I've blogged about this in the past, but I've always had a soft spot for Captain America. When I was a kid, I got a Captain America action figure for my birthday one year, and we were inseperable for the rest of the summer.
I'm also a big fan of the concept of "superhero period pieces"...you know, a superhero movie set in another time. That's why The Rocketeer and The Shadow are two favourite guilty pleasures of mine. It's also why I'm somewhat curious about the new X-Men film coming out this summer, as it's set in the 1960s. So that's why I was doubly thrilled when they announced that the Captain America movie would be a rollicking World War II adventure, featuring Cap taking on the Nazis.
Chris Evans, who already earned his superhero cred by playing the Human Torch in the Fantastic Four films, takes on the role of Steve Rogers, the 90-pound weakling whose deemed unfit for military service, but makes him the perfect candidate for the super-soldier program. Injected with the super-soldier serum and zapped with the activating Vita-Rays, Rogers is elevated to the peak of physical condition, and joins the Allied efforts as Captain America.
Hugo Weaving, still best remembered as the villainous Agent Smith in The Matrix Trilogy, takes on the role of Captain America's arch-enemy, the Nazi commander known as the Red Skull. In the comics, the Red Skull goes on to lead the terrorist organization known as HYDRA. HYDRA also makes an appearance in the film, and this time they're depicted as being a Nazi splinter group.
Rounding out the supporting cast we have Tommy Lee Jones a Col. Chester Philips, the military officer who is Captain America's CO; Stanley Tucci as Dr. Abraham Erskine, the scientist who develops the super soldier process; Sebastian Stan as Captain America's sidekick Bucky Barnes, and Hayley Atwell as Captain America's girlfriend Peggy Carter.
For connections to the other Marvel Films, Dominic Cooper will be playing Howard Stark, Tony Stark's father. Turns out Stark Industries developed a lot of the technology used in the super soldier process. And Samuel L. Jackson will one again be making a cameo as Nick Fury.
Behind the camera, the director is Joe Johnston, who gave us such films as The Rocketeer, Jumanji, Jurassic Park III, and, most recently, the remake of The Wolf Man. Johnston has said that the one movie he hoped to emulate in making Captain America was Raiders of the Lost Ark, as that is also an adventure film set during World War II that used all the movie making technology available in the present day.
One bit of movie news that raised a lot of eyebrows was the announcement that Alan Menken, who wrote the songs for such classic Disney films as The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, and Aladdin, will be composing a song for the film. The popular speculation is that, early in the film, the US Army determines Captain America to be too valuable an asset to risk losing on the battlefield, so they send him out as part of a USO Show. It's rumored that Menken will be writing the song for that USO show. The film score proper is going to be composed by Alan Silvestri.
Captain America: The First Avenger hits theatres on July 22.
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