Captain America

[Cabral_]

Tommy Lee Jones as Spiderman? That'd be awesome.

[GhostMachine]

If Will Smith does play Captain America, then I demand that they cast Brad Pitt as the lead if they do a Black Panther movie and Don Cheadle with a Jamaican accent as Guardian, Batista as Puck and Jennifer Lopez as Aurora if they do an Alpha Flight one.

[livid]

All of this is and well and good if you're thinking the original 1940's Captain America.

However, wasn't there talk that with this movie that they were going to modernize it? So it wouldn't necessarily be something that was taking place 60 years ago.

Just saying, because I'm not sure it's a good idea either. I mean, he has Hancock and everything.

Still, I just hope they don't cast Titan from American Gladiators.

[apsham]

There's no reason for them to fuck with the backstory me thinks, they wouldn't in the first place anyways... at least I surely hope to God with the excellent way they've been doing their movies recently. Even with the Ultimates they never really fucked with the fact that Steve Rogers = skinny man = super soldier = frozen = today.

[NobBe Nobbs]

Who gives a shit?

Comic-book fuckheads who are secretly a little racist, that's who.

[probablyoliver]

who said anything about secret?

I'm voting we lynch will smith.

[GhostMachine]

Who gives a shit?

Comic-book fuckheads who are secretly a little racist, that's who.

No. People who think its fucked up casting. It *might* work if you modernize his origin and have him created today or the product of a more recent conflict, but that wouldn't really be Cap.

A black man as a Captain America who was created in the 1940s would be a load of bs, and even if they did go with an African-American, Will Smith is all wrong for the part, as well as too old.

A black 1940's Cap makes about as much sense as having a caucasian Black Panther based out of Wakanda would.

Hell, make him a second, third or fourth generation Captain America created to replace the missing original, and then have the original show up eventually. That *might* work...as long as Will doesn't hog the screen time once the real Cap shows up and real Cap is the one used in the eventual Avengers movie, that is.

I like Will Smith. Hell, the only movie of his I refuse to watch is I Am Legend, and that's because they totally changed the ending from the original source material so that it undermines the original. But he's dead to me if he plays Captain America and its not as a replacement Cap who gets pushed aside when the real Cap shows up. Cap is my favorite Marvel hero, and I want to see a decent Captain America movie to make up for that piece of shit Golan-Goblus flick from the 90s that had Cap in spandex (he doesn't friggin' wear spandex - his shirt is supposed to be cloth covered chainmail) and the ears molded on the mask and an ITALIAN Red Skull.

Edited September 8, 2008 by GhostMachine

[Ananas]

I love that you're all pushing for accurate historical context in a movie about an alternate universe where people have super powers. I mean, there are perfectly logical arguments for why Will Smith doesn't really fit the Captain America mold (one of them being his penchant for playing super-sarcastic leads), but race really isn't one of them.

And on that note, the story is based on a 15 word quote from a different actor being interviewed for a different movie. When you consider the nature of development on any film (much less a big budget action feature with more on the line), the odds of this coming to fruition are pretty long.

[Gabriel]

See, what apsham said, that's exactly it. What is amazing to me, is how Captain America stood for everything the United States was in the 1940's, and what he thought they were fighting for. Fast forward to present day, and while he still believes in the red, white and blue, he's constantly in these situations where he's seeing things that his country has done, or seeing how his country handles things, that he really just cannot agree with.

There's no need to "modernize". He started in World War II, was frozen, and re-awoken in modern times. That's as modern as it needs to be.

Edited September 8, 2008 by Gabriel

[GhostMachine]

I'd also like to mention that Leonardo DiCaprio and Matthew McConaughey have been mentioned in the past as possible castings for Cap. McConaughey is too old for the role and there are a LOT of reasons why DiCaprio would be wrong for the part.

[apsham]

It's not that we're pushing for accurate history here, I mean the fucking original Human Torch fucked up Hitler's shit. And that's the way that I would put it in the movie. We're talking about MARVEL's history. I think people are sick and tired of seeing shit done where something is changed just because it can be. Steve Rogers the way he was is perfect. Frozen during WW2 and brought back, you can't get any better than that. You can bring him back at ANY time because of that, there's no REASON to update him. I mean other heroes? You could say yeah, based off age or other issues. Nooo.... it's perfect the way it is. The best thing about Cap is the way that he was a dude from the 1940s seeing the world the way that it is today.

[zero]

Marvel wouldn't do something THAT stupid.

Guarantee a $100 million opening? Yeah, they're real fucking morons if they go this route.

I'm kinda disturbed by the thinly veiled racism in this thread. Saying it would be like casting a white guy for the Black Panther? Really? Except the whole point of the Black Panther is that he's a black superhero... there's nothing about Captain America that says "white," unless you think that America is only America when it's White America, some of you guys are talking like it's Captain Nazi Germany. And historically, I think it would make sense. It's an ugly part of our history, but military experiments on black men were not uncommon in those days, so it could certainly work as an origin story.

All that said, Will Smith would be a terrible pick for Captain America. Not because he's black, but because he's Will Smith.

[livid]

I'd also like to mention that Leonardo DiCaprio and Matthew McConaughey have been mentioned in the past as possible castings for Cap. McConaughey is too old for the role and there are a LOT of reasons why DiCaprio would be wrong for the part.

As well as Pitt, actually. But with him doing Inglorious Bastards, his schedule may be too tight, though that's supposedly going to be a fairly quick shoot.

It's too bad that Chris Evans is already in the Fantastic 4 because I think he would make a fairly good Captain America.

[GhostMachine]

Marvel wouldn't do something THAT stupid.

Guarantee a $100 million opening? Yeah, they're real fucking morons if they go this route.

I'm kinda disturbed by the thinly veiled racism in this thread. Saying it would be like casting a white guy for the Black Panther? Really? Except the whole point of the Black Panther is that he's a black superhero... there's nothing about Captain America that says "white," unless you think that America is only America when it's White America, some of you guys are talking like it's Captain Nazi Germany. And historically, I think it would make sense. It's an ugly part of our history, but military experiments on black men were not uncommon in those days, so it could certainly work as an origin story.

All that said, Will Smith would be a terrible pick for Captain America. Not because he's black, but because he's Will Smith.

That would basically be using Isaiah Bradley's origin for Captain America's.

I'd also like to mention that Leonardo DiCaprio and Matthew McConaughey have been mentioned in the past as possible castings for Cap. McConaughey is too old for the role and there are a LOT of reasons why DiCaprio would be wrong for the part.

As well as Pitt, actually. But with him doing Inglorious Bastards, his schedule may be too tight, though that's supposedly going to be a fairly quick shoot.

It's too bad that Chris Evans is already in the Fantastic 4 because I think he would make a fairly good Captain America.

I forgot about Pitt.

Wesley Snipes was apparently in negotiations to play T'Challa (and possibly even produce or direct the movie) after he had already done the first Blade movie. So I don't see why Chris Evans playing Cap would be a problem, as long as they don't do a cross-over with the FF....

[apsham]

Marvel wouldn't do something THAT stupid.

Guarantee a $100 million opening? Yeah, they're real fucking morons if they go this route.

I'm kinda disturbed by the thinly veiled racism in this thread. Saying it would be like casting a white guy for the Black Panther? Really? Except the whole point of the Black Panther is that he's a black superhero... there's nothing about Captain America that says "white," unless you think that America is only America when it's White America, some of you guys are talking like it's Captain Nazi Germany. And historically, I think it would make sense. It's an ugly part of our history, but military experiments on black men were not uncommon in those days, so it could certainly work as an origin story.

All that said, Will Smith would be a terrible pick for Captain America. Not because he's black, but because he's Will Smith.

Going on what I have been saying and arguing for and living on the fundamental idea that Captain America is going to be the WW2 supersoldier, which by all accounts he most likely WILL be.

Do you really think that a black man would've been chosen to be the first super soldier? Even in the Marvel world? Marvel's history still has a very true sense of the way that the world was during the time periods that the characters would've came from. Everyone has been updated to some extent, Cap hasn't really. I'm not saying there weren't black soldier, or that it's stupid for a black guy to be chosen. I'm just saying it wouldn't happen, so it doesn't make sense to happen.

[RoyWill Rumble]

They're not modernizing the story. Will Smith would be a terrible fucking choice for Captain America, and it's not because he's 'urban' or any of that shit.

Holy Christ.

[ROC]

I think this just shows that Marvel got the wrong idea out of the success of Iron Man. They got that they earned a lot of fucking money, and out of a good script so now they're going for the big money draws to get big money, even if it doesn't "agree" with the content. It seems all money driven because people love Will Smith and people want to see him in movies. But Marvel forgets that they got to this dance on content. I think they're rushing Iron Man 2 out of the gate too soon (two years to the release of the first one is a formula that has made good movies, but I feel that makes Favreau and Thoreaux far too rushed) and they're far too focused on how many properties they can dig up to make money on rather than whether a competent film can be made out of it. Yes, I know, it's a business, but sometimes you've got to also come at it from an aspect of art. Something like The Dark Knight is something I believe is art at its finest as there's ultimately a clear message and a clear purpose to its creation and that's because the creators were given enough time to savor the project coupled with the fact that people would go see a Batman sequel regardless.

However, in the case of something like The Incredible Hulk, you can't argue that the runtime cut by the studio (and certainly not stopped from happening by Marvel) didn't affect the final product negatively and that art was hardly thought about in that process.

Sometimes it's not about how many cars Avi Arad needs in his driveway.

Not to say that I think Will Smith as Captain America is a bad move, but I grow tired of Marvel trying to pump out movie after movie one after the other in this ridiculous universe where we're to believe all of these other heroes exist instead of plainly focusing on the universe at hand which easily should have enough material to not need Tony Stark popping up to make the film better.

[Hutch2004]

I don't have a problem with it. I like Will Smith, and I don't see Captain America as having to be white. Plus, when they do an Avengers movie, I really want to see Will Smith and Robert Downey Jr on the screen at the same time, and having Edward Norton there doesn't hurt either. Awesome charisma is why Smith's being cast, in addition to the money he's sure to bring it.

I think the biggest stumbling block this will take is if Will Smith will WANT to do Captain America after Hancock. Two unrelated superhero movies might be a bit much.

[Benji]

This isn't like Michael Clarke-Duncan being Kingpin in Daredevil, this is something that would genuinely have affected the world that Cap was in, having the biggest symbol of american spirit during the war be a black man would just NOT work, culturally and socially he would not fit. Not to mention the fact that Will Smiths acting abilities just do not lead me to believe he'd suit Cap nor Steve Rogers, he's just not got the right personality.

[TGC]

Will Smith was also going to be Superman at one point if I remember correctly. He gets "mentioned" all the time.