Joe Johnston Talks Captain America

With the upcoming release of Universal's The Wolfman director Joe Johnston has been doing interview after interview. Naturally the focus of each interview has shifted from what he's just done, The Wolfman, to what he's about to do, Captain America. That has resulted in a discussion of the man, the costume, the villain and the supporting cast of Captain America.

The Man

Will be cast by March. That's the latest from director Joe Johnston who told Hero Complex "we have to have somebody locked in before I leave March 1 for London." Who exactly that person is, Johnston wouldn't say, but he did give us some guidelines they are going by for the casting. "Well, we're testing five or six guys," Johnston said. "The youngest is 23 the oldest is 32. Most of the guys in the war [are] just kids, 18 or 19, but we want to go a little bit older." They are also looking to cast an American in the role as Johnston believes they couldn't rightfully make a Cap movie without an American in the role and that is a fair call I think considering he is called Captain America. Johnston has also said that they want a relative unknown to play the role and I think that is a good choice. Captain America is such an iconic character, but came from humble beginnings and the actor also needs to reflect this.

The Costume

There has always been speculation about how Captain America's iconic yet not so practical suit would be explained in a movie. It seems Johnston has managed to find an interesting to explain it (Spoilers). It seems that in Johnston's story Cap is originally seen as too expensive and rare a commodity to send into battle. He tells the Los Angeles Times "He's the only one and they can't make more. So they say, 'You're going to be in this USO show' and they give him a flag suit." Obviously Cap hates the idea of not being able to serve on the front-lines and he goes AWOL from the USO. At first he is embarrassed by the flag suit uniform he is still wearing and tries to cover it up. Through some event he "realizes the value of the uniform...but he modifies his suit and adds some armor, it will be closer to the Cap costume in some of the comics in more recent years." For some reason that makes me think of some sort of Iron Man-esque scene where we see Cap building and modifying his own armour. I agree with Johnston's explanation that this is the way to make the suit work in a 'real' life setting and I appreciate the fact that they are trying to make it seem believable. A guy running around a war-zone in tights just wouldn't seem right on the big screen, but if you have him set-up to mimic a super-hero first, then you can bring in that imagery and build on it.

The Villain

We all knew it had to happen and now Johnston has assured fans it will, the Red Skull will be the villain in First Avenger. Hitler's right-hand and Cap's arch-nemesis the Red Skull is one of the best villains ever created. In the Captain America story the Red Skull's alias is Johan Schimdt, a National Socialist who Hitler personally molds into the epitomy of Nazi terror even giving him a red skull mask to wear. This seems a logical way to explain the characters appearance in the film and, seeing as they are going for an origin story (explaining the Skulls inclusion), it seems suitable to have an origin for the Skull. Early speculation or more like fan-tasies have established actors like Christoph Waltz and Ralph Fiennes as possible candidates for the role. Thing is the Red Skull always seemed quite young to me, somewhere between the same age as Cap or slightly older and he needs to be someone who can somewhat match the physical prowess of Captain America, one of his skills is hand-to-hand combat although it is never quite enough to beat Cap one-on-one. Therefore I cannot see Waltz or Fiennes doing that, although both could easily capture the evil, psychotic nature of the Red Skull in a marvelous performance. With that being said I think someone like Thure Lindhart or Mads Mikkelsen from Flammen & Citronen (Flame & Citron) or Ken Duken from Max Manus have the look (there's got to be a lot going on with the eyes and they've all got it), age (Mikkelsen is oldest at 45, but doesn't look as aged as Fiennes who is 48, while the other two are in their 30's) and skill to do it (Duken really gets under your skin in Max Manus and Mikkelsen is a bit of a cult hit) while being somewhat of an unknown to most (Mikkelsen is most recognisable with a role as the Bond villain Le Chiffre, a good performance I thought, and a role in the upcoming Clash of the Titans). I think it would be interesting to have Cap and his arch-nemesis portrayed by relative unknowns or at least people who aren't quite superstars.

The Supporting Cast

Probably what was the most interesting announcement from Johnston was the announcement that superhero squad The Invaders would be making an appearance in The First Avenger: Captain America. Johnston told CHUD that the team would appear "in the entire second half" of the film. The team featured members like Union Jack (a British adventurer), The Human Torch (an android) and Spitfire (who can run at extreme speeds) and Johnston said that the team will be six members strong in the film. Cap and Bucky were, at times, counted as members of the team so it will be interesting to see whether they are included in the six or if they are separate from the six. If so that means the film will feature at least nine costumed characters. There is talk that The Invaders will be used as a way to market the film to international audiences as Union Jack and Spitfire are British and certain other characters could have their background altered slightly so they represent different nations. Also we could see a few known actors don the costumes of The Invaders as Johnston has said that he wants to surround the relative newcomer who will play Cap with some experienced and well known talent. Daniel Craig as Union Jack? Eva Green as Spitfire? Jean-Claude Van Damme as a...wait a minute he has already played something akin to an android and was bad-ass enough without the ability to emit fire all over his body.

All this Captain America news makes me really excited. With The Invaders, Nick Fury and The Red Skull it is going to have a brilliant cast of characters that many people may not have heard of, but really should have. If they can get the casting and the look right for The Invaders and The Red Skull then they could be really good to watch, especially the Red Skull. Also who else is now counting down the days till the actor portraying Captain America is announced? Check out all the links if you want more details from the interviews and head on over to our forums to discuss.