CAPTAIN AMERICA MOVIE UPDATE

One last post: Why this is 'good-bye' to this site, but not to the Captain America movie

2010-07-08T15:47:00.000-07:00

When I started this site about two years ago, there was not quite the fuss being made about any upcoming Marvel movies in general and definitely nowhere near as much fuss being made about any future Captain America movie. Heck, at the time we did not know who would be starring in the film or even know what the title for any future Cap flick would be. (of course since that time we have all learned that Marvel will be rolling out the film under the banner of: The First Avenger: Captain America and we have a near complete handle on who exactly the film's cast will be comprised of) I think that at the time I started on here, I actually was playing around (in my head at least) with the idea of starting a blog site for each of the future Marvel movies that I knew were upcoming and that I was at all interested in seeing produced. Of course we all know about noble intentions and how big plans can seem oh so doable at the start but soon enough they just seem oh so impractical. That was my eventual realization with my brain wave of throwing up separate sites for those future movies.

Recently I have been thinking about how interested I was in doing something that covers or is inclusive of the Marvel Cinematic Universe as a whole and not just one movie in particular. I have really had some fun putting up my opinions for the whole world to see - and they have been seen by more than few visitors so far (try an average of 300 to 400 surfers per day at this point, stats backed by a site-wide statcounter that tracks how many unique visitors have come to the site) I have come to the decision that maybe my time posting online would be better served if I were instead posting my thoughts to a website dedicated to the Marvel movies as a whole, and since I obviously do not have the mental fortitude to maintain several Marvel-based sites simultaneously, the only other alternative that seems left open to me is to - with somne trepidation - decide to close the door on any new posts to this here Captain America movie site and instead focus my efforts on just one Marvel movie blog. Following this decision, I have taken the liberty of starting up a new blog called, appropriately enough, the Marvel Zombie Movie Patrol. Why the Marvel Zombie Movie Patrol? Well to be honest, I have considered myself to be something of a Marvel zombie when it comes to my interest in the marvel movie projects over the last couple of years, and years ago, I used to be something of a Marvel comics fan - almost to the extent that I was sort of guilty of being a 'Marvel Zombie', lol. I cannot deny it. You can reach this new blog over at http://upcomingmarvelmovies.blogspot.com/

With this site I am looking forward to the freedom that it will obviously give me to discuss all things Marvel. I chose to stay with Blogger as a platform because so far it has served all of my needs, and of course being a free host to use also doesn't hurt. (although in the back of my head there is the thought that somewhere in the not too distant future I might take the plunge and switch over to paid hosting and start using Wordpress or something similar, but who knows) So feel free to check out the new(er) site and see what fanboy opinions I have to offer up, whether it be about the future Captain America movie in particular or about upcoming Marvel movies in general!

One final note: I would just like to take this opportunity to thank all of the decent individuals out there who gave me and my funny little site the time of day, whether it was one of the many internet visitors or one of the many other Captain America fans out there who helped me out by exchanging links with their own Captain America websites, helping to make their followers aware that my site even existed. Most recently, I would like to thank Mr. Chris La Tray for taking the time out of his own schedule to put together a very heart felt opinion piece for this site; Chris is someone whom I consider to be a real blogger who is very dedicated to maintaining his own blog (www.chrislatray.com) which actually gets real returning readers. (something that all bloggers long for) Thanks again Chris.

Finally, thanks to all of you for making this site a pleasure to keep going for the last two years, even when there wasn't really anything Captain America movie-related of note going on to talk about - that's when you realize that you are committed, or maybe need to be, lol... Okay, everybody, this is the point in my ramblings when I say good bye and, I hope, subsequently hello to many of you on the other side of the Marvel movie rainbow...

All the Best,

-Stephen

Why one fan says, 'bring on the Captain America movie', ...

2010-06-27T13:17:00.000-07:00

We're back! It is early days into the Summer Season, a time when many a blog can hit the productivity skids, so to speak, with everybody finding more and more reasons to be out and about, and less and less reasons to be sitting indoors writing about some movie that is over a year away, lol. Today, however, if you are reading this then you are twice blessed, because not only do I - the man-turtle of post writing - have a new post for you to enjoy, I have the real pleasure of presenting you with a guest post from a cool blogger by the name of Chris La Tray, who is easily as much of a Captain America fan as myself (if not more so!). So without further ado, here are Mr. La Tray's thoughts on The First Avenger: Captain America...

Bring on the First Avenger!

I can remember the first time I saw a scene from The Fellowship of the Ring. I was at some other movie and the opening trailers started rolling. Before I knew it, the music swelled while a straggled line of weary travelers moved across a mountainous landscape. My heart was in my throat – I knew immediately what it was, even though I hadn’t yet heard of the existence of a trailer. Seeing characters come to life that had been in my heart and mind since I was a kid was almost overwhelming. I had been anticipating the movie so much, and seeing actual scenes from the film stoked my enthusiasm for its release so much I could hardly contain myself. I was nearly verklempt.

I expect the same reaction the first time I see a trailer for Captain America – The First Avenger on the big screen.

Steve Rogers, aka Captain America, is one of those fictional characters that have been a part of my life as long as I can remember. He’s up there with Batman, Conan, Tarzan, and all the other heroic figures I read as a youth, whether it was novels or comic books. I had action figures, comics, t-shirts, everything that was available to a kid growing up in the 70s and 80s. Which is odd, because Captain America is such a “good guy” through and through, and my interests tend to run with characters that live a little more in the gray areas. But he was always so heroic, and really just a regular guy without the amazing super powers of his peers. Nonetheless, the strength of his commitment and convictions, and his ability to inspire others, was such that even Thor, the mighty God of Thunder, was willing to follow him into battle to save the world. I always thought that was cool. The old Avengers comics and Jack Kirby’s Captain America and Falcon stories were a big part of my childhood.

Which brings me to thinking about the new movie and the possibility that Hollywood might totally screw things up. I’m not all that worried about it. When it comes to their “big” movies; I’m talking the Spider-man franchise, X-Men, Hulk, Iron Man, etc., Marvel has been excellent, especially with the first movies in whatever series they are rolling out. Hell, I’ve even liked some of the movies that others consider terrible, whether it is the 3rd Spider-man movie, the 3rd X-Men movie, the Wolverine movie, and even Ang Lee’s version of Hulk (though I have to admit hoping the Cap film is way better than any of those!). They weren’t all great, maybe not even good; but they weren’t necessarily terrible either. At their worst, they have at least provided a couple hours of escapist entertainment to experience with popcorn, which was what I’d hoped for.

We’ve seen the foundations for the Cap movie being hammered into place for at least three big, blockbuster movies. The moment I knew it had the potential to be awesome occurred during The Incredible Hulk (the one with Ed Norton as Bruce Banner). There is a scene where the military is trying to capture the Hulk on a college campus, and Tim Roth’s character (Emil Blonsky, aka Abomination) has already taken a dose of the “super soldier” serum in an effort to make him a match for the big green monster. Roth’s character is running circles around all the other soldiers, and then goes one-on-one with the Hulk and pretty much holds his own . . . for a while. Watching that scene, all I could think was how cool they would be able to portray Captain America in action. With The Avengers movie as the culmination of the work done on all these films – Hulk, the Iron Man movies, and the upcoming Thor movie – looming closer, I feel even more confident that the Captain America release will be among the best. Cap is too important to get wrong, and Marvel certainly understands this.

I’m pretty easy to please, though, I have to admit. When it comes to these movies I don’t get all wrapped around the axle over the leaks of tiny bits of minutia that emerge prior to release. I’ve heard the story about how Cap’s origin will be fiddled with so that he does time performing in some kind of song-and-dance routine, ala the USO, before getting in on the action in Europe (I’m very happy the movie is set during World War II, by the way). That notion may have me scratching my head, but I shrug it off. If I were writing the story I wouldn’t think of doing that, but knowing about it I can see how it could be managed and why, and I’m fine with it. Most recently there has been some concept art leaked of Cap in costume, setting off a storm of fans loving it and fans hating it. I think it looks cool enough, but nothing ever looks as good as a static image posted on the internet as it does when your ass is parked in the movie theater and the character is moving on screen, so it really doesn’t tell me much. I don’t see the point in getting overly worked up over the little details, at least not yet.

Chris Evans as Steve Rogers/Captain America works fine for me, at least as well as anyone else whose name was mentioned, and certainly better than most. Hugo Weaving as Red Skull is perfect – I love that guy as an actor, and the dramatic nature of his voice will be awesome. I’ve very pleased with that bit of casting, and I’m stoked that Red Skull is to be the villain (the hero is only as good as his nemesis, right?). Everything else – other characters and who will play them – really don’t matter to me. We’ve got Cap and Bucky fighting the Red Skull in occupied Europe, and budget big enough to make it awesome. I think you’d have to make an effort to screw that formula up!

Captain America – The First Avenger has an excellent chance to be something special. The timing of its release, the importance of its success to Marvel’s future endeavors, and, most importantly, a timeless, somewhat tragic character steeped in heroic qualities perfect for the big screen should make for exciting adventure cinema. With Marvel’s track record, I’m confident in their ability to deliver the goods. I’ve always wanted to see Captain America on screen, flinging his shield and battling the Red Skull. It looks like I’m going to get my chance.

Bio

Chris La Tray is a writer and musician who lives in Missoula, MT, and travels the USA fairly frequently to poke his nose into

Publish Post

places where cool shit happened. He’s loved most of the recent comic-based movies, including Watchmen, V for Vendetta, and even had fun at the critically-despised Jonah Hex. He’d love to see a movie or HBO series based on Scalped. He keeps a blog about whatever pops into his head at any given time at www.chrislatray.com and can be found socializing at http://twitter.com/chrislatray and http://www.facebook.com/chrislatray.

A year before the Captain America merchandising blitz hits

2010-06-19T21:47:00.000-07:00

A while back, I went and placed a big old ugly Amazon.com ad block at the bottom of my blog. Now I just did this out of a sense of curiosity. (really, does anyone really click these kinds of ads much anymore?) I was curios to see what kinds of ads, considered relavent to my site would be shown on there. Of course I already had my suspicions but I just wanted to see it for myself just to satisfy my suspicions. What ended up being displayed on there was your typical mix of Captain America related merchandise: Captain America T shirts, Captain America Mugs, Captain America comic book collections (otherwise known as graphic novels), Captain America action figures, and even the old 1990's Captain America movie. Yep, pretty much what you would expect.

So what was the point of me mentioning this here? Well I guess I am trying to illustrate a point about the influence of the future Captain America movie on the whole Cap franchise; beyond just the expected hype for the movie itself, we will be inundated with merchandising for the character, the likes of which we have never seen for him before. Right now, any search for Cap-related merchandise will give you a real mixed bag of stuff. A year from now we will be almost smack dab in the middle of the media marketing blitz that we know will be coming; there will be Captain America merchandise pushed at us from all sides, from restaurants to convenience stores to big box stores, all of them competing for our precious dollars. It happened with Iron Man, remember? A year before the movie therewas no deluge of movie related action figures or t-shirts or plush toys or coloring books, Now, it can be hard to remember what it was like before the movie since back then the character was not as high profile as, say, Spider-Man or the X-Men.

I guess that the same thing could be said for both Thor and the Avengers: both may have some level of popularity with the regular comic-buying crowd, however I would argue that they are by no means as much a part of the public consciousness as Spider-Man, Iron Man or the X-Men, all of which have had a successful movie franchise to bolster their reputations with the moviegoing public.

I guess the point that I am trying to make, in a roundabout way, is that you should make a mental note of the Captain America landscape now, circa Summer 2010, because soon enough everything is going to change and in the midst of the Cap hype it might be neat to be able to stop and think to yourself, 'wow, things sure changed a lot in a year'.

A follow up to this point is the idea that if there is a specific t-shirt or poster or other Captain America item that you have wanted to buy but have been putting off, you might want to go and get it now because it is pretty likely that a lot of the stuff out there will be discontinued and be dissapearing off of store shelves and online soon after.

Along these lines, if you think that you might be shopping online at the official Marvel shop (Marvel.com) or anywhere else for such items then you should consider first going over to Mr. Rebates and signing up for free and then doing your shopping because you will get some cash back on your purchase.

Who knows, you might just save enough on your purchase to help pay the ever-growing price of a movie ticket next Summer...

IM2: Pumping up the volume for Thor, Captain America, and all the other Mighty Avengers

2010-05-19T00:33:00.000-07:00

Okay, I did it: last weekend I got my ass in gear and went and saw Iron Man 2. It was a busy Friday night at the downtown megaplex, so it was a good thing that I had purchased my ticket online hours in advance. (As an aside to this, it is also pretty cool that the online ticket, printed out at home, lets you walk right by the long line-ups and right up to the ticket taker/checker and on to the theater)

My thoughts? Well, I don't really feel like getting into a serious review of the film right here and now, however I will say that if you liked the first Iron Man movie then you will most likely end up enjoying this sequel; there are enough of the same elements in both films and the principle characters get time to be more fully developed - even minor supporting characters such as SHIELD Agent Coulson are given some more face time to at least develop their personalities a little more. I thought that Scarlet Johannson did a decent enough job with what she was given. (I did not think that her character was given enough time to be much more than a plot device for bringing SHIELD and Samuel Jackson tighter into the storyline) I was okay with Mickey Rourke's portrayal of Whiplash as a foil for Robert Downey Junior, even though his character had nothing to do with the Whiplash from the comic book series that I read for years as a kid.

There is no denying that the pre-eminent focus of IM2 was to show that Marvel has a larger World view when it comes to the development of their self-managed "Marvel Cinematic Universe". (their name for it, not mine) I am not the first one to suggest that IM2 was not much more than a feature length trailer for the upcoming Thor and Captain America movie, as well as the eventual Marvel Avengers movie, replete with multiple references to the "Avengers Initiative", as well as several well placed hints to the Marvel movie future, however I am not at all complaining; If Marvel wants to aim high by hinting at much bigger and better things to come from them and can then deliver, hats off to them for it and for the large amount of enjoyment that they will most likely bring for moviegoers like myself. For the record, I think that they can do it.

BTW, in case you haven't heard already: you really should stay until the end of the closing credits of IM2 for a neat little bonus scene. (similar to the Easter egg they gave us last time around at the end of IM1, and one which I won't spoil for anyone here)

BTW2, did you all know that the Ed Norton The Incredible Hulk movie is considered to be set or take place sometime after the events of IM2 but before Avengers? The extra scene involving Tony Stark and General Ross at the end of the Hulk movie makes a lot more sense when viewed in that context, no?

A FEW ODDS AND ENDS

I have some rough ideas about what I will be hoping to cover with this here little blog in the next few posts; One thing that I am hoping to have is at least one guest post believe it or not. I think that it sounds funny to be mentioning the idea of a guest post on a blog as esoteric as this, but if someone says that they have something to contribute who am I to turn a blind eye? (okay, so maybe I almost begged someone to write something for here, lol)

One thing I might do is blather on a bit about the way the merchandising landscape has changed for Marvel and how you can have fun watching it change again in the near future!

Another idea I am toying with is the introduction of a feature that will look at the predicted reasons for any given future Marvel movie to succeed or fail; A Future 'PASS or FAIL', if you will, and yes it would be partly tongue in cheek.

Okay it's late and I'm spent, so consider this me signing off...

The Implications Of IM2's Success For Captain America's Future Movie

2010-05-11T22:58:00.000-07:00

Well this past week was a big deal for Comic movie fans. Last weekend the super-mega hyped Iron Man sequel, Iron Man 2 (crazy title, eh?) made it into theaters across North America. The movie had already been released a week before in some other parts of the world, such as parts of Europe, and had reportedly alrerady cleared $100 million from those advanced releases. That was apretty good sign of things to come over here and sure enough, over it's opening weekend, IM2 cleared waayy over that amount - however the exact amount eludes me at the moment. I had planned to see the movie over the opening weekend but a few things kept me from doing so; I was busy with my Mum on Mothers Day (ahh), I was kept distracted by the NHL Playoffs which have been crazy amazing good this year, and I tried to work my way through a few rental DVDs that have been sitting around awhile.

So there you go for some excuses.

The release of the new Iron Man movie also signifies something else - at least for me. The movie is a kind of herald of the next wave of Marvel movies that we all know are coming over the next few years. The first Iron Man movie was a first shot by Marvel to see if they could successfully produce their own feature films based on their line of Marvel comics characters - a very rich source of material for future film projects/movie licences. I see the huge success of Iron Man as being the public reassurance that Marvel needed to cement its plans to move forward on all of the other key film projects that it had waiting in the wings and which were all but confirmed at the time. These films include:

The Iron Man sequel, Iron Man 2
The Thor movie
The First Avenger: Captain America
The Avengers movie
A Possible Ant-Man project

See all of these films were ones that Marvel wanted to develope but that you just know they were kind of holding back from confirming dates on until they saw how well Iron Man would do. The success of IM is the reason we are seeing IM2 in theaters right now and the reason that we will be seeing all of these other Marvel movies over the next few years - as well as the reason that we can expect multiple sequels to such films as the Avengers or Captain America. Good thing Marvel believed in multiple picture deals with stars like Robert Downey Junior before he hit it big with Iron Man!

Another interesting thing for me is the success over the last six months or so of the 3D movie; i suppose that it is no surprise really that even Marvel wants to get on board this potential gravy train with new reports being released that Marvel Entertainment would like to have the Captain America movie be released as a 3D feature film. I am only okay with this plan if the film is shot for 3D (like Avatar) and doesn't just have the 3D effect parachuted in after the fact (ala Clash Of The Titans). If that were to be the case, I would probably go for the regular 2D version instead.

Okay that's enough from me: it's time for me to start thinking about going out and lining up for IM2...

The Captain America Movie: Casting Choices Have Been Made

2010-04-08T11:59:00.000-07:00

I guess my first thought here is directed towards anyone who arrived here looking for the latest news updates on the Captain America movie; if you are looking for news that is less than 24 hours old, you will most likely be dissapointed. lol

I don't have any insider friends in the movie industry, I don't have any movie insider friends on Twitter (in fact I don't even do the whole Twitter thing at the moment - I know I probably should, but I don't) and I don't have a website with a daily deadline for space to be filled, so to those of you wanting page-one-of-Google-breaking-news on the upcoming Cap flick, you must have already passed the turn-off if you ended up here. ;)

Okay, that was my attempt to explain why I have not yet posted about some of the most recent casting announcements for The First Avenger: Captain America. Time to address that, eh?

Sebastian Stan as Bucky. Okay, I hear he was in the runnng for the lead and obviously didnt get it, losing out to chris Evans, so maybe Marvel/Joe Johnston liked what he had to offer and wanted to keep him in the project? I have not seen his previous efforts ( Gossip Girl, Hot Tub Time Machine) but he will be in at least a couple of films before he is seen in the future Captain America movie ( The Apparition and Darren Aronofsky’s Black Swan with Natalie Portman ) so he will have some exposure by the time he appears as Bucky. Physically he looks okay for the part but ... isn't he abit old to play Bucky during WWII? I am assuming that he is in his twenties, and that the character he portrays in the Cap movie was in his late teens during the War. In the Sixties the Bucky character was retroactively killed off during WWII but recently Marvel brought back an older Bucky as the Winter Soldier (a brainwashed assassin for the KGB) so maybe they are casting with an eye ahead to future sequels which would require an older actor, but for this film it will be interesting to see how they justify having a Bucky not far off from Captain America in age. I will reserve judgement on this.

The other big casting announcement for the movie is of course the choice of Hugo Weaving for the role of the Red Skull. I love Weaving and think that he would be a very good fit for the role. I understand that we are still working with rumours about his signing on but it sounds like an almost done deal. I was at first concerned that he might have no original characters left in him, but realized that I probably don't need to worry. His adaptability as an actor could be key here; Weaving is use to portraying a character from behind a mask (V For Vendetta), supplying a voice for a CGI character (Transformers), while wearing minor prosthetics (Lord Of The Rings) and portraying coldly evil individuals(The Matrix), so what's to worry? Maybe just worry that he has not yet been completely confirmed as being cast yet? Well the movie starts filming in June, so we shall all know soon enough. Now I'm off to find something else to worry about...

A Chris Evans Captain America Movie casting rumour to (hopefully) end all rumours...

2010-03-23T00:20:00.000-07:00

Well, I stated here before that I was going to hold off on posting much about any 'announced rumors' regarding who was in the running to be cast as Captain America in the future Captain America movie (and I know that with my last post here I kind of went against policy), however the latest rumour has followed a trtend that goes against most others so far so I feel justified in writing about it. A few days ago, the latest Cap rumour making the rounds was that actor Chris Evans had been offered the role of Captain America by the movie's producers; instead of this being followed a day later by substantial denials and dismissals, the rumour was instead met with mostly 'no comment' kinds of responses. Whenever you get that kind of response to a rumour you can bet that the agents of at least one of the parties involved would like the public to believe that it is true - for the sake of building up buzz around their client if for no other reason. Now this rumour went beyond all of those which see various young Hollywood leading men up for the part by being supplanted by brand new reports that are lent credence from at least a couple of sources and which claim that Evans has actually gone and accepted the studio's offer!

The report varies between him accepting a 9 picture deal and a 4 picture deal (with both claiming to include 3 Captain America films) which would see Evans taking part in the future Avengers movie as well. The following report from Lucas Siegel with Newsarama makes note of both a Twitter comment posted by Iron Man Director and Avengers movie Producer, Jon Favreau, as well as a comment made by an as yet unidentified Producer of one of the upcoming Marvel movie projects:

While not an official confirmation from Marvel Studios, Jon Favreau, who directed the two Iron Man movies and is a producer on team film The Avengers which will bring Captain America, Iron Man, and Thor together, just posted this on his personal Twitter account:
"Welcome to the new Captain. He continues the fine tradition of playing two Marvel characters!"
The Hollywood Reporter [earlier reported] that actor Chris Evans has accepted the role of Captain America in the coming film. The actor was, according to their sources, offered the role on Friday afternoon Mar 19, 2010, and "after thinking things over" has decided to play his third superhero, and his second major franchise from Marvel Comics. ... While the report has yet to be confirmed by Marvel or any of Evans representatives, THR is confident in their sources. Evans is 28 years old, and will fight alongside Robert Downey Jr., 45, and Chris Hemsworth, 26, in the coming Avengers film, as well as in his solo flick. In fact, the deal was rumored to be for 9 movies altogether, covering multiple sequels in both franchises, though Variety now reports that it is for 4; 3 "Cap" films and 1 "Avengers."
(Newsarama.com)

Personally, I did not really like Evans in the first Fantastic Four movie but thought that he was okay in the sequel. I was much more impressed with his performance in the movie Sunshine, which I saw on video late last year. I admit to feeling somewhat ambivalent about this apparent casting at this time since I see him as being capable of pulling off the iconic American superhero persona if given a decent script to work with. Of course we should soon expect to hear something official on the state of casting for the movie and then we can all have our 2cents worth on the subject...

Chris Pine is in for Captain America Movie? Maybe, maybe not.

2010-02-16T15:39:00.000-08:00

I have to say that I am not really a fan of posting about any and all rumors that might just possibly be true, hence my lack of regular posts on here regarding the latest names dropped in the rumour mill for who will play the lead in the future Captain America movie, however this latest one I chose not to ignore because it comes just before the casting is supposed to be finalized by the movie's director, Joe Johnston. Word on the internet is that actor Chris Pine (most recently seen as Captain James T. Kirk in the hugely successful franchise-reebooting Star Trek movie) is in negotiations with Marvel and Paramount to play the lead role of Steve Rogers/Captain America. Although this story has been reproiduced in many different places, it seems like it originally sprung forth from one initial report. We all know how shaky that can turn out to be.

Ironically,just as I might be offering up my own opinions about whether or not this would be a good pick for the role of the iconic super hero, I came across a report that seems pretty reliable that pretty much dismissed the Chris Pine rumours; website comicbookmovie.com posted some feedback from sources closer to Pine claiming that there has been no real offer from Marvel or Paramount for the part of Captain America in the movie. You can see their take on this here. It is at this point that I also feel that I should apologiseif anyone else feels that this site is starting to feel just a little too much like another one of those run of the mill gossip blogs or another celebrity blog. lol

So much Captain America Movie news to sift through (and a few dancing girls, too!)

2010-02-07T20:39:00.001-08:00

Okay, here's the deal.

Recently, we have started to hear a lot more with regards to the details surrounding the upcoming, The First Avenger: Captain America movie from Marvel. In fact we have started to really hear a lot about it, and soon enough we will be hearing more because the principal casting is (hopefully) going to be completed and announced to the World by the start of next month.(according to the movie's Director, Joe Johnston) Originally I had intended to update this here blog with seperate updates or posts with the requisite interview clips reproduced as the various bits and pieces were made available to us, however I think it might just be more prudent if I just put forth summaries of movie update info with less posts. (yes, I am lazy, but that is not the only reason for this decision, lol)

The most recent updates of interest came from the series of press interviews that Johnston gave for the imminent release of his movie, The Wolfman. Johnson was kind enough to reveal in those interviews that the main villain of the future Captain America movie would be the Red Skull. Really this is probably no surprise to anyone with any working knowledge of the Captain America character, since the Red Skull is such an integral part of the whole Captain America mythos. Even today, with the Death and recent Rebirth of the character, the Red Skull played a key part to both storylines.

Another really cool piece of news (at least to me) is that we now pretty much know how they plan to justify the character's costume in the movie universe; according to Johnston, the costume will originally be introduced as the on-stage performing outfit worn by Cap during an initial point in the movie when he is used by the military as solely a USO performer to help boost troops moral overseas. The idea here is that the military is too afraid of losing their one of a kind super soldier (Cap) to enemy fire and so decide to relegate him to stage duty as a song and dance man. Seriously, I kid you not. Following with this idea, the first version of the costume will be a based on the original Jack Kirby design that was first seen in the comicbooks. After Cap abandons the USO tour the costume is expected to be transformed into a more realistically designed version of the flag-suit, such as that seen in the Marvel Ultimates universe.

So we could see a metamorphosis along thse lines:

The Kirby Cap...

'Now, for my next number...'

Finally, its time to get 'real'...

One last thing to pass along at this time is the fact that Johnston admitted that the WWII super-group, The Invaders could be a big part of the second half of the movie. Its interesting to see Marvel maintain this idea since that group was originally a creation of Roy Thomas during his time spent with Marvel in the Seventies which has been used effectively in recent storylines in the regular Captain America comic. If this indeed ends up being the case, it will be interesting to see if there is any similar retro feel to the use of these characters that I believe was present during some of the newsreel footage scenes of Watchmen. With all of these costume possibilities floating around, it makes me wonder what we can expect to see down the road when the marketing storm that will be the Captain America movie touches down: will we see some retro Cap toys such as action figures or even bobbleheads adorned with several variations of the Cap costume we have come to know over the decades?

For additional information on any of the following, please visit the following sites:

ComicBookMovie.com

MoviesOnline.ca

CinemaSpy.com

And Captain America will be played by...

2010-02-07T19:02:00.000-08:00

Okay I am being a bit premature here. Honestly, there has been no announcement yet regarding who will be cast to play the iconic Marvel Super Hero, however we have just heard from the Captain America movie Director, Joe Johnston, how things are shaping up on the lead actor casting front. During the press junket to promote his most recent movie, The Wolfman, Johnston made some significant comments about where he is at in regards to casting an actor for the title role in the upcoming The First Avenger:Captain America:

"We need to cast it soon," Johnston said. "We have a very short list, but we're still juggling actors here. I'd say within the next couple of weeks we'll have ourselves a Captain America, I hope."

As for who will actually play Cap, Johnston either ain't saying or can't yet say. Rumored actors include everyone from Will Smith to Aaron Eckhart to John Barrowman.

As for when the movie will shoot? Johnston said the movier is still "fairly early" in preproduction. Shooting won't start until the end of June, he said, "but we're getting ready to go to the U.K., it looks like."

As for the story: "It's the kind of thing where, while I'm not necessarily a comic-book fan, I think the interesting thing about this guy is that he's a superhero without any superpowers, basically," the director told us exclusively while promoting his current film, The Wolfman. "He is the epitome of human perfection. He can't fly and throw tanks around and see through walls and things like that, but he's strong and runs fast."

Johnston added, "And the interesting thing about this guy is that he starts out as a 98-pound weakling and he becomes this Adonis. How does that affect his arc in the story? How does that affect where he goes and what happens to him and everything? I think that's the part of the story that was fascinating for me. And, of course, being a Marvel movie, there's fantastic action scenes in it and all kinds of great stuff. But there's an interesting story there as well." (courtesy of Scifiwire.com)

So, that is very interesting indeed. No name to drop yet but it sounds like it will be dropped soon. Pretty much the casting will be the next big event for many after the Winter Olympics, lol. Also interesting to think of some of the names that we have heard rumoured over the last 12 months or so; such actors as Will Smith, Leonardo DiCaprio, Aaron Eckhart, Sam Worthington and John Barrowman have all hadtheir names bandied about. Well, in a few weks this speculation will all be moot.

A new Captain America movie trailer (sort of).

2010-01-24T13:06:00.000-08:00

Okay, obviously since production on the future Marvel movie, The First Avenger: Captain America, is not scheduled to begin until June 2010, there is little likelihood that there would already be any kind of official trailer released for it yet, however that is not to say that there are no trailers currently out there for a future Captain America movie. To be precise, Raleigh Latham , the young filmmaker who gave us the recent Captain America fan trailer, Captain America Teaser, has released a newer and more indepth Captain America movie trailer. This time it even includes a play on words, reversing the title of the official Marvel film and calling itself, Captain America: The Avenger. Since there is really no danger of people mistaking it for a trailer to the upcoming multimillion dollar official project, I think that playing with the future movie's title was a humourous touch. Anyway, just as I did with Raleigh's previous effort, I would like to share this newest one with my visitors as well(and don't worry, I have his blessing to do so).

Enjoy!

It's old news about the Captain America movie - but it's still good news.

2010-01-03T23:39:00.001-08:00

When news about anything is already a few days old, then is it really news anymore? When a news item concerning the upcoming Captain America movie from Marvel Entertainment has been floating around the interweb for at least a few days already before being offered up as a news item again by a major entertainment website such as IMDB.com with a more recent date, is it still really news?

I suppose that judging by the constant stream of fanboy reaction to this particular Cap movie tidbit in various internet forums and website blog comment sections it is still to be considered 'newsworthy'. I guess this latest Captain America movie update announcement is still being uncovered by many who might have otherwise missed it due to the Seasonal Holidays (Christmas or whichever other festive occasion one might be observing).

So what exactly is it that I am yammering on about here? Well, in the last week, Joe Johnston, Director of the upcoming The Last Avenger: Captain America, confirmed that he had a commencement date for the actual production or filming of the Marvel movie project. Here is how part of the announcement read in the mainstream entertainment media:

"Director Joe "The Wolfman" Johnston has confirmed that his comic book adaptation "Captain America: First Avenger", produced by Marvel's Kevin Feige, will start filming June 2010, from a screenplay by "Chronicles Of Narnia" writers Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely."(excerpt courtesy, sneakpeek.ca)

There you have it: news that is really actually non-news - unless you happened to be someone that actually believed that the Captain America movie was not really a sure thing to go ahead in the next year, which is a silly thought considering how committed Marvel is to this whole series of franchise films over the next couple of years, of which the Captain America movie is a capstone of (forgive me for the unintentional pun - really, it just happened, I swear). Of course the next thing that will be coming in the next little while will be the hightened speculation of just who will be cast to portray the iconic Marvel Super Hero. Once this choice has been made and the decision made public, then the fanboy frenzy will truly kick into a high gear; Captain America is arguably the last of the really key casting decisions to be made for the upcoming movies which help to set up the future Marvel Avengers movie, any other decision just does not seem as important to me as that of who will be playing Captain America. We already know who will be playing the roles of Tony Stark/Iron Man, Thor, Black Widow, Nick Fury, Loki, etc, and even though we all hope that the casting of the actors to play Bruce Banner (if recast from Edward Norton) and Hawkeye and maybe even Ant-Man and the Wasp are important to the quality of the future movies, really it is cap that will really matter.

After all, before they went and nailed it by casting Robert Downey Jr. in Iron Man I don't believe that we all cared about the project quite as much, did we? And before Iron Man went and proved that Marvel Studios could do it itself and do it successfully, how much buzz did we really feel about the whole concept of a future series of movies based on key Marvel characters that would be self produced, in-house Marvel projects? Now, with its obvious initial success and signs that it will be able to keep the ball rolling, the stakes are markedly higher and the casting of Captain America reflects this.

Like everyone else, I will likely get caught up in the initial buzz over who Marvel ends up choosing to play such an iconic character; afterwards, I will try and not dwell on it too much and only pay attention to actual updates on the movie itself, as well as updates from any of the other Marvel movies in production.

Yes, I am a comic-reading, movie watching fanboy and proud of it. Now lets just hope that this film like so many others these days is being filmed in part in Vancouver so that I have at least a chance of snooping around the sets while in production...

It's not the upcoming Captain America movie, but it's the next best thing...

2009-12-03T23:21:00.000-08:00

There has not been much to report on the Captain America movie front in the last while, except for the always to be expected speculation about possible casting choices and likely plot points for the upcoming Marvel film. I expect that we won't hear anything at all concrete on the project until late December at the earliest or more likely early in the New Year, based on what was said by Marvel Entertainment reps at this year's San Diego Comicon back in July. However, one interesting tidbit about the Captain America movie project that is worth noting is that Joe Quesada, the Editor-In-chief at Marvel, recently mentioned on Twitter that he is now sitting in on script meetings for the movie which means that an important creative part of the development process appears to be happening right now. His exact words:

"Did I forget to mention an AMAZING Cap script meeting? Actually I did. I work here and these movies can't come out fast enough for me."

Now just because we cannot discuss any confirmed casting for the future Captain America movie, thsat doesn't mean that we cannot discuss any very, very likely casting for another movie that Captain America will feature prominently in. The upcoming Avengers movie from Marvel will pretty much be featuring a cast of actors already established in their roles from previous Marvel features. With this in mind, we can start to look at the casting for the future Marvel Avengers movie with an eye towards which actors the future Captain America will be co-starring with. (Sure, it isn't the Cap movie but it is the next best thing, right?)

Based on the confirmed casting for future Marvel movies, here is some of what we know will be the likely casting for Avengers - unless there should be any actors that drop out of the project beforehand, or are replaced by the studio (Ala Terrence Howard being replaced in the Iron Man sequel):

Scarlett Johansson ... Natasha Romanoff / Black Widow

Chris Hemsworth ... Thor

Robert Downey Jr. ... Tony Stark / Iron Man

Samuel L. Jackson ... Nick Fury

Don Cheadle ... Col. James 'Rhodey' Rhodes / War Machine
(as a possible minor or supporting character)

Tom Hiddleston ... Loki

These are the most likely 'locks' on appearing in the project; below are a couple that are nowhere near being confirmed but were heavily hinted at last Summer by Marvel execs:

Edward Norton ... Bruce Banner (there were hints at this from interviews during the San Diego con, if I recall correctly)

Lou Ferrigno ... The Incredible Hulk (voiceover; this is probably as much a sentimental idea being thrown about as much as anything)

Well, there you go: something to mull over and think about until we get closer to hearing some concrete updates on this highly-anticipated and much talked-about Marvel movie project.

Save some $$ on your Cap-related merchandise before the future Captain America movie arrives...

2009-09-27T13:46:00.000-07:00

Save some money while shopping for Captain America...

I realize that this here site is supposed to br dedicated to the upcoming Captain America movie, and that there is as of yet no official Captain America movie merchandise available for purchase by eager super hero movie fans, but I am writing this post on the assumption that many of you who have ended up here did so because you are big Cap fans, right? As such, I am also assuming that maybe once in a while you get the hankering to purchase Captain America related merchandise, whether it be a Captain America action figure or a Captain America t shirt or Captain America poster. Well, do'ya?

Anyway, I am just bringing this up because I recently was made aware of a website that makes it possible for you to actually get some cash back while shopping for the above-mentioned kind of super hero swag.

The site is called Mr. Rebates and basically, it allows you to get some money back in the form of a cash back rebate just by shopping from a long list of online retailers; you just sign up (for free, of course), browse their list of retailers to see if any of them are ones that you are interested in or by category or product to see if they have what you want available at any of their listed retailers at a what you consider a decent price. After that you just go ahead and make your purchase and the rebate gets credited to your account. The minimum amount that you need to earn through the Mr Rebates site before you can cash out is $10, not too hard to reach. The payout options include cheque by mail and paypal so they have a few options available and either one only takes a few business days to process. they have afew big names on their lists, such as Toys R Us, Sears, and Wal Mart, so there are some decent choices available as well as some decent discount coupons. To be honest, I would not have even considered posting about this on here except that when i decided to fool around on the site and do a search for "Captain America" in their merchandise search I was floored by the number of results that I got. Below is just a sampling of what I found for sale through their online retail partners - many of which were at a discounted price and all of it offered with a cash back rebate value of some kind:

Captain America magazines
Captain America graphic novels
Captain America T shirts/Tee shirts
Captain America Halloween costumes for both children and adults, as well as Cap boot covers and a Captain America shield accessory for any Cap costume (!)
Captain America ... EDT!! (the more masculine name for Eau De Toilet spray, and just in case you don't believe me on this one I have the picture of it included right below)
Captain America action figures, bobble-heads and statues, as well as an authentic Captain America Secret Wars series action figure - still in its vintage 1984 packaging! the weird thing here is that it is Toys R Us that is offering this baby for sale on their website...

Okay, I could go on but i think you get the idea. If you think that you might be in the market for any Captain America related swag before the actual movie related stuff hits the markets and before the buzz for the movie gets to the point where current Cap stuff starts to disapear from store shelves, maybe you should give Mr. Rebates a look-see.

Why I need the future Captain America movie to be a piece of Superhero movie art.

2009-09-19T15:16:00.000-07:00

As an Iconic comic book character, Captain America does not have a very impressive history on the silver screen. Hopefully this is a losing streak that will soon be over...

By now it must be pretty obvious to anyone who ends up on this site that I am somewhat excited about the prospects for the future Captain America movie from Marvel entertainment ( and I guess now also from Disney?), The Last Avenger: Captain America. What might not be so obvious is how I feel about the history of the good Captain in both the movies and on television. You can check out my past posts on earlier portrayals of Captain America to get some idea of what has come before. ( there are several of them, so feel free to just browse through my archives, lol ) I believe that several of these are now available as Captain America DVD retail copies.The only area of Captain America on screen that I may have neglected so far would be the 1960's cartoon portrayal of the character, which was a cartoon series dedicated solely to the character as opposed to the cameos that he may have received over the last few years on other characters features or series or even on team-based animated features, such as the Ultimates animated movie. Unfortunately, as with both the 1960's Hulk cartoons and Iron Man cartoons from the same the production company, the 60's Captain America cartoon series seemed to come off as a poor relation to the much more entertaining Spiderman cartoons of the same time period. To see for yourself what I am taliking about, I have included below a sample from the opening credits of the 1960's Cap cartoon series. Enjoy...

Also rather regrettable is the fact that in his earlier Big Screen incarnations, Captain America has never really been portrayed in any efforts that could be described as being overly entertaining or enjoyable without the consumption of copious amounts of alcoholic beverages. True, the 1940's portrayal of such characters as Batman and Superman were no better than the portrayal of Captain America on film, but at least those other two aforementioned icons would (much) later receive very impressive silver screen treatments, Captain America, unfortunately, would not. You have probably seen scenes from the 1990 Captain America movie somewhere online by now, and if not again, you can find the original trailer in the archives here, but for reasons other than curiosity there is not really much of a reason to check it out. I guess what I am getting at in my own roundabout way, is that I personally am really hoping that the upcoming Captain America movie is a smash hit and artistic success loved by comicbook fans all over, much the way the recent Iron Man movie was, not just for the implications that would carry for the success of the future Marvel studios projects that would follow, but equally so that us Cap fans could finally point at something and say, 'see, you really can make a good Captain America movie!' I am not going to turn this post into a debate of any kind over the merits of Joe Johnston as the choice for the movie's director, or express my feelings on the various names being thrown about for who would be the best choice for the role of the Captain and Steve Rogers, since this is being adequately covered on numerous other sites. Besides, in a few months we should be hearing some casting announcements which will make most of these discussions moot anyway.

A decent new Captain America movie? I guess that we will all have a couple of years to wait and see if such a dream can come true...

A cool Captain America Fan teaser trailer and a tip of the cowl to two very impressive Captain America-related blogs!

2009-08-28T21:50:00.000-07:00

I have to admit, that since the mid-Summer San Diego Comicon state-of-the-union regarding the future Captain America movie from Marvel, I have been feeling somewhat more positive about the potential for this to be a well-made film. I am now more confident that we will eventually end up with The First Avenger: Captain America being a successful super hero period piece - something that is not always an easy feat. Until San Diego, I was concerned that we would see Captain America made as a modern day story with little more than a glance back to his WWII roots, something I would have found very, very disappointing without the proper back story already put in place in a movie. Another thing that has been fun to follow is the apparant increase in fan buzz over the upcoming Captain America movie. I have noticed no slowing to the inquiries on Google and other search engines from comic and movie fans wanting to know any avaiable details about the Marvel project. And of course there are the growing number of fan made faux Captain America movie posters and Captain America movie trailers - even the ones that consist of no more than graphics from the latest Marvel Universe video games, lol. Before I forget, I wanted to spotlight one particular fan made trailer that I thought aspects of were pretty well done; Below you will find the Captain America teaser trailer that was put together by a young student filmmaker, Raleigh Latham, who was only 21 at the time when he and some of his friends made this. Nicely done, Raleigh.

With the official Cap movie a good two years away, I expect to see a lot more such efforts showing up on the internet and that can only help to raise the profile of this project and help to fuel the buzz that is sure to grow around this future Marvel movie project.

I also wanted to give a tip of the hat to two different websites out there that frankly put my efforts to shame. Both of these sites clearly show a very strong appreciation for the Captain America character and deserve to be noticed by Captain America fans everywhere.

The first site is called Let's Rap With Cap, and is pretty much a no hold's barred look at all things Captain America. I especially appreciate the choice of logo for the site because of my own fond memories of the Captain America comic it borrows from.(John Byrne's run on the Cap comicbook was classic) At the time of my writing this, the site's creator, Rick, was having a double celebration of both his Birthday and one of his other blogs, Mail It To Team Up. (happy double-birthday, Rick!) He has even created a cool video to go along with an oldies-sounding Captain America theme song! I included it below for your viewing pleasure - but still make sure to visit his site!

The other site I was referring to is called the Captain Ameriblog, and apart from the very nifty site name, it offers (what I believe to be) a daily fix of something Captain America related; at the time I am writing this the site's creator, Jon K, was celebrating the Birthday of Jack "King" Kirby, one of the original creative forces behind Captain America and many other classic comicbook characters. If you are looking for anything Captain America related, odds are it has been or soon will be featyred by this site. I especially got a kick out of the recent pictures posted on there of an old Captain America Halloween costume, in part because I remember having a Batman costume made by the same manufacturuer when I was lil' kid! Ah, good times...

Well done, Jon. This is another site that definitely deserves some serious browsing time from comicbook fans. Well that about does it for me: I'm off now to go and enjoy me a couple of very cool Cap sites...

Finally, a (much needed) Captain America movie update from the San Diego Comicon!

2009-07-28T23:53:00.000-07:00

Recently, I have been starting to wonder whether it is maybe, just maybe possible that the future Captain America movie from Marvel is being passed-by in the buzz department, or lost in the shuffle (so to speak) by Marvel in their efforts to promote the heck out of all of their other sundry comic-based projects; I understand that Iron Man 2 is a buzz factory all on its lonesome so it cannot help but get a lot of (deserved) attention, and I also understand that other films in production such as Thor - which probably will need all of the buzz it can get early on - are being helped along by Marvel Entertainment's promotion department (and good for them since they have actually had casting news to announce recently), it just really felt like Cap fans were being starved for any relevant info or scoops on the upcoming movie project. Being a rational, level-headed comicbook fan I am quite aware that it will be quite some time before we are privy to anything resembling an official movie trailer for a new Captain America movie, but I am looking beyond any desire for a Captain America movie trailer, I am simply referring to what has felt like a serious lack of Captaih America movie news (or even any heavily substantiated rumours!) regarding the Captain america movie 2011 cast. Of course, the studio and the director have to be actively working on the project before we can be told any news of the possible cast for the Cap movie. Well it looks like the annual late July comicbook and movie (heck, really I should just use the word 'entertainment') Mecca that is the San Diego Comicon has addressed practically all of those concerns for me and other fans.

Over the weekend, Kevin Feige of Marvel Entertainment was on a Marvel movie panel to answer questions from both attendees and the Media that was in attendance. He tried his best to clear up some of the questions surrounding the First Avenger: Captain America. Regarding how they hope to develope the character of Cap's alter-ego, Steve Rogers:

"Captain America is really the story of Steve Rogers, like Peter Parker, like Bruce Banner, like Tony Stark. By the way, Tony Stark is about as jingoistic a guy there is. He’s always talking about America, what’s right for America, making weapons to go to war with the rest of the world with and [Iron Man] did extremely well overseas because his story was engaging. This movie is Steve Rogers’ origin story, and I think it is our burden to make Steve Rogers as appealing as any of our other characters ... he’s not just the perfect boy scout who follows order every time. He has ideals he wants to live up to." (courtesy of Hollywood.com)

About how the World war II storyline will be approached and whether or not other familiar supporting characters from the comic or other period Marvel characters such as the Invaders will make the transition to the screen:

“Also, setting it in World War II — the Marvel version of World War II — I think is gonna open it up in another big way ... What’s funny is it will actually end up being, I think, our most diverse and our most international film, in terms of the content of the movies itself. It takes place overseas much more than any of our other films do. In terms of the cast, there’s a group that Steve works with that will have an opportunity for many more international actors than any of our other films. We are gonna explore those aspects of World War II that made Cap special: the Super Soldier program, Red Skull, Hydra, all of those things that exist in the Marvel version of it. As you know if you read the comic books, the origin of Captain America is really the origin of the Marvel universe ... it’s about that time in history when the idea of the superhero began to emerge.” Again, courtesy of Hollywood.com)

Well this is definitely something interesting to hear: before this, I have to admit that I never really gave much thought to any potential for an appearance by characters such as the original Invaders supergroup. That could be a really neat thing to fit into the movie. What Feige also covered was the lack of casting announcements so far; He suggested that there would be no casting news until after the movie's director Joe Johnston joins the production full-time this October. After then we can expect to see things start to move. The writing team is supposedly about halfway through the script and the movie itself is expected to start production by June of next year (2010). I know that it sounds like a long ways away, but before you know it, internet fanboys everywhere will be heralding the beginning of filming and trying to find leaked pictures from the film sets...

Captain America Posters: The Sentinel of Liberty on display.

2009-07-07T23:13:00.000-07:00

The aim of this site is to help keep Captain America fans informed about the status of the upcoming Captain America movie, The First Avenger: Captain America. The reality is that I am just a Cap fan helping to put information out there for other Cap fans. As a fan of comic book-based movies in general, one of the things I get a kick out of are comic book movie posters and movie trailers in general, and fan-made movie posters and movie trailers in particular. To be honest, I have not yet seen any fan trailers that really piqued my interest but I have seen a few fan-made Captain America movie posters that I think are actually quite well done. I have collected here a few poster images from past Captain America movie efforts, as well as what I consider to be two of the better fan-made posters around (other than the one already on display in the upper-right hand corner of this site's home page) to share with you (along with a couple of odds and ends) - hopefully for your enjoyment, lol.

1940's Captain America Movie Serials

These two posters are lobby-card style promo sheets for the earliest Captain America movie efforts from the 1940's. If you want to see the original trailer for the early serial, you can find it on my website by visiting the early Captain America trailer page.

Captain America movie (1990-1992)

This is the official theatrical poster for the last Captain America feature film effort. Although it was advertised on the poster as a Spring 1990 release, various production delays saw the movie held back from release until 1992, at which point it only saw a limited theatrical release in some US markets and in Europe. The film was eventually released onto the video market and to cable television in the Fall of 1992.

The First Avenger: Captain America (fan-made poster)

This is probably my favourite of the fan-made movie posters; I am not sure if the image is a reworking of some other movie poster, such as Saving Private Ryan, or other war film, but it is very stark and effective in its design.

The First Avenger: Captain America (fan-made poster)

This is the other fan poster that I think really works well; it reminds me of a recent cover to the current Captain America comic series. Simple, yet effective.

Anti-drug Awareness poster (1989)

This is an anti-drugs program awareness poster released in conjunction with the FBI back in 1989. Very standard, it's nothing too exciting to be sure, but I just included it here more for it's retro-kitsch value.

Message/Moral poster

This one is intriguing to me because I first assumed that it was more or less mocking the concept behind Captain America standing up for the rights and liberties of the individual in society, but after further thought I realized that I am not sure if it is mocking or actually giving props to someone shown to be standing up for these principles. Either way I thought it was worth including it here with these other Captain America posters for your own evaluation.

Captain America T Shirts: A look at Cap on cloth.

2009-07-07T21:00:00.000-07:00

The primary goal of this here lil' website is to keep comic book fans informed of any progress or developments in the upcoming Captain America movie from Marvel Entertainment. However, that does not mean that I am only allowed to obsess on the future movie and nothing else; one such example of me veering away from the movie and looking at something else is the subject of this here post. I would like to share with you some interesting results from my trip around the interweb which I undertook because I was curious to see what different pieces of Captain America-related clothing were out there.

Of course most of what I found out there were short sleeved Captain America t shirts, but not quite everything. (of course it is the middle of Summer, so that is to be expected, I suppose) So without further ado I present to you a collection of images I like to call: Captain America on cloth...

1. Captain America Flag t shirt (traditional)

This is an example of a more traditional Cap shirt; it displays the front flag image from Captain America's costume in the four-color style found in the comic medium.

2. Captain America flag t shirt (modern)

This shirt sports a more realistic or modern-looking depiction of the fron t of the costume, with darker colors and also includes faux muscular details in the design.

3. Captain america's shield t shirt

With this shirt we have a good example of the shield image that has been a popular logo choice at various times in the past and even now.

4. Captain America for President t shirt

This one is interesting. I assume that the idea behind this shirt was to cash in on the buzz that was present during the last US Election, however I get a kick out of this shirt more because it is using an image of Cap from the 1980's John Byrne run on Captain America, which many fans of the book consider to be a modern highpoint of the series.

5. Civil War-themed shirt

As any recent readers of Marvel comics would know, the events depicted in Marvel's Civil War series were the catalyst behind the recent death of the Steve Rogers/Captain America. this shirt is effective in highlighting Cap above all of the other characters depicted with the selective use of color.

6. retro image Captain America long sleeve shirt

See, I told you that not all of the shirts I found were short sleeve t shirts. This one is cool in that it sports a very retro image of Captain America probably hearkening back to the 1960's era character. The grey sweat-shirt look of the shirt also gives it a bit of a retro feel, too.

As you can see, there are plenty of Captain America shirts to choose from when the big day comes and you find yourself trying to choose something special to wear to that first day screening of The First Avenger: Captain America, in 2011...

**EXTRA! EXTRA!**
I have had a few people asking me where thwey can go to buy the shirts seen in this post; At thbis time, I am recommending people check out online retailers like superherostuff.com to find a decent selection of Captain America shirts. Happy hunting!

A Captain America movie set in WW II...

2009-02-27T21:55:00.000-08:00

I was recently musing on the possibilities for the upcoming Captain America Movie from Marvel Entertainment; it sounds as though the powers that be want to see the film set during World War II. I personally have no problems with this idea, even if there is no follow up to modern day by the end of the film. As a comicbook fan I appreciate the idea of being faithful to the Captain America origin story, which of course would necessitate the film being a period piece. I think that this is an interesting gamble for Marvel: a period piece might not be as successful for Marvel as something set in modern day and Marvel will really need this film to be asuccess as it will be the lead in for their subsequent film project, the avengers Movie.

I also believe that on at least an almost subversive level that Marvel has already begun the campaign to make comic readers more accepting of or open to the idea of a WWII Captain America movie; over the last year, I have noticed a steady stream of Captain America comics being released (in both mini-series and one shot format) that have storylines set in WWII or at least devote a large portion of the storyline to WWII flashbacks. I guess with the original Cap ( AKA Steve Rogers) recently deceased any new stories featuring that incarnation of the character must heavily reference the past. Oh, and yes, I am saying all this mostly tongue-in-cheek. Just watch the new comic racks over the next six months to a year and see for yourself if I am off base with this theory or not.

Captain America movie in 2009 ? Nope, try 2011 instead

2008-11-23T13:38:00.000-08:00

There have been some more concrete developments in the upcoming Captain America movie from Marvel Entertainment so it is time for a new post here.

First off, as you can see from this post's title, the scheduled release date for the upcoming film has been significantly pushed back from July 2009 to May 2011. I suspect that the delay in development of all the future Marvel projects is in part due to the recent writer's strike in Hollywood which affected many films in production. As well, the film now looks to be a springboard for the upcoming Avengers movie in 2011, and as such could not be released too far ahead of it.

What else? Well we have an updated title for the film: The First Avenger: Captain America, is the current working title for the upcoming Captain America movie. At this time I am still undecided about whether or not I will rename this blog to reflect that name change.

The other really big news is that we also now have a confirmed name for the director of the Captain America movie; the new director is veteran director Joe Johnston. It is nice to have this settled but alittle surprising considering that Marvel didn't do much to dismiss all of the talk about Nick Cassavetes being the preferred director. I wonder if marvel ended up with their first choice on this one? The title of the movie now makes it obvious how much Marvel plans to tie Captain America into whatever vision of the Avengers they choose to go with. As well, the dropping of hints about the existence of Captain America in the current Marvel 'movieverse' has been building up to the characters appearance at some point down the road as being abig deal. In case you have forgotten any of them, here is a quick checklist:

-the appearance of Captain America's shield in Iron Man

-the mention of the Super soldier program and the use of the resultant serum in the Incredible Hulk movie

-the supposed deleted scene with Captain America frozen in the Arctic ice that was included with the DVD release of the Hulk movie

I look forward to future easter eggs as future Marvel films are released. And of course I look forward to future updates on the Captain America movie, too!

A Black Captain America? Not according to Will Smith.

2008-09-28T23:44:00.000-07:00

There hasn't been a lot of Captain America movie information to update you with recently, however there has been some new Marvel studios info to pass along so here goes.

There was the recent amusing rumour that Matthew McConaughey was in the running for the role of Captain America in the upcoming movie from Marvel. this has since been discredited, but the most recent rumour had Will Smith, who will next be seen in the Seven Pounds movie this December, being approached by Marvel Studios to see if he would be interested in the Captain America lead. Smith himself debunked this rumour during a brief interview the other day while at the same time Marvel executives made an effort to put out the speculation fires regarding the possibility of smith in the role. Of course, even with all of these denials, one has to keep in mind that he could still be in the running; if it is in the works, neither side would necessarily want to admit it until the papers are signed. As for why I don't think McConaughey was ever in the running: I don't think he is of the caliber of Hollywood star expected by Marvel to fill such a role. (you just know that Marvel would still love to see Brad Pitt in the role)

On a side note, I think it is a sad comment on preconceptions in any medium when you here that many comic book fans complained about the possibility that a Black man (Smith) might even be in the running to play a character that has traditionally been white. It almost makes me wish it was going to be Smith just to watch certain people choke on their own bile when he does a good job of it. Anyone remember the somewhat negative fan reaction when it was first announced that Heath Ledger would be playing the Joker? Hard to believe now, eh?

Until next time...

CAPTAIN AMERICA MOVIE: Super Soldier Easter Egg - A very pleasant surprise!

2008-06-15T12:45:00.000-07:00

So I went and saw the new Incredible Hulk movie last Friday night and thoroughly enjoyed it. It was actually quite a relief for me (an obvious comic book fan) that they had got it right. From the casting to the scripting and plotting to the CGI effects, they all seemed to mostly hit their marks.

Everybody was aware beforehand that there was going to be some sort of Tony Stark cameo by Robert Downey Jr, however the hinted at reference to the Captain America history was much more in-depth than I had expected or even imagined it would be in this movie.

At one point in the movie, Hurt's General Ross character is discussing the history of the Super Soldier program from World War II, and the results that they were aiming for with the development of the Super Soldier serum, implying that it had been kept 'on ice' since that time. They also suggested that the serum could be given in two stages to improve upon the human body's natural abilities. However, more than just talking about this, the movie went further and showed us exactly how this would affect the test subject by giving us a prolonged fight scene early on in the film in which Tim Roth (after being injected with the serum) takes on the Hulk; the scene was even replete with Matrix-like fight sequences (imagine body flips with gunplay mixed in and you get the idea).

In my opinion, this goes a long way towards setting up the framework for a future Captain America movie. I am now starting to really appreciate the new found freedom that Marvel Entertainment has with its movie properties now that they have chosen to go the self production route on these properties. This decision is starting to pay dividends and not only for the company but also for many Marvel comic book fans that are also Marvel comic book movies fans, too.

CAPTAIN AMERICA MOVIE: The pieces are on the board, Sir.

2008-05-29T22:00:00.000-07:00

A Speculative Update.

There's not much to report in the way of updates for this Marvel movie project, however I can say that this site now has a distinct new look, thanks to the variety of colors that the blogger layout editor has to offer. On a less frivolous note, there has been some speculation thrown out there that Marvel Entertainment is carefully laying the foundations or framework for future continuity among all of its currently self-managed characters film properties; In the recent box office hit, Iron Man movie, there was a brief glimpse of the trademark Captain America shield seen in Tony Stark's personal development laboratory. In the upcoming Incredible Hulk movie, there are some supposed references to a 'super soldier serum', and to top it off, it is suggested that it might be a modified version of one used by the US military on other test subjects in the past, which would help to subtly place Captain America in the Hulk continuity. And since Tony Stark appears in the upcoming Hulk movie, that places the Iron Man franchise in step with the Hulk franchise as being in a similar continuity that acknowledges the Captain America mythos.

This would also be a good time to reflect on the concept that was introduced in the last moments of the Iron Man movie, the idea that there will at some point be an Avengers movie dealing with the team assembled under the supervision of S.H.I.E.L.D. , that takes its cue more from the Ultimates series than from the traditional Avengers comic book, replete with a patch-wearing Samuel Jackson.

Hope springs eternal for me that when the Captain America movie project is eventually produced, completed, and released on a waiting audience, it will be done right and to the satisfaction of those loyal fans of the iconic hero.

Captain America, F@#k Yeah!!

2008-02-17T22:40:00.000-08:00

While we are waiting for any tidbits on any new Captain America movie trailer or anything at all to do with a new Captain America movie, I have something 'different' for you; now this is something that you can file under 'surreal' or 'bizarre. It is a wicked twist on something that was pretty cheesy to begin with, so I think that this is actually something of an improvement. So just what is it that I am prattling on about, anyway? It's the TEAM AMERICA theme wrapped around footage from the CAPTAIN AMERICA movie (from 1991)! Big surprise that this creation is something that can be found on Youtube, eh?

Yes, this may be bordering on blasphemous for some, but... deal, okay?

(oh, and enjoy the movie, too.)