Captain America To Be Set During World War II
Marvel Studios President of Production Kevin Feige revealed today that the Captain America movie will be a period film, set during World War II. I’ve never read any Captain America, but some of my friends who are really into the series have insisted that a WWII period setting would be the only way to do the story justice.
This basically confirms that Marvel will be sticking close to the original origin story which involved Steve Rogers volunteering to be a test subject in Operation: Rebirth, a top-secret defense project for the U.S. Army. Rogers took a Super-Soldier serum which altered his physiology, turning him into a “nearly perfect human being”. Unable to duplicate the process, the United States government turned Rogers into a superhero who served as “both a counter-intelligence agent and a propaganda symbol to counter Nazi Germany’s head of terrorist operations, the Red Skull.”
The First Avenger: Captain America (and not Captain America: The First Avenger, which sounds infinitely better) is scheduled to hit theaters in May 6th 2011, just weeks before Marvel’s superhero team-up film The Avengers hits screens in July. It’s assumed that the film will likely end with a cliffhanger. In the comic series The Avengers discovered Steve Rogers’ body in a block of ice in the North Atlantic years after his supposed death, and were able to revive him. It’s assumed that a similar situation will probably happen to bridge the two movies, especially considering that The Avengers takes place in modern day. But Feige promises that you won’t need to see any of the other films to understand The Avengers:
“Each of them have to stand on their own,” Feige said. “You won’t have to have seen any of the films to understand The Avengers… but it will help.”
Feige also confirmed that Matthew McConaughey is not in consideration for the film adaptation as was rumored on CinemaBlend weeks back. That should make fans happy. You can read more about Feige’s “State of the Marvel Address” on CHUD.
You Don’t Mess with the Zohan Movie Trailer
Sony Pictures has released the movie trailer for their upcoming Adam Sandler comedy You Don’t Mess with the Zohan.
Directed by Dennis Dugan (Big Daddy, Happy Gilmore), Zohan’s screenplay was a collaboration between three comedy greats: Judd Apatow (40-Year-Old-Virgin, Knocked Up), Robert Smigel (SNL) and Adam Sandler. The film stars Sandler as an Israel Intelligence Agent who fakes his death so he can anonymously move to New York and become a hair stylist. Sounds like a promising SNL sketch, but a full length feature film?
Sandler’s middle eastern accent may rival his line delivery in Little Nicky for maximum annoyance. And the action sequences look, well… stupid. There has been a lot of great comedies this past year: Juno, Knocked Up, Hot Fuzz, SuperBad, The Darjeeling Limited, The Simpsons Movie and even Walk Hard. Zohan doesn’t look up to par. Watch the trailer below. Tell me what you guys think!
You can also watch the new trailer in High Definition on Yahoo! Movies. You Don’t Mess with the Zohan hits theaters on June 6th, 2008.
New Posters: Zohan, Horton Hears A Who, The Hottie & The Nottie, Forbidden Kingdom
A lot of new posters hit the interwebs today. Here is a look at the more interesting (or not so interesting) one-sheets you can expect to see at your local cinema this weekend. Let’s take a look.
20th Century Fox has released a batch of new character banners for their computer animated adaptation of Dr. Seuss’ Horton Hears a Who!, which hits theatres on March 14th, 2008.
The Forbidden Kingdom poster continues to give me a Wizard of Oz vibe. Am I the only one who believes this is a loose remake of Oz? The film pairs martial arts veterans Jackie Chan and Jet Li for their first time. Directed by Rob Minkoff (The Lion King) and featuring fight choreography from Yuen Wo Ping (The Matrix films, Kill Bill), The Forbidden Kingdom follows an American teen (Michael Angarano) who is transported back to ancient China, where he meets up with two Kung Fu masters (Chan, Liu Yifei) and a Silent Monk (Li). The four head off (down the yellow brick road???) to fulfill an ancient prophecy.
Paris Hilton stars in The Hottie & The Nottie, a romantic comedy about a guy who movies to L.A. to track down his childhood crush, but must contend with Cristabel’s ever-present, not-so-hot best friend June. Yeah, I stopped caring at “Paris Hilton”. Note: That’s “Nottie” not “Naughty”, this is a PG-13 rated movie after all. The Hottie & The Nottie hits theaters on February 8th 2008.
Dennis Dugan’s (Big Daddy, Happy Gilmore) You Don’t Mess with the Zohan is about an Israel Intelligence Agent (played by Adam Sandler) who fakes his death so he can anonymously move to New York and become a hair stylist. Sounds like a promising SNL sketch, but a full length feature film? There has been a lot of great comedies this past year: Juno, Knocked Up, Hot Fuzz, SuperBad, The Darjeeling Limited, The Simpsons Movie and even Walk Hard. Zohan doesn’t look up to par. You Don’t Mess with the Zohan hits theaters on June 6th, 2008.
sources: IMPA, CanMag, Cinematical
Captain America is DEAD, Movie Still in Development
Marvel has been selling a whole lot of comic books with their Civil War series. Last year Spider-Man was forced to reveal his secret identity to everyone. And now Captain America has been killed off.
America is fatally shot by a sniper in the 25th issue, which arrived in stores yesterday. The sentinel of libertys fight for right began in 1941.
In Civil War, the government began requiring superheroes to register their services and secret identities, and it outlawed vigilantism after supervillains and superheroes fought, accidentally killing hundreds of civilians. The heroes are compared to weapons of mass destruction that must be controlled.
The registration split the superhero community in half. Iron Man believed that superheros should be trained as military, while Captain America considered the legislation an erosion of civil liberties.
In the current issue, Captain America is shot by alleged assassin Sharon Carter, an intelligence agent he is romantically involved. She was apparently under the control of super-villain Dr. Faustus.
I’ve never really enjoyed the more patriotic superheros. The “high morals” attitude usually results in a two dimensional character.
Captain America was “killed off” during the end of World War II, when he plunged into the ocean during a flight on an experimental plane. Many years later he was discovered by the superhero group the Avengers, encased in ice and in a state of suspended animation. He was thawed out to continue his career.
Death is not a reality in comic books. Captain America has a movie in development (tentatively planned for 2010), plus a possible Avengers film is also in the works. So expect him to return soon enough. May-be someone will find a time portal and will go back to stop the big battle that caused all this nonsense. Superhero comics sometimes have the stupidest story-lines (Spider-Man’s Clone saga, nuff said).