RW417 - MCU Rewatch - Captain America: The First Avenger

 

In this episode of The Marvel Cinematic Universe Rewatch, Cory and Nathan have an enhanced opinion of "Captain America: The First Avenger."

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On April 1997, Marvel was in negotiations with Mark Gordon and Gary Levinsohn to produce Captain America, and Larry Wilson and Leslie Bohem were set to write a script. In May 2000, Marvel teamed with Artisan Entertainment to help finance the film. However, a lawsuit arose between Marvel Comics and Joe Simon over the ownership of Captain America copyrights, disrupting the development process of the film. The lawsuit was eventually settled in September 2003. Following the settlement, Marvel was preparing to license the film rights to Warner Bros. until producer David Maisel suggested that the company produce the film themselves. In 2005, Marvel received a $525 million investment from Merrill Lynch, allowing them to independently produce ten films, including Captain America. Paramount Pictures agreed to distribute the film. Originally, the film would stand alone; producer Kevin Feige said "about half" the movie would be set during World War II before moving into the modern day. Producer Avi Arad said, "The biggest opportunity with Captain America is as a man 'out of time', coming back today, looking at our world through the eyes of someone who thought the perfect world was small-town United States. Sixty years go by, and who are we today? Are we better?" He cited the Back to the Future trilogy as an influence, and claimed he had "someone in mind to be the star, and definitely someone in mind to be the director". In February 2006, Arad hoped to have a summer 2008 theatrical release date. Jon Favreau approached Arad to direct the film as a comedy, but he chose to make Iron Man instead. In April 2006, David Self was hired to write the script. He explained that Captain America was his favorite superhero as a child because "my dad told me I could one day be Captain America". Joe Johnston met with Marvel to discuss directing the film.

Captain America was put on hold during the 2007–2008 Writers Guild of America strike. However, in January 2008, Marvel Entertainment reached an interim comprehensive agreement with the Writers Guild of America that would put writers immediately back to work on various projects that were under the company's development. On May 5, 2008 (after the success of Iron Man), Marvel announced the film The First Avenger: Captain America (the working title) for release on May 6, 2011 (before being pushed back to July 22)

When asked whether anti-US sentiments would affect the film's box office, Feige said, "Marvel is perceived pretty well around the world right now, and I think putting another uber-Marvel hero into the worldwide box office would be a good thing. ... We have to deal with much the same way that Captain America, when thawed from the Arctic ice, entered a world that he didn't recognize," similar to the way Stan Lee and Jack Kirby reintroduced the character in the 1960s

In March 2010, it was reported that Chris Evans was cast as Captain America and Hugo Weaving as the Red Skull; Marvel Studios confirmed the latter in May. Ryan Phillippe and John Krasinski were also considered for the role of Captain America. In April 2010, Sebastian Stan, who had been mentioned in media accounts as a possibility for the title role, was cast as Bucky Barnes. Stan was contracted for multiple films. Also in April, Marvel announced that Hayley Atwell had been cast as Peggy Carter, and that the film's name had been changed from The First Avenger: Captain America to Captain America: The First Avenger. The next day it was reported that Joss Whedon would be rewriting the script as part of his negotiation to write and direct The Avengers.

Chris Evans declined the role three times before accepting the part. Not out of dislike for the role, but because he feared what the effects of the sudden increase of fame would be on his private life. Then Robert Downey Jr. convinced him to take the part, and thus gain the freedom to sign on any other role he'd want afterwards. After that, he had a meeting with director Joe Johnston and the producers, who convinced him to take the role.

Most of the shots were done by a Los Angeles company called LOLA, that specializes in digital "plastic surgery". The technique involved shrinking Chris Evans in all dimensions. They shot each "skinny Steve" scene at least four times. Once like a normal scene with Evans and his fellow actors and actresses in the scene, once with Evans alone in front of a greenscreen, so his element could be reduced digitally, again with everyone in the scene but with Evans absent, so that the shrunken Steve could be re-inserted into the scene, and finally, with a body double mimicking Evans' actions in case the second technique was required. When Evans had to interact with other characters in the scene, they had to either lower him or raise the other actors on apple boxes, or elevated walkways to make "skinny Steve" shorter in comparison. For close-ups, Evans' fellow actors had to look at marks on his chin that represented where his eyes would be after the shrinking process, and Evans had to look at marks on the tops of the actor's head to represent their eyes. The second technique involved grafting Evans' head onto the body double. This technique was used mostly when Evans was sitting or lying down, or when a minimum of physical acting was required.

(at around 37 mins) Hayley Atwell (Peggy Carter) surprisingly touching Chris Evans' chest, as he emerged from the pod upon turning into Captain America, was very much improvised, and the surprise on her face is genuine, as she admitted in interviews she was very taken by Chris' physique and nearly broke character and ruined the take that made it into the film as a result.

This is Chris Evans' sixth comic book movie after Fantastic Four (2005), Fantastic 4: Rise of the Silver Surfer (2007), Push (2009), The Losers (2010), and Scott Pilgrim vs. the World (2010). He voiced Casey Jones in TMNT (2007), also based on a comic book.

Hugo Weaving based the Red Skull's accent on renowned German filmmaker Werner Herzog and Austrian actor Klaus Maria Brandauer.

In the beginning of the movie, Johann Schmidt, while gazing at the tesseract, says "...And the Führer digs for trinkets in the desert." This is reference to another Paramount Pictures movie, Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981). Director Joe Johnston was part of the Academy Award winning visual effects team from Industrial Light & Magic on that film.

(at around 50 mins) Laura Haddock played an autograph seeker. She played Peter "Star-Lord" Quill's mother Meredith Quill in Guardians of the Galaxy (2014) and Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 (2017). The character has been retconned to be Peter Quill's grandmother.

Stan Lee made a cameo appearance as a General. The officer sitting next to him was played by Reb Brown, who played the title character in Captain America (1979) and Captain America II: Death Too Soon (1979). Lee had nothing to do with the basic creation of the title character. However, Lee began his writing career in the character's original series where he created the idea of Captain America using his shield as a throwing weapon. Furthermore, he was responsible for reviving the character in the Silver Age of Comic Books and co-wrote most of the character's stories in The Avengers and his solo stories in that period.

What's Up Next?

Next episode, we discuss "The Avengers"

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