The Hollywood Reporter is saying that the First Avenger: Captain America movie now has a director, Joe Johnston. Johnston was the director of Jumanji and Honey, I Shrunk the Kids, but probably most importantly one of my favorite movies The Rocketeer! I say this is the most important because this Captain America movie is supposedly going to take place mostly (entirely?) in the 1940’s and focus on Cap’s early life becoming a super soldier and fighting in World War II, practically the same time period and even similar events as those in the Rocketeer.
No writers are on board, but the studio, which is hearing pitches, expects to hire shortly.
Johnston first met with Marvel two years ago. When the two parties clicked, general talks turned into Captain America-specific meetings, with much of the project’s current direction resulting from those early conversations.
“This is a guy who designed the vehicles for ‘Star Wars,’ who storyboarded the convoy action sequence for ‘Raiders of the Lost Ark,’ ” Feige said. “From ‘Rocketeer’ to ‘October Sky’ to ‘The Wolfman,’ you can look at pieces of his movies and see how they lead to this one.”
Thanks to the Main Event for showing me the link on Ain’t It Cool News, where you can also go to see the short animated nazi video from The Rocketeer.
A pulp-inspired Captain America film set in the 40’s could be awesome, and lead directly into the sequel.
Thor also recently got a director, that of Kenneth Branagh:
http://www.variety.com/article/VR1117993032.html?categoryid=13&cs=1
so we’ll be seeing a Shakespearean Thor.
The big question thus becomes who will helm the Avengers movie, despite being years off.
That’s right, I forgot that Branagh was being talked to for directing Thor. So far all of these details have me VERY excited for the future of Marvel movies.
Marvel is smart to give each franchise its own distinct feel. As I have said before, with the total clash of power levels & styles of the main Avengers cast, I feel like you just need to make Avengers a high quality tent pole Blockbuster a la Ocean’s 11/12/13, but with more spandex and less heisting.