Holy crap, Captain America is going to be perfect!

[Hunter Rider]

Great news on Cap,they have a good writer in Self and i like what he had to say about going in eyes wide open.Half and half will be the perfect way to do a Cap movie IMO...2009

 

[Tempest19]

Wow!!! Awesome, amazing writer... all we need now is a great director to follow suit.

For those who don't know, Self also adapted the graphic novel "Road to Perdition."

 

[Jordacar]

Batman is easier to do in one movie than Captain America, unless you for go showing the experiment and only talk about it, but I think you lose a lot of what makes Cap great without showing him as a scrawny person. Two movies is the best way to do it, but if it must be done in one it can be no shorter than 2hr 20min, and I would even say that is a little too short.

I just thought of something when I read that. In the first half of Batman Begins we get Batman's origin, but they very cleverly jumbled the chronology. Come to think of it, Flags of Our Fathers had a jumbled narrative too. Let me see if I can remember Begins:
1. Young Bruce falls down the pit and gets attacked by the bats.
2. Present Bruce in prison, meeting Henri Ducard
3. The continuing the flashback, culminating with the Waynes' murder.
4. Back to the present, where Bruce trains with the League of shadows.
5. The past, Bruce returns to Gotham and witnesses Joe Chill's murder. He recounts confronting Falcone, leaving Gotham and beginning his travels.
6. The present, Bruce completes his training and topples the League.

Then Bruce gets back to Gotham, and from that point forward, the chronology is straight. So imagine of the origin of Cap played like that, intercutting Steve as a skinny young man, Project Super Soldier, and Cap on his first mission.

Sure, most of those decisions can only be made in the editing room, but with that approach in mind, anybody have any ideas on how that might play out?

 

[odiin]

I was just thinking how with this movie, who they pick for the director is probably more important than any other movie they've done, because depending upon the director's personal political ideology, there could be two wildy different takes:

A conservative director would probably go the route of having Captain America be a long forgotten symbol who then 60 years later is able to bring the same level of national pride from the 40's to a new generation.

Whereas a Liberal director would probably opt to go the route of Cap being thawed out 60s years later and realizing that the government no longer stands for the ideals he fought for so long ago and makes the choice to fight for what he believes in against his own government, becoming an enemy of the state in the process.

As you can see, it would be a very different movie depending upon which way they go. Both could end up working, but in my opinion (and not just because of my own bias) I think the latter would work better just because it would be an interesting contrast to the half of the movie taking place in the 40s. Otherwise it would just be:

40's - Captain America fights to defend the U.S. from its enemies
00's - Captain America fights to defend the U.S. from its enemies

It would be pretty much the same thing, and to me it would feel like a rip off that instead of giving us one solid movie, they just do two mini-movies where it's pretty much the same movie both times just in different time periods. I think it would make things much more interesting if he fought to defend his country in the 40s and then wakes up 60 years later to find that the enemy is now within his very own government.

'Course then there's always the problem that Fox news would kick up a storm about it and O'reilly would call for a boycott.

 

[terry78]

Now if they have scenes of Cap running in front of a flag a la Spidey 3 I'd be cool with it here and it wouldn't be out of place. As a matter of fact I would demand it if it wasn't there.

 

[tamron]

Odiin, I don't think those elements are mutually exclusive, and in fact, the conflict between the two should be what drives the second and third acts.

Cap brings about a feeling of patriotism, inspiring some to live up to the American dream. But, there should be people both against him and for him ideologically in the military and the populace at large, because to scapegoat an entire entity monolithically, be it the military or politics or whatever as Cap's enemy is just lazy and hamhanded.

He should have friends and enemies on every side, which then contrasts the against the overwhelming solidarity of the long gone WWII era, providing the tension. Cap doesn't know who to trust, when before the answers were very clear. And though his old school ethos would have it's charm, Cap has to evolve and realize the America he left is gone.

Doing it that way avoids the film looking like it has some kind of political agenda, and is generally speaking, more realistic.

 

[Spider-Fan]

I just thought of something when I read that. In the first half of Batman Begins we get Batman's origin, but they very cleverly jumbled the chronology. Come to think of it, Flags of Our Fathers had a jumbled narrative too. Let me see if I can remember Begins:
1. Young Bruce falls down the pit and gets attacked by the bats.
2. Present Bruce in prison, meeting Henri Ducard
3. The continuing the flashback, culminating with the Waynes' murder.
4. Back to the present, where Bruce trains with the League of shadows.
5. The past, Bruce returns to Gotham and witnesses Joe Chill's murder. He recounts confronting Falcone, leaving Gotham and beginning his travels.
6. The present, Bruce completes his training and topples the League.

Then Bruce gets back to Gotham, and from that point forward, the chronology is straight. So imagine of the origin of Cap played like that, intercutting Steve as a skinny young man, Project Super Soldier, and Cap on his first mission.

Sure, most of those decisions can only be made in the editing room, but with that approach in mind, anybody have any ideas on how that might play out?

It was also 2hr. 20min. Cap should be at least that long, and since I think he is more complicated and juggling different time periods (as your introducing two whole different casts), you may need longer.

 

[3dman27]

Now if they have scenes of Cap running in front of a flag a la Spidey 3 I'd be cool with it here and it wouldn't be out of place. As a matter of fact I would demand it if it wasn't there.

affirnative

 

[DRUMM3RBOY]

they should have a seen where he fights barny

 

[weezerspider]

Cap was originally created as propaganda, so it only makes sense that his movie would be too. I hope it takes place in WWII. He can be frozen and thawed out in the Avengers movie. Or in the 2nd Cap.

 

[nocomics]

since alot of ppl trashed the Superman costume,would ppl get pissy if they darkened Captain America's costume to make it more cinematic/serious or think they should do that 'bright' red/white/blue look??
Me personally hopefully they will darken the costume like supermans. I couldn't stand if they made it superbright colors kindof would make it cheesy imo..
Sorry,not a big captain america fan never really gotten into him,but I would/will see the movie when it comes out..

 

[Spider-Fan]

I think they may have to use darker red, white, and blue for Cap because while he is propoganda, he also is a soldier. Soldiers do not wear bright shades of anything going into battle. At least, good ones, but no other soldier has a shield.

 

[Tempest19]

 

[Spider-Fan]

I do love that costume!

 

[The Phantom]

Cap will not go along with things he doesn't feel are right, and he has defied the government.

I don't want an overtly political Cap movie either. The second we hear the War in Iraq is part of a Cap movie, I will lose all faith in it. That is not what a Cap movie should be. He is a patriot, and that should come out as why he joined and became Captain America, but I don't want to see a movie all about that patriotic, apple pie crap.

This should be about a man, a hero, being frozen in time, and coming into a world that has radically changed and where everyone he knew and loved is either dead or old, and looking within himself to see if he can accept this world and fight for it. That should be the more important part of the story, and this is the part of the story any person in any country can enjoy.

You see the thing is, Iraq is a big part of the radical change from the 1940s that Captain America was brought up in. You can't simply bring him into our time and ignore the politics that are going on in today's world. They were able to get away without referencing Iraq in SR because Superman is a universal icon, he's not just America's hero, he's everyone. As much as Captain America would most likely risk his own life to save the world, part of his name still carries "America", so things like Iraq are going to have to be brought up into a Cap movie.

No, I don't think he should give a big speech about the way the country should be going and automatically change the way everyone thinks, but his disgust for the way the country has turned out with his absence should be made very apparent. Now not to make this into a race thing or anything, I'm black myself before anyone jumps to any conclusions, but what do you think Dr. King Jr. would think of the black community should he have been revived? That's the angle I believe Captain America should be done from once he's been brought out of the 40s.

Sure he's got his personal issues, but at the same time he would naturally feel compelled to also comprehend with our modern-day country's way of life. And because he is Captain America, no matter how the story is played out, other countries will tend to feel a little biased regardless. I don't remember the details exactly or which country (I believe it was Korea) but people did get upset about Daredevil simply because of the title, even though the movie wasn't some documentary trying to justify Satanism, even though it was about a protector of the innocent.

 

[terry78]

And how would he feel about people's thoughts after 9/11 that if they said anything critical about the country they were deemed unpatriotic? It should at least be touched upon.

 

[odiin]

I think they may have to use darker red, white, and blue for Cap because while he is propoganda, he also is a soldier. Soldiers do not wear bright shades of anything going into battle. At least, good ones, but no other soldier has a shield.

Yeah but he's not just any soldier, he's Captain America. Pre-World War I soldiers always wore brightly coloured outfits and it was a source of immense pride, I think it would be a nice throw-back to that.

That said, I wouldn't mind it if the gloves and boots were leather and brown, ala Ultimate Cap

but the shield and striped mid-section should stay red. Now they don't have to be super bright or anything, just enough that you can tell 100% that it's definitely red. Honestly though, I think colour really isn't as important as getting the right material and texture, the spider-Man film costume being the perfect example of this: it could have looked god awful (just look at pretty much any fan costume) but because of the materials they used, and the little patterns-interwoven into the costume it ends up not looking at all silly even though he's running around in a red and blue costume.

 

[The Phantom]

Yeah as far as the suit goes, they needn't change much, everyone knows what Captain America looks like. I think the Ultimate Cap is probably what they will end up going with. But at the same time, they people who'll have the technoloogy to thaw him out will probably have the technology and the desire to update his suit to be much more capable.

That's another thing I'd like to see them bring up in the movie. The people that find Cap are probably going to attempt to keep him under their control. Use him for whatever they want.

I think the biggest probelm for a Cap movie, at least for me, is Red Skull. How are they going to successfully bring him to the big screen, if they choose to do him? Honestly I'm getting sick of time-jumping movies where the bad guy is some top-billing Nazi that's so important yet they're self-promoting motives never seems to garner the attention of Hitler himself.

If they do go along with Red Skull, I just have this feeling its going to play out a lot like Bulletproof Monk or Hellboy. Or maybe I'm sick of Nazis being the bad guy?

 

[Obi-Ron]

How can you be sick of Nazi bad guys? They are like robots, ninjas, and pirates, in that you can kill as many as you want.

 

[Cyrusbales]

The quote at the beginning of the thread mentions nothing valuable about what the film will be like, we have no idea if we are going to get solid performances, or writing that is both original and captivating.

A very premature and unwarrranted spree of happiness in here...

 

[Isildur´s Heir]

"Feige talked a bit more about Captain America: "We'll have to play with Captain America as being a patriotic propoganda machine on one hand but also being a very human Steve Rogers interesting fascinating hero in his own right." Is the script they're developing a period piece? "Right now what we're developing would be about half and half."

Am i the only one that reads, this movie will suck moneky balls?
Just checking...

 

[Spider-Fan]

You see the thing is, Iraq is a big part of the radical change from the 1940s that Captain America was brought up in. You can't simply bring him into our time and ignore the politics that are going on in today's world. They were able to get away without referencing Iraq in SR because Superman is a universal icon, he's not just America's hero, he's everyone. As much as Captain America would most likely risk his own life to save the world, part of his name still carries "America", so things like Iraq are going to have to be brought up into a Cap movie.

No, I don't think he should give a big speech about the way the country should be going and automatically change the way everyone thinks, but his disgust for the way the country has turned out with his absence should be made very apparent. Now not to make this into a race thing or anything, I'm black myself before anyone jumps to any conclusions, but what do you think Dr. King Jr. would think of the black community should he have been revived? That's the angle I believe Captain America should be done from once he's been brought out of the 40s.

Sure he's got his personal issues, but at the same time he would naturally feel compelled to also comprehend with our modern-day country's way of life. And because he is Captain America, no matter how the story is played out, other countries will tend to feel a little biased regardless. I don't remember the details exactly or which country (I believe it was Korea) but people did get upset about Daredevil simply because of the title, even though the movie wasn't some documentary trying to justify Satanism, even though it was about a protector of the innocent.

I am not saying ignore these completely, but I don't want 10 minute discussions on these issues all throughout the film. Touch upon these, but don't make them major parts of the story. That is where you will turn people off.

 

[The Phantom]

Oh I agree entirely, there is a certain degree of balance that needs to be recognized on the covering of the issue, but it certaintly shouldn't be ignored. The fact is a big part of the new millenium's culture for America has been the Iraq War, so it definitely needs to be explored to some degree from Cap's point of view.

Are far as Nazis go, that's the problem, you can get too much of having Nazis in a movie. Now I'm not saying they shouldn't have them in there, that's just my personal opinion on the matter, the main part of the story is going to have involve the Nazis and Red Skull, I'm just plain-tired of them.

 

[Spider-Fan]

The balance of mentioning the Iraq War is very delicate as is the amount of patriotism in the movie. It all has to be done with a delicate balance, but if they find it, we have ourselves one hell of a movie.

If the first is entirely WWII (which I would hope), the Nazi's couldn't be used enough. If it is half and half (probably going to happen), then the Nazi's would be limited to half the movie anyway.

However, the Red Skull should be around all movie! Maybe have him lead a terrorist group like Hydra.

 

[Chris B]

I think that this has the potential to be one of the greatest movies that Marvel will ever make. Personally, I think Phil Alden Robinson would be a good director for a 'Captain America' movie. As for who should portray Steve Rogers, I have a a kind of out-of-left-field choice in the form of Eion Bailey.