Joe Johnston to Direct Captain America
Joe Johnston has signed on to direct Marvel Studios‘ “First Avenger: Captain America.”
Johnston is currently directing “The Wolfman,” which hits theaters on April 3. He is developing “The Death and Life of Charlie St. Cloud.” Johnston previously directed “October Sky“, “Jumanji“, “Jurassic Park III“, “The Rocketeer and Honey“, “I Shrunk the Kids“. Johnston won an Academy Award in 1982 for Best Visual Effects for “Raiders of the Lost Ark”. He now joins the ranks of Jon Favreau, Louis Leterrier, and Kenneth Branagh as Marvel’s dream team of directors set to turn bring the real Marvel universe to life in a series of films that will eventually converge in The Avengers in 2011.
The superhero blockbuster, based on a character created in 1941 by Jack Kirby and Joe Simon, focuses on a weak man called Steve Rogers who is injected with an experimental serum which transforms him into a muscular superhero.
Captain America will be a World War II-set movie, and the character will appear in the modern day-set Avengers. No writers are on board but the studio expects to hire one shortly. Continue Reading…
Disney and Stan Lee set 3 projects
Walt Disney Pictures and Stan Lee have set up a trio of projects: ‘Nick Ratchet,’ ‘Blaze‘ and ‘Tigress‘.
The projects are all based on stories by Lee.
Lee has co-created a number of iconic comicbook characters that have spawned feature films including Spider-Man, the Fantastic Four, the X-Men, Iron Man, the Hulk and Daredevil.
“Nick Ratchet,” “Blaze” and “Tigress” will feature new characters that have never appeared in Lee’s comicbooks and are being created to debut on the bigscreen first rather than in print.
“Nick Ratchet” will be directed by Richard LaGravenese (”P.S. I Love You”) from a screenplay he is writing. Larry Jacobson and Sonny Grosso are in talks to produce.
“Blaze” is being penned by Gary Goldman (”Next”).
“Tigress” is being written by newcomer Zoe Green. State Street Pictures’ Robert Teitel and George Tillman will produce. Film is not the same as a previously announced project titled “Tigress” that Lee is developing with Michelle Rodriguez attached to star. That project is based on a “Conan the Barbarian” villainess.
The studio is keeping plot details for all three projects under wraps.
“You have no idea how frustrating that is for me, because I love these characters so much and want to talk about them,” Lee said.
He said “it’s not unlikely” that the projects will eventually generate comicbooks. “You either have a great comicbook and it becomes a great movie. Or you have a great movie that becomes a great comicbook,” he added. “These things have a natural progression.”
