It's not the upcoming Captain America movie, but it's the next best thing...

There has not been much to report on the Captain America movie front in the last while, except for the always to be expected speculation about possible casting choices and likely plot points for the upcoming Marvel film. I expect that we won't hear anything at all concrete on the project until late December at the earliest or more likely early in the New Year, based on what was said by Marvel Entertainment reps at this year's San Diego Comicon back in July. However, one interesting tidbit about the Captain America movie project that is worth noting is that Joe Quesada, the Editor-In-chief at Marvel, recently mentioned on Twitter that he is now sitting in on script meetings for the movie which means that an important creative part of the development process appears to be happening right now. His exact words:

"Did I forget to mention an AMAZING Cap script meeting? Actually I did. I work here and these movies can't come out fast enough for me."

Now just because we cannot discuss any confirmed casting for the future Captain America movie, thsat doesn't mean that we cannot discuss any very, very likely casting for another movie that Captain America will feature prominently in. The upcoming Avengers movie from Marvel will pretty much be featuring a cast of actors already established in their roles from previous Marvel features. With this in mind, we can start to look at the casting for the future Marvel Avengers movie with an eye towards which actors the future Captain America will be co-starring with. (Sure, it isn't the Cap movie but it is the next best thing, right?)

Based on the confirmed casting for future Marvel movies, here is some of what we know will be the likely casting for Avengers - unless there should be any actors that drop out of the project beforehand, or are replaced by the studio (Ala Terrence Howard being replaced in the Iron Man sequel):

Scarlett Johansson ... Natasha Romanoff / Black Widow

Chris Hemsworth ... Thor

Robert Downey Jr. ... Tony Stark / Iron Man

Samuel L. Jackson ... Nick Fury

Don Cheadle ... Col. James 'Rhodey' Rhodes / War Machine
(as a possible minor or supporting character)

Tom Hiddleston ... Loki


These are the most likely 'locks' on appearing in the project; below are a couple that are nowhere near being confirmed but were heavily hinted at last Summer by Marvel execs:

Edward Norton ... Bruce Banner (there were hints at this from interviews during the San Diego con, if I recall correctly)

Lou Ferrigno ... The Incredible Hulk (voiceover; this is probably as much a sentimental idea being thrown about as much as anything)

Well, there you go: something to mull over and think about until we get closer to hearing some concrete updates on this highly-anticipated and much talked-about Marvel movie project.

Save some $$ on your Cap-related merchandise before the future Captain America movie arrives...

Save some money while shopping for Captain America...

I realize that this here site is supposed to br dedicated to the upcoming Captain America movie, and that there is as of yet no official Captain America movie merchandise available for purchase by eager super hero movie fans, but I am writing this post on the assumption that many of you who have ended up here did so because you are big Cap fans, right? As such, I am also assuming that maybe once in a while you get the hankering to purchase Captain America related merchandise, whether it be a Captain America action figure or a Captain America t shirt or Captain America poster. Well, do'ya?

Anyway, I am just bringing this up because I recently was made aware of a website that makes it possible for you to actually get some cash back while shopping for the above-mentioned kind of super hero swag.

The site is called Mr. Rebates and basically, it allows you to get some money back in the form of a cash back rebate just by shopping from a long list of online retailers; you just sign up (for free, of course), browse their list of retailers to see if any of them are ones that you are interested in or by category or product to see if they have what you want available at any of their listed retailers at a what you consider a decent price. After that you just go ahead and make your purchase and the rebate gets credited to your account. The minimum amount that you need to earn through the Mr Rebates site before you can cash out is $10, not too hard to reach. The payout options include cheque by mail and paypal so they have a few options available and either one only takes a few business days to process. they have afew big names on their lists, such as Toys R Us, Sears, and Wal Mart, so there are some decent choices available as well as some decent discount coupons. To be honest, I would not have even considered posting about this on here except that when i decided to fool around on the site and do a search for "Captain America" in their merchandise search I was floored by the number of results that I got. Below is just a sampling of what I found for sale through their online retail partners - many of which were at a discounted price and all of it offered with a cash back rebate value of some kind:

Captain America magazines
Captain America graphic novels
Captain America T shirts/Tee shirts
Captain America Halloween costumes for both children and adults, as well as Cap boot covers and a Captain America shield accessory for any Cap costume (!)
Captain America ... EDT!! (the more masculine name for Eau De Toilet spray, and just in case you don't believe me on this one I have the picture of it included right below)
Captain America action figures, bobble-heads and statues, as well as an authentic Captain America Secret Wars series action figure - still in its vintage 1984 packaging! the weird thing here is that it is Toys R Us that is offering this baby for sale on their website...

Okay, I could go on but i think you get the idea. If you think that you might be in the market for any Captain America related swag before the actual movie related stuff hits the markets and before the buzz for the movie gets to the point where current Cap stuff starts to disapear from store shelves, maybe you should give Mr. Rebates a look-see.

Why I need the future Captain America movie to be a piece of Superhero movie art.

As an Iconic comic book character, Captain America does not have a very impressive history on the silver screen. Hopefully this is a losing streak that will soon be over...

By now it must be pretty obvious to anyone who ends up on this site that I am somewhat excited about the prospects for the future Captain America movie from Marvel entertainment ( and I guess now also from Disney?), The Last Avenger: Captain America. What might not be so obvious is how I feel about the history of the good Captain in both the movies and on television. You can check out my past posts on earlier portrayals of Captain America to get some idea of what has come before. ( there are several of them, so feel free to just browse through my archives, lol ) I believe that several of these are now available as Captain America DVD retail copies.The only area of Captain America on screen that I may have neglected so far would be the 1960's cartoon portrayal of the character, which was a cartoon series dedicated solely to the character as opposed to the cameos that he may have received over the last few years on other characters features or series or even on team-based animated features, such as the Ultimates animated movie. Unfortunately, as with both the 1960's Hulk cartoons and Iron Man cartoons from the same the production company, the 60's Captain America cartoon series seemed to come off as a poor relation to the much more entertaining Spiderman cartoons of the same time period. To see for yourself what I am taliking about, I have included below a sample from the opening credits of the 1960's Cap cartoon series. Enjoy...





Also rather regrettable is the fact that in his earlier Big Screen incarnations, Captain America has never really been portrayed in any efforts that could be described as being overly entertaining or enjoyable without the consumption of copious amounts of alcoholic beverages. True, the 1940's portrayal of such characters as Batman and Superman were no better than the portrayal of Captain America on film, but at least those other two aforementioned icons would (much) later receive very impressive silver screen treatments, Captain America, unfortunately, would not. You have probably seen scenes from the 1990 Captain America movie somewhere online by now, and if not again, you can find the original trailer in the archives here, but for reasons other than curiosity there is not really much of a reason to check it out. I guess what I am getting at in my own roundabout way, is that I personally am really hoping that the upcoming Captain America movie is a smash hit and artistic success loved by comicbook fans all over, much the way the recent Iron Man movie was, not just for the implications that would carry for the success of the future Marvel studios projects that would follow, but equally so that us Cap fans could finally point at something and say, 'see, you really can make a good Captain America movie!' I am not going to turn this post into a debate of any kind over the merits of Joe Johnston as the choice for the movie's director, or express my feelings on the various names being thrown about for who would be the best choice for the role of the Captain and Steve Rogers, since this is being adequately covered on numerous other sites. Besides, in a few months we should be hearing some casting announcements which will make most of these discussions moot anyway.

A decent new Captain America movie? I guess that we will all have a couple of years to wait and see if such a dream can come true...

A cool Captain America Fan teaser trailer and a tip of the cowl to two very impressive Captain America-related blogs!

I have to admit, that since the mid-Summer San Diego Comicon state-of-the-union regarding the future Captain America movie from Marvel, I have been feeling somewhat more positive about the potential for this to be a well-made film. I am now more confident that we will eventually end up with The First Avenger: Captain America being a successful super hero period piece - something that is not always an easy feat. Until San Diego, I was concerned that we would see Captain America made as a modern day story with little more than a glance back to his WWII roots, something I would have found very, very disappointing without the proper back story already put in place in a movie. Another thing that has been fun to follow is the apparant increase in fan buzz over the upcoming Captain America movie. I have noticed no slowing to the inquiries on Google and other search engines from comic and movie fans wanting to know any avaiable details about the Marvel project. And of course there are the growing number of fan made faux Captain America movie posters and Captain America movie trailers - even the ones that consist of no more than graphics from the latest Marvel Universe video games, lol. Before I forget, I wanted to spotlight one particular fan made trailer that I thought aspects of were pretty well done; Below you will find the Captain America teaser trailer that was put together by a young student filmmaker, Raleigh Latham, who was only 21 at the time when he and some of his friends made this. Nicely done, Raleigh.





With the official Cap movie a good two years away, I expect to see a lot more such efforts showing up on the internet and that can only help to raise the profile of this project and help to fuel the buzz that is sure to grow around this future Marvel movie project.

I also wanted to give a tip of the hat to two different websites out there that frankly put my efforts to shame. Both of these sites clearly show a very strong appreciation for the Captain America character and deserve to be noticed by Captain America fans everywhere.

The first site is called Let's Rap With Cap, and is pretty much a no hold's barred look at all things Captain America. I especially appreciate the choice of logo for the site because of my own fond memories of the Captain America comic it borrows from.(John Byrne's run on the Cap comicbook was classic) At the time of my writing this, the site's creator, Rick, was having a double celebration of both his Birthday and one of his other blogs, Mail It To Team Up. (happy double-birthday, Rick!) He has even created a cool video to go along with an oldies-sounding Captain America theme song! I included it below for your viewing pleasure - but still make sure to visit his site!






The other site I was referring to is called the Captain Ameriblog, and apart from the very nifty site name, it offers (what I believe to be) a daily fix of something Captain America related; at the time I am writing this the site's creator, Jon K, was celebrating the Birthday of Jack "King" Kirby, one of the original creative forces behind Captain America and many other classic comicbook characters. If you are looking for anything Captain America related, odds are it has been or soon will be featyred by this site. I especially got a kick out of the recent pictures posted on there of an old Captain America Halloween costume, in part because I remember having a Batman costume made by the same manufacturuer when I was lil' kid! Ah, good times...




Well done, Jon. This is another site that definitely deserves some serious browsing time from comicbook fans. Well that about does it for me: I'm off now to go and enjoy me a couple of very cool Cap sites...

Finally, a (much needed) Captain America movie update from the San Diego Comicon!

Recently, I have been starting to wonder whether it is maybe, just maybe possible that the future Captain America movie from Marvel is being passed-by in the buzz department, or lost in the shuffle (so to speak) by Marvel in their efforts to promote the heck out of all of their other sundry comic-based projects; I understand that Iron Man 2 is a buzz factory all on its lonesome so it cannot help but get a lot of (deserved) attention, and I also understand that other films in production such as Thor - which probably will need all of the buzz it can get early on - are being helped along by Marvel Entertainment's promotion department (and good for them since they have actually had casting news to announce recently), it just really felt like Cap fans were being starved for any relevant info or scoops on the upcoming movie project. Being a rational, level-headed comicbook fan I am quite aware that it will be quite some time before we are privy to anything resembling an official movie trailer for a new Captain America movie, but I am looking beyond any desire for a Captain America movie trailer, I am simply referring to what has felt like a serious lack of Captaih America movie news (or even any heavily substantiated rumours!) regarding the Captain america movie 2011 cast. Of course, the studio and the director have to be actively working on the project before we can be told any news of the possible cast for the Cap movie. Well it looks like the annual late July comicbook and movie (heck, really I should just use the word 'entertainment') Mecca that is the San Diego Comicon has addressed practically all of those concerns for me and other fans.

Over the weekend, Kevin Feige of Marvel Entertainment was on a Marvel movie panel to answer questions from both attendees and the Media that was in attendance. He tried his best to clear up some of the questions surrounding the First Avenger: Captain America. Regarding how they hope to develope the character of Cap's alter-ego, Steve Rogers:

"Captain America is really the story of Steve Rogers, like Peter Parker, like Bruce Banner, like Tony Stark. By the way, Tony Stark is about as jingoistic a guy there is. He’s always talking about America, what’s right for America, making weapons to go to war with the rest of the world with and [Iron Man] did extremely well overseas because his story was engaging. This movie is Steve Rogers’ origin story, and I think it is our burden to make Steve Rogers as appealing as any of our other characters ... he’s not just the perfect boy scout who follows order every time. He has ideals he wants to live up to." (courtesy of Hollywood.com)

About how the World war II storyline will be approached and whether or not other familiar supporting characters from the comic or other period Marvel characters such as the Invaders will make the transition to the screen:

“Also, setting it in World War II — the Marvel version of World War II — I think is gonna open it up in another big way ... What’s funny is it will actually end up being, I think, our most diverse and our most international film, in terms of the content of the movies itself. It takes place overseas much more than any of our other films do. In terms of the cast, there’s a group that Steve works with that will have an opportunity for many more international actors than any of our other films. We are gonna explore those aspects of World War II that made Cap special: the Super Soldier program, Red Skull, Hydra, all of those things that exist in the Marvel version of it. As you know if you read the comic books, the origin of Captain America is really the origin of the Marvel universe ... it’s about that time in history when the idea of the superhero began to emerge.” Again, courtesy of Hollywood.com)

Well this is definitely something interesting to hear: before this, I have to admit that I never really gave much thought to any potential for an appearance by characters such as the original Invaders supergroup. That could be a really neat thing to fit into the movie. What Feige also covered was the lack of casting announcements so far; He suggested that there would be no casting news until after the movie's director Joe Johnston joins the production full-time this October. After then we can expect to see things start to move. The writing team is supposedly about halfway through the script and the movie itself is expected to start production by June of next year (2010). I know that it sounds like a long ways away, but before you know it, internet fanboys everywhere will be heralding the beginning of filming and trying to find leaked pictures from the film sets...

Captain America Posters: The Sentinel of Liberty on display.

The aim of this site is to help keep Captain America fans informed about the status of the upcoming Captain America movie, The First Avenger: Captain America. The reality is that I am just a Cap fan helping to put information out there for other Cap fans. As a fan of comic book-based movies in general, one of the things I get a kick out of are comic book movie posters and movie trailers in general, and fan-made movie posters and movie trailers in particular. To be honest, I have not yet seen any fan trailers that really piqued my interest but I have seen a few fan-made Captain America movie posters that I think are actually quite well done. I have collected here a few poster images from past Captain America movie efforts, as well as what I consider to be two of the better fan-made posters around (other than the one already on display in the upper-right hand corner of this site's home page) to share with you (along with a couple of odds and ends) - hopefully for your enjoyment, lol.

1940's Captain America Movie Serials

These two posters are lobby-card style promo sheets for the earliest Captain America movie efforts from the 1940's. If you want to see the original trailer for the early serial, you can find it on my website by visiting the early Captain America trailer page.

Captain America movie (1990-1992)

This is the official theatrical poster for the last Captain America feature film effort. Although it was advertised on the poster as a Spring 1990 release, various production delays saw the movie held back from release until 1992, at which point it only saw a limited theatrical release in some US markets and in Europe. The film was eventually released onto the video market and to cable television in the Fall of 1992.

The First Avenger: Captain America (fan-made poster)

This is probably my favourite of the fan-made movie posters; I am not sure if the image is a reworking of some other movie poster, such as Saving Private Ryan, or other war film, but it is very stark and effective in its design.

The First Avenger: Captain America (fan-made poster)

This is the other fan poster that I think really works well; it reminds me of a recent cover to the current Captain America comic series. Simple, yet effective.

Anti-drug Awareness poster (1989)

This is an anti-drugs program awareness poster released in conjunction with the FBI back in 1989. Very standard, it's nothing too exciting to be sure, but I just included it here more for it's retro-kitsch value.

Message/Moral poster

This one is intriguing to me because I first assumed that it was more or less mocking the concept behind Captain America standing up for the rights and liberties of the individual in society, but after further thought I realized that I am not sure if it is mocking or actually giving props to someone shown to be standing up for these principles. Either way I thought it was worth including it here with these other Captain America posters for your own evaluation.

Captain America T Shirts: A look at Cap on cloth.

The primary goal of this here lil' website is to keep comic book fans informed of any progress or developments in the upcoming Captain America movie from Marvel Entertainment. However, that does not mean that I am only allowed to obsess on the future movie and nothing else; one such example of me veering away from the movie and looking at something else is the subject of this here post. I would like to share with you some interesting results from my trip around the interweb which I undertook because I was curious to see what different pieces of Captain America-related clothing were out there.

Of course most of what I found out there were short sleeved Captain America t shirts, but not quite everything. (of course it is the middle of Summer, so that is to be expected, I suppose) So without further ado I present to you a collection of images I like to call: Captain America on cloth...

1. Captain America Flag t shirt (traditional)



This is an example of a more traditional Cap shirt; it displays the front flag image from Captain America's costume in the four-color style found in the comic medium.


2. Captain America flag t shirt (modern)



This shirt sports a more realistic or modern-looking depiction of the fron t of the costume, with darker colors and also includes faux muscular details in the design.


3. Captain america's shield t shirt



With this shirt we have a good example of the shield image that has been a popular logo choice at various times in the past and even now.


4. Captain America for President t shirt


This one is interesting. I assume that the idea behind this shirt was to cash in on the buzz that was present during the last US Election, however I get a kick out of this shirt more because it is using an image of Cap from the 1980's John Byrne run on Captain America, which many fans of the book consider to be a modern highpoint of the series.


5. Civil War-themed shirt



As any recent readers of Marvel comics would know, the events depicted in Marvel's Civil War series were the catalyst behind the recent death of the Steve Rogers/Captain America. this shirt is effective in highlighting Cap above all of the other characters depicted with the selective use of color.


6. retro image Captain America long sleeve shirt





See, I told you that not all of the shirts I found were short sleeve t shirts. This one is cool in that it sports a very retro image of Captain America probably hearkening back to the 1960's era character. The grey sweat-shirt look of the shirt also gives it a bit of a retro feel, too.

As you can see, there are plenty of Captain America shirts to choose from when the big day comes and you find yourself trying to choose something special to wear to that first day screening of The First Avenger: Captain America, in 2011...

**EXTRA! EXTRA!**
I have had a few people asking  me where thwey can go to buy the shirts seen in this post; At thbis time, I am recommending people check out online retailers like superherostuff.com to find a decent selection of Captain America shirts.  Happy hunting!

A Captain America movie set in WW II...

I was recently musing on the possibilities for the upcoming Captain America Movie from Marvel Entertainment; it sounds as though the powers that be want to see the film set during World War II. I personally have no problems with this idea, even if there is no follow up to modern day by the end of the film. As a comicbook fan I appreciate the idea of being faithful to the Captain America origin story, which of course would necessitate the film being a period piece. I think that this is an interesting gamble for Marvel: a period piece might not be as successful for Marvel as something set in modern day and Marvel will really need this film to be asuccess as it will be the lead in for their subsequent film project, the avengers Movie.

I also believe that on at least an almost subversive level that Marvel has already begun the campaign to make comic readers more accepting of or open to the idea of a WWII Captain America movie; over the last year, I have noticed a steady stream of Captain America comics being released (in both mini-series and one shot format) that have storylines set in WWII or at least devote a large portion of the storyline to WWII flashbacks. I guess with the original Cap ( AKA Steve Rogers) recently deceased any new stories featuring that incarnation of the character must heavily reference the past. Oh, and yes, I am saying all this mostly tongue-in-cheek. Just watch the new comic racks over the next six months to a year and see for yourself if I am off base with this theory or not.