Film Festival

Director Joe Johnston confirms the Red Skull will be the main villain in 'Captain America'

Plus more details on the next big Marvel movie from director Joe Johnston

Red Skull set to battle 'Captain America' in 2012

If this scene is not in the new "Captain America" film by Joe Johnston, I shall promptly take to the internet and declare the entire endeavor a failure.  Be warned, Marvel.  Be warned.

Credit: Marvel Comics

Last night, I saw Joe Johnston's new take on "The Wolfman," and then today, I sat down for chats with Johnston, Emily Blunt, and the uber-cool Hugo Weaving.  Before the event, Universal wisely asked outlets to try to actually focus on "The Wolfman" instead of using all of their interview time pumping the talent like they are slot machines designed to spit out "scoops."

It's tough, because if I don't ask anything about the next films from these people, then we lose because all the sites that do that will run 50 headlines, regardless of how much new information they get.  If I do give in and ask those questions, then I'm doing exactly what I don't like.

The balance, I believe, is to try to focus on the work until the wrap-up, when a few quick questions about what's next seem conversational and logical, and today, when we reached minute 13 of our 15 minute talk, I finally worked my way around to the subject of his next film, "Captain America."

Here's our conversation about it:

Drew:  So I know you're prepping "Captain America" right now...

Joe Johnston:  Yes.

Drew:  ... and I know you've said that it's largely period.  Does that mean we're going to see some of the other Silver Age characters in the film?

Joe:  Well, we will see the Captain America villain, the main villain, the Red Skull.  But it's the origin story.  It's how he became Captain America in World War II.  There are present-day bookends, but it's really... it's his origin story.  And we decided you only get one shot at telling an origin story, so you might as well tell it first.

Drew:  It seems exciting that you're part of this larger building block plan that Marvel has, ultimately leading towards "The Avengers."  Is there a different pressure on you, knowing they have that end goal in mind?

Joe:  Well, I don't put any pressure on myself because of that.  It's like any other project... you read the script, you decide how you're going to do it, you tell the best possible story.  Then they'll take "The First Avenger" story and incorporate it into the bigger franchise, you know?  I'm not worried about that.  We have a great story and a great script, and we have the resources to do it right.  I think it's going to be a lot of fun.  We're shooting in the UK because most of the story takes place in Europe.  We're casting now, and then we start shooting in June.

Drew:  Wow.  Have you found him yet?

Joe:  (laughs)  Not yet.

There are plenty of other "Captain America" updates that have gone up this afternoon, all from the press conference, so you can check out Collider for a little bit more information on the film, and you should definitely look back at our own chat with Kevin Feige about whether or not you'll see The Invaders in one or more of these upcoming films.

With the timetable they're on, I expect we'll start to hear a flood of "The First Avenger: Captain America" news soon, and we'll have that here for you at HitFix as it breaks.  I'll also have more on "The Wolfman" for you next week, including my review of the long-delayed horror update.

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  • Th_hulkav_talkback_profile

    John-Locke

    WANK! Hilarious Drew, is that really from a comic?

    I want to see Cap throwing Wanks at the Red Skulls face

    actually no I don't

    February 6, 2010 at 11:19PM EST Reply to Comment
  • Default-avatar

    Rick

    You misspelled "villain" in your headline...

    February 7, 2010 at 12:41AM EST Reply to Comment
    • Gizmo_bigger_talkback_profile

      dan Fixed

      February 7, 2010 at 12:50AM EST
  • Default-avatar

    briguyx

    We can only hope that this movie follows the template set by Fabian Nicieza and Kevin Maguire's Captain America: Sentinel of Liberty miniseries (as well as the original Simon/Kirby work of course). Hopefully Mr. Johnson and the writers read this series in preparation!

    February 7, 2010 at 1:31AM EST Reply to Comment


  • Great news, Johnston made one of the greatest comic book movies ever, The Rocketeer. If it's half as good as that then we're in for a treat.

    February 7, 2010 at 9:58AM EST Reply to Comment
    • Dante01

      warblecroaker exactly!

      February 7, 2010 at 1:25PM EST
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    David B

    Drew, there's no harm in having asked Johnston about Captain America - everyone else did and it's now become standard practice, even though it's not the film that is actually being promoted! Good job on getting the villain confirmed.
    http://blogs.coventrytelegraph.net/thegeekfiles/

    February 7, 2010 at 11:42AM EST Reply to Comment
Drew McWeeny

About This Blog

Los Angeles has changed since 1990, and Drew McWeeny, all-around Chauncey Gardner of movie fandom, has seen it all as an industry insider and screenwriter who wrote for 12 years as "Moriarty" for Ain't It Cool News.

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