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...