Captain America: The First Avenger

Captain America: The First Avenger is a movie now in post-production is a 2011 film based on the Marvel comics superhero, The film's release date is on July 22, 2011. It is directed by Joe Johnston and stars Chris Evans as Steve Rogers, A sickly young man who is enhanced to the peak of human perfection by an experimental serum in order to aid the United States war effort. Hugo Weaving as his arch nemesis Red Skull, Hayley Atwell as his love interst Peggy Carter and Sebastian Stan as his sidekick Bucky Barnes.

Synopsis
Based on the Marvel Comics character from World War II. A patriotic American who due to his scrawny stature has been rejected by the United States Military named Steve Rogers, volunteers to undergo a series of experiments for a US army Super Soldier program. He is successfully transformed into the greatest weapon. During the transformation process the professor in charge of the Super Soldier Program is killed by a Nazi spy, taking part of the Super Soldier Formula with him to the grave, making it impossible to recreate the experiment. Then, when a Nazi plot reveals itself Rogers must rise up and and become the First Avenger, in order to save his country. Steve Rogers becomes Captain America and he earns his way into the hearts and souls of every American, bringing hope and justice to a war-weary nation. Later, during a mission to Germany to stop his archenemy - The Red Skull, from launching rockets at the allies, Captain America sacrifices himself and winds up frozen in ice for almost six decades! Revived, Steve Rogers now must join forces with new heroes and become an Avenger of the modern age.

Cast

 * Chris Evans as Steve Rogers/Captain America
 * Hugo Weaving as Johann Schmidt/Red Skull
 * Sebastian Stan as Bucky Barnes
 * Hayley Atwell as Peggy Carter
 * Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury
 * Dominic Cooper as Howard Stark
 * Toby Jones as Arnim Zola
 * Tommy Lee Jones as Colonel Chester Phillips
 * Neal McDonough as Dum Dum Dugan
 * Stanley Tucci as Dr. Abraham Erskine
 * Richard Armitage as Heinz Kruger
 * Natalie Dormer as Private Lorraine
 * Kenneth Choi as Jim Morita
 * JJ Feild as Montgomery Falsworth/Union Jack
 * Derek Luke as Gabe Jones

Known Details
Like the comic book, on which it is based, Captain America: The First Avenger will be a period-piece set in Word War II. It will be used to help set up The Avengers, which will be released 6 weeks later. Casting for Captain America will be cast on March 1 and looking for actor age ranging from 23 to 32. Red Skull will be the primary antagonist in the film. Johnson director has stated that The Invaders will be appearing in "the entire second half" of the film. There will be three Captain America sequels and several cross-over cameos totaling up to a nine picture deal.

Director Johnston has also recently revealed to the media that there will actualy be at least two distinct versions of the Captan America costume used during the film. The first costume will be based on the more traditional 1940's comic book design as originally conceived by legendary Captain America artist, Jack Kirby, and will be worn by the hero earlier in the film; the idea here (according to Johnston)is that the military, afraid of losing their one of a kind super soldier, restrict Rogers to duty as a USO performer to avoid him being killed in the line of duty. Later, when Rogers decides to sneak away to the front lines to fight with American soldiers, he decides to adopt a more practical outfit that incorperates body armor into the design.

Production History
In April 1997, Marvel Studios was in negotiations with Mark Gordon and Gary Levinsohn to produce Captain America. In addition 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 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. In April 2005, Paramount Pictures agreed to distribute the film, as well as co-finance Captain America with Marvel. In addition Marvel Studios received $525 million from Merrill Lynch for financing on ten productions, one of them being Captain America. In February 2006, Avi Arad hoped to have a summer 2008 theatrical release date. Avi Arad approached Jon Favreau on directing the film, but Favreau eventually settled on Iron Man. In July 2006, David Self was hired to write the script, Paramount and Marvel were in search of a director. 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 Captain America: The First Avenger for a May 6, 2011 release.

It will be shot in Raleigh Studios.

According to an interview with director Joe Johnston at Fangoria, Johnston is “readying for a June start” for “Captain America: The First Avenger .” Production Weekly reports that the film will begin opened a production office at Shepperton Studios in Surrey, England for Captain America: The First Avenger with filming scheduled to begin on June 28th.

Johnson told SCI FI Wire that casting for Captain America will begin very soon in two weeks.

Captain America will wear Two Costumes in film.

Production
The film was shot in The UK and will be shot in New York City, New York.

Trivia

 * The final shortlist for the lead role consisted of Garrett Hedlund, Channing Tatum, Scott Porter, Mike Vogel, Ryan Phillippe, Sebastian Stan, Chris Evans, Wilson Bethel, John Krasinski, Michael Cassidy, Chace Crawford and Jensen Ackles. Both Kellan Lutz and Alexander Skarsgård auditioned for the lead role, while Sam Worthington and Will Smith were in early talks. The role went to Chris Evans, who has already played another Marvel superhero, Johnny Storm in Fantastic Four (2005) and Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer (2007).
 * Emily Blunt turned down the role of Peggy Carter. Other actresses considered for the role were Alice Eve and Keira Knightley.
 * Sebastian Stan was considered for the role of Captain America, but got the role of Bucky instead.
 * Jon Favreau was originally chosen by Marvel Studios to direct this film, but he chose to direct Iron Man (2008). Nick Cassavetes, was also considered to direct this film, and had been set as a director for Iron Man (2008) in December 2004.
 * Despite being "The First Avenger", it is the last solo Avenger film to be released before the team-up film, The Avengers (2012).
 * According to producer Avi Arad: "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 America. Sixty years go by, and who are we today? Are we better?"
 * Joe Johnston was chosen as the film's director for his work on the period adventure films The Rocketeer (1991), October Sky (1999) and Hidalgo (2004).
 * Louis Leterrier viewed some of the concept art for the film, and was impressed enough to offer his services, but Marvel Studios turned him down. However, his film The Incredible Hulk (2008) provides a small appearance by Captain America: a deleted scene set in the Arctic.
 * Screenwriter David Self, who wrote a draft of the script, claimed Captain America was his favorite childhood superhero: "My dad told me I could one day be Captain America."
 * Chris Evans almost turned down the role of Captain America.
 * Chris Evans was attracted to the role of Captain America by its character: "Even if it wasn't a comic book. I think the story of Steve Rogers is great. He's a great guy. Even if it was just a script about anybody, I would probably want to do it. It wasn't necessarily about the comic itself. He's a great character to play; he just happens to be a comic book character."
 * Chris Evans declined the role three times before accepting the part. After that, he had a meeting with the director and the producers who convinced him to take the role.
 * To prepare for his role as Bucky, Sebastian Stan watched many World War II films/documentaries, and drew inspiration from "Band of Brothers" (2001).
 * Stanley Tucci took the role of Dr. Reinstein because the role enabled him to use a German accent, which he always wanted to do.
 * The film was originally meant to be a standalone film, but after Joss Whedon was hired to direct The Avengers (2012) he was given a copy of the film's script and made a few rewrites to tie it in to the Marvel Cinematic Universe: "I just got to make some character connections. The structure of the thing was really tight and I loved it, but there were a couple of opportunities to find his voice a little bit - and some of the other characters - and make the connections so that you understood exactly why he wanted to be who he wanted to be. And progressing through the script to flesh it out a little bit."
 * To prepare for her role as Peggy Carter, Hayley Atwell trained six days a week.
 * Joe Simon, who created the "Captain America" comic in 1941 (before Stan Lee revived it in 1964), was approached to make a cameo appearance in the film.
 * Hugo Weaving based the Red Skull's accent on renowned German filmmakers Werner Herzog and Klaus Maria Brandauer.
 * The film was originally going to be film in Manhattan Beach, California but moved it to London, England due of the tax breaks to films costing over $75 million.
 * Captain America was put on hold during the 2007–2008 Writers Guild of America strike.
 * Tommy Lee Jones who plays Colonel Phillips in this film, also appeared as Two-Face/Harvey Dent in Batman Forever (1995). Both Captain America and Batman faced off in the Marvel vs. DC crossover in 1996.
 * Originally cameo appearances were planned in the film for James Logan Howlett (Wolverine) and Erik Lensherr (Magneto), who were present during World War II (Logan was a soldier and Lensherr was a prisoner of war). These cameos were scrapped due to rights issues.
 * Originally cameo appearances were planned in the film for Namor the Sub-Mariner, the Prince of Atlantis, but this was scrapped.
 * This is the fifth live-action adaptation of the superhero. The first was the serial, Captain America (1944); the second was the TV movie Captain America (1979) and its sequel, Captain America II: Death Too Soon (1979), and the fourth was the theatrical film Captain America (1990).
 * Chris Evans fifth comic book movie after the two Fantastic Four movies, The Losers (2010) and Scott Pilgrim vs. the World (2010).
 * The Red Skull searches for a powerful artifact, the Cosmic Cube. In Transformers (2007), Hugo Weaving voiced the villain Megatron, who also searched for a similar cosmic cube-shaped relic (the AllSpark).
 * Hayley Atwell based her performance as Peggy Carter on Ginger Rogers: "She can do everything Captain America can do, but backwards and in high heels."
 * Despite being "The First Avenger", it is the last solo Avenger film to be released before the team-up film, The Avengers (2012).
 * The final Paramount Pictures film produced with Marvel Studios. Disney bought the rights to The Avengers (2012) and Iron Man 3 (2013).
 * Joe Simon, who created the "Captain America" comic in 1941 (before Stan Lee revived it in 1964), was approached to make a cameo appearance in the film.

Promotion
In April 2007, Sega signed to produce a video game. Originally hoping for a summer 2008 release, they are now willing to wait longer for Captain America to be created.

Crossovers

 * In August 2006, Zak Penn was hired to write the script for an Avengers film. Iron Man director Jon Favreau said he would like to direct the film, which would be a crossover to fictional universes in other upcoming Marvel films such as Captain America, Iron Man, Thor, and The Incredible Hulk. He also explained that Marvel has told him that "they're pretty clear on wanting to do it with the actors who’ve established the roles or to not do it at all. I think it’s a good idea if you use the characters established in the other franchises that then come together for an event." Following the success of Favreau's film, Marvel announced The Avengers's July 2011 release date.
 * In The Incredible Hulk, General Ross mentions there was a World War II program that created a super soldier formula to Emil Blonsky, who leaps at this chance to defeat the Hulk. Viewers see this as a nod to Captain America.
 * A similiar-looking Captain America-type shield can be seen in Iron Man during the scene in which Pepper Potts discovers Tony Stark's secret identity while he is attempting to remove his power suit.

Videos
Video:Captain America: The First Avenger TV Spot 1 (OFFICIAL)|Captain America: The First Avenger Super Bowl TV Spot Video:Captain America: The First Avenger - Trailer|Captain America: The First Avenger - Trailer