that affect him? What does that mean for him emotionally and psychologically? He was this 98-pound weakling, he was this wimp, and he's transformed instantly into this Adonis. You'd think he got everything he wanted. Well, he didn't get everything he wanted. The rules change at that point and his life gets even more complicated and dire. For me, that's the interesting part of the story. It's got some great action sequences in it and some incredible stuff that we've never seen before.” Captain America is expected to release on July 22, 2011.
1/21/09 – SCI FI Wire reported that Ed Brubaker, who writes Captain America and Daredevil comic books for Marvel, expects to be involved in a Captain America film. "I think I'm going to," he said. "I've talked to the Marvel Studios guys, and I think I'm going to be part of the brain trust on that, like they had for Iron Man. They've talked to me about it already. I talk to those guys a lot." As for the rumored Daredevil movie reboot, Brubaker is not in the loop. "I mean, I'll be involved if they want me to be, but no," he said. "I'll be involved in any of that stuff they want me to be. I'm just trying to weasel my way in on as much of it as I can." The movie Brubaker really wants to see is Iron Fist, which was one of Marvel's earliest movie proposals in a version Kirk Wong would have directed, starring Ray Park. Lately, Iron Fist has been on the back burner with director Steve Carr. "I'm really, really pressuring them to do an Iron Fist movie, because I think that would just be awesome," Brubaker said. "With our take on it, it'd be great, I think. They're interested, so we'll see. I'm hopefully going to meet with them tomorrow and just try to push them some more. They're interested in it. Marvel Studios has a lot of plans, though, so I'm just trying to sort of get my way in as soon as I can."
11/19/08 - Marvel Studios has engaged Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely to write Captain America, a film that has Joe Johnston attached to direct, Variety reported. The red-white-and-blue hero with the mighty indestructible shield came to prominence right after the invasion of Pearl Harbor as the United States declared war on Japan. The hero is the Marvel character most closely associated with the United States. Marvel's Kevin Feige is producing.
11/10/08 - Joe Johnston has signed a deal to direct First Avenger: Captain America, Marvel Studios' take on its classic comic-book character, according to The Hollywood Reporter. Marvel's Kevin Feige is producing. No writers are on board, but the studio, which is hearing pitches, expects to hire shortly. Created in 1941 by Jack Kirby and Joe Simon for Timely Comics, Captain America is the heroic alter ego of Steve Rogers, who is rejected by the Army for being too sickly and undergoes an experiment that takes him to the pinnacle of human form. Paired with an indestructible shield, he became a symbol of the war effort, in and out of comics. The character disappeared in the 1950s but was revived during the early era of Marvel Comics. He was reintroduced as part of the Avengers, the absence explained by having him being in a state of suspended animation during a war mission until found by the superteam. Johnston is currently in post-production on The Wolfman.
05/23/08 - Kevin Feige, president of Marvel Studios, confirmed that the upcoming The First Avenger: Captain America will be a World War II period piece, like the comic book on which it is based, and he shot down a rumor that Matthew McConaughey was in line to play the hero. Feige, speaking to online journalists at Universal Studios on May 21, added that Captain America would help set up the eventual Avengers movie, which follows six weeks later. (Feige also confirmed what many fans have speculated: that the star-shaped object in Tony Stark's workshop in Iron Man is indeed part of Cap's famous shield.) Release date: The First Avenger: Captain America on May 6, 2011
05/06/08 – Marvel announced on May 5th that it will release a sequel, Iron Man 2, and a film version of Thor in the summer of 2010, followed by what it's calling an Avengers-themed summer in 2011, with the release of The First Avenger: Captain America (working title) and The Avengers. The company, which is producing its own slate of movies based on Marvel Comics characters, added that it does not plan to release a film in 2009. Iron Man 2 will open on April 30, 2010, followed by Thor on June 4, 2010. The two Avengers projects will follow: The First Avenger: Captain America on May 6, 2011, and The Avengers in July 2011.
12/31/06 - Marvel Studios revealed that Captain America would be the company's next project, which would mix a period story with a modern-day one. The comic studio has brought on writer David Self to draft a screenplay. Production is expected to begin in a year.
AlienAlmanac.com - Living Among You Since 2004
