Boxoffice.com spoke to The Wolfman director Joe Johnston about his upcoming film. Just like every other director that is attached to a comic book film and has a movie coming out, the subject turned to his Marvel Superhero project. In Johnston’s case, he’s set to direct The First Avenger: Captain America. Here’s what he had to say:
What can you tell me that people might not have already heard about Captain America?
It’s not going to be a Captain America that you expect. It’s something different. It is influenced by the comic book, but it goes off in a completely different direction. It’s the origin story of Captain America. It’s mostly period—there are modern, present-day bookends on it—but it’s basically the story of how Steve Rogers becomes Captain America. The great thing about Captain America is he’s a super hero without any super powers. Which is why this story, among the hundreds of super hero stories, appealed to me the most. He can’t fly, he can’t see through walls, he can’t do any of that stuff. He’s an every man who’s been given this amazing gift of transformation into the perfect specimen—the pinnacle of human perfection. How does that affect him? What does that mean for him emotionally and psychologically? He was this 98-pound weakling, he was this wimp, and he’s transformed instantly into this Adonis. You’d think he got everything he wanted. Well, he didn’t get everything he wanted. The rules change at that point and his life gets even more complicated and dire. For me, that’s the interesting part of the story. It’s got some great action sequences in it and some incredible stuff that we’ve never seen before. But at the heart of it, it’s a story about this kid who all he wants to do is fit in. This thing happens and he still doesn’t fit in. And he has to prove himself a hero—essentially go AWOL to save a friend. Eventually at the very end, I don’t want to give away to much, but he does fit in. But it’s the journey of getting him there that’s interesting. And it’s a lot of fun.
I for one was hoping that Captain America would be a period piece and a lot of what Johnston said really gave me some confidence that just like Iron Man with Favreau, Captain America is in good hands. The only point of concern is when he said, “It is influenced by the comic book, but it goes off in a completely different direction.” But, of course, that could mean one of a million things so I’m not going to lose any sleep over it.
Johnston also skirted around some Jurassic Park questions and you can read the full Q&A over at Boxoffice.com.