Captain America: The First Avenger

Captain America: The First Avenger
Oficial Logo
Directed byJoe Johnston
Screenplay byChristopher Markus
Stephen McFeely
Based on
Captain America
by
Produced byKevin Feige
Starring
CinematographyShelly Johnson
Edited by
  • Jeffrey Ford
  • Robert Dalva
Music byAlan Silvestri
Production
company
Distributed byParamount Pictures
Release dates
  • July 19, 2011 (2011-07-19) (El Capitan Theatre)
  • July 22, 2011 (2011-07-22) (United States)
Running time
124 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Budget$140–216.7 million
Box office$370.6 million

Captain America: The First Avenger is a 2011 American superhero movie based on the Marvel Comics character Captain America. Produced by Marvel Studios and distributed by Paramount Pictures, it is the fifth movie in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU). The film was directed by Joe Johnston, written by Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely, and stars Chris Evans as Steve Rogers / Captain America alongside Tommy Lee Jones, Hugo Weaving, Hayley Atwell, Sebastian Stan, Dominic Cooper, Toby Jones, Neal McDonough, Derek Luke, and Stanley Tucci. During World War II, Rogers, a frail man, is transformed into the super-soldier Captain America and must stop the Red Skull (Weaving) from using the Tesseract as an energy source for world domination.

The film began as a concept in 1997 and was scheduled for distribution by Artisan Entertainment. However, a lawsuit disrupted the project and was not settled until September 2003. In 2005, Marvel Studios received a loan from Merrill Lynch, and planned to finance and release the film through Paramount Pictures. Directors Jon Favreau and Louis Leterrier were interested in directing the project before Johnston was approached in 2008. The principal characters were cast between March and June 2010. Production began in June, and filming took place in London, Manchester, Caerwent, Liverpool, and Los Angeles. Several different techniques were used by the visual effects company Lola to create the physical appearance of the character before he becomes Captain America.

Captain America: The First Avenger premiered at the El Capitan Theatre in Los Angeles on July 19, 2011, and was released in the United States on July 22, as part of Phase One of the MCU. The film was commercially successful, grossing over $370 million worldwide, and received positive reviews from critics, who praised Evans' performance, the film's depiction of its 1940s time period, and Johnston's direction. Two direct sequels have been released: Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014) and Captain America: Civil War (2016).

Story

The start of the film happens in the present day. A group of scientists find an old frozen airplane with a man frozen in it, with a shield. The rest of the film happens in World War Two. Johann Schmidt (also called the Red Skull) the leader of a group called HYDRA steals a powerful weapon called the Tesseract. A man called Steve Rogers wants to join the army, but is too weak and is told he cannot. A doctor called Abraham Erskine lets him join a program that gives him super strength, making him a "super-soldier". Erskine is killed by a man from HYDRA and Steve is made to become an entertainer called Captain America, until he finds out his friend Bucky was taken prisoner by HYDRA. He saves Bucky and the other soldiers, and becomes Captain America. Steve and the rescued soldiers become friends, and they fight HYDRA in World War Two. In one mission, Bucky falls off of a train and it looks like he was killed. Steve discovers that Schmidt and HYDRA are using the Tesseract to make weapons, which he wants to use to win the war. He fights Schmidt, who is killed when he holds the Tesseract. Steve has to sacrifice himself to get rid of the weapons by crashing the airplane they are on into the Arctic. He is found 70 years later, and wakes up. Nick Fury then talks to him about joining the Avengers.

Cast

Production

Development

It took a long time for the making of the film to get started. In April 1997, Marvel went to Mark Gordon and Gary Levinsohn to get them to produce Captain America, and Larry Wilson and Leslie Bohem to write a script. In May 2000, they went to Artisan Entertainment to get them to pay for the film, but a lawsuit between Joe Simon and Marvel Comics made the development stop. It started again in September 2003. Marvel was going to give the rights to making the film to Warner Bros. until the producer David Maisel said that they could make it themself. The film was meant to be unconnected to any others, with the first part happening in World War Two and the second part happening in the present day.

Production of the film stopped because of the 2007—2008 Writers Guild of America strike, but a deal was soon made in January 2008 that got development started again. On May 5, 2008, Marvel announced the film The First Avenger: Captain America (which it what the film used to be called) for release on May 6, 2011 (the film got pushed back to July 22, 2011).

Pre-Production

In December 2009, director Joe Johnston indicated that he planned to start filming in April 2010.

In March 2010, it was revealed that Chris Evans would play Captain America and Hugo Weaving would play the Red Skull.

Filming

Filming of the movie began on June 28, 2010. It was announced that some of the filming would happen in London in July, with war scenes being filmed in Wales. Some filming also took place at Pinewood Studios, which is a studio in Buckinghamshire.

Release

Theatres

The film was first shown at the El Capitan Theatre in Hollywood on July 19, 2011, and was shown at San Diego Comic Con on July 21, 2011. It was released in the US and Canada on July 22, 2011.

At home

Captain America: The First Avenger was released by Paramount Home Media Distribution on Blu-ray, Blu-ray 3D and DVD on October 25, 2011.

Future

Sequels

Captain America: The Winter Soldier

A sequel to the movie called Captain America: The Winter Soldier was released on 4 April 2014.

Captain America: Civil War

Another sequel called Captain America: Civil War was released on May 6, 2016. It was directed by the Russo Brothers again.

Notes

  1. ↑ Producer Kevin Feige stated that the Tesseract of the films is based on the Cosmic Cube of the comics. After Thor: The Dark World, he further stated it was also the Space Stone.

References

  1. ↑ "Captain America – The First Avenger". British Board of Film Classification. July 13, 2011. Archived from the original on August 29, 2012. Retrieved April 17, 2020. Approved Running time 123m 59s
  2. ↑ Ryan, Mike (May 19, 2010). "Should We Now Call Him 'Captain England'?". Yahoo!. Archived from the original on June 28, 2011. Retrieved June 28, 2010.
  3. ↑ Sylt, Christian (April 27, 2018). "Disney Reveals Financial Muscle Of 'Avengers: Infinity War'". Forbes. Archived from the original on May 1, 2018. Retrieved May 3, 2018.
  4. ↑ Captain America: The First Avenger at Box Office Mojo
  5. ↑ Tadena, Nathalie. "Disney Acquires Distribution Rights to Four Marvel Films From Paramount". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved July 2, 2013.[permanent dead link]
  6. ↑ Finke, Nikki (July 2, 2013). "Disney Completes Purchase of Marvel Home Entertainment Distribution Rights". Deadline Hollywood. Archived from the original on November 5, 2013. Retrieved July 2, 2013.
  7. ↑ Palmeri, Christopher (July 2, 2013). "Disney Buys Rights to Four Marvel Movies From Viacom's Paramount". Bloomberg. Archived from the original on April 21, 2014. Retrieved July 2, 2013.
  8. ↑ Yamato, Jen (April 30, 2012). "Marvel's Kevin Feige on Avengers, Iron Man 3, Thor 2, Universe-Building, and Elektra". MovieLine. Retrieved May 3, 2012. But as we were working on them we started to keep track of some things that the writers and filmmakers of one movie were doing anyway and we started to track them and realized that we could utilize those later down the line. That's how the Cosmic Cube came about; what started as a little seed would grow and grow and grow to The Avengers.
  9. ↑ Bibbiani, William (November 8, 2013). "Exclusive Interview: Kevin Feige on Thor and Marvel's Future". CraveOnline. Archived from the original on November 9, 2013. Retrieved November 9, 2013. It is. I don't know when we'll actually divulge that necessarily, but it's the space stone.
  10. ↑ Fleming, Michael (April 14, 1997). "A Mania For Marvel". Variety. Archived from the original on October 25, 2012. Retrieved March 2, 2020.
  11. ↑ Fleming, Michael (May 16, 2000). "Artisan deal a real Marvel". Variety. Archived from the original on June 6, 2011. Retrieved March 2, 2008.
  12. ↑ Amdur, Meredith (October 9, 2003). "Marvel sees big stock gains". Variety. Archived from the original on December 25, 2014. Retrieved December 14, 2020.
  13. ↑ Masters, Kim (May 5, 2016). "Marvel Studios' Origin Secrets Revealed by Mysterious Founder: History Was "Rewritten"". The Hollywood Reporter. Archived from the original on June 4, 2020. Retrieved July 9, 2020.
  14. ↑ "Captain America is Coming". IGN. June 14, 2007. Archived from the original on March 11, 2012. Retrieved October 7, 2008.
  15. ↑ McNary, Dave (January 24, 2008). "Lionsgate signs as WGA talks go on". Variety. Archived from the original on October 12, 2008. Retrieved March 2, 2020.
  16. ↑ Douglas, Edward (May 5, 2008). "Marvel Studios Sets Four More Release Dates!". Superhero Hype!. Archived from the original on May 6, 2008. Retrieved May 5, 2008.
  17. ↑ Salisbury, Mark (December 23, 2009). "Terror Tidbits (Fango #290): THE WOLFMAN: Hair Today, Gore Tomorrow". Fangoria. Archived from the original on January 2, 2010. Retrieved December 29, 2009.
  18. ↑ Graser, Marc (March 22, 2010). "Chris Evans to play 'Captain America'". Variety. Archived from the original on June 6, 2020. Retrieved July 13, 2020.
  19. ↑ "Captain America to Start Filming June 28". SuperheroHype.com. April 28, 2010. Archived from the original on April 11, 2013. Retrieved February 20, 2013.
  20. ↑ "Summer in the City". Film London. July 7, 2010. Archived from the original on July 25, 2011. Retrieved July 9, 2010.
  21. ↑ "Caerwent is scene for Captain America movie". South Wales Argus. July 28, 2011. Archived from the original on July 31, 2011. Retrieved July 28, 2011.
  22. ↑ Bently, David (July 7, 2010). "Captain America to film war scenes in Wales". Coventry Telegraph. Archived from the original on July 10, 2010. Retrieved October 21, 2010.
  23. ↑ "Captain America: The First Avenger Movie Locations listing". Movie-Locations.com. Retrieved June 30, 2021.
  24. ↑ "Watch the Captain America Red Carpet Premiere LIVE on Marvel.com". Marvel.com. July 15, 2011. Archived from the original on November 7, 2012. Retrieved July 18, 2011.
  25. ↑ "See Captain America: The First Avenger Early at Comic-Con". Marvel.com. July 18, 2011. Archived from the original on November 7, 2012. Retrieved July 19, 2011.
  26. ↑ "Marvel Movie Update: New Release Schedule!". Marvel.com. March 12, 2009. Archived from the original on October 7, 2011. Retrieved March 28, 2010.
  27. ↑ "Global sites & Release Dates". Paramount Pictures. Archived from the original on July 19, 2011. Retrieved May 6, 2011.
  28. ↑ Boucher, Geoff (April 5, 2012). "'Captain America' sequel set for April 2014". Los Angeles Times. Archived from the original on April 6, 2012. Retrieved April 6, 2012.
  29. ↑ Kroll, Justin (January 21, 2014). "'Captain America 3′ Takes Shape at Marvel (EXCLUSIVE)". Variety. Archived from the original on January 30, 2014. Retrieved January 21, 2014.

Other websites


  1. 1 2 In July 2013, the film's distribution rights were transferred from Paramount Pictures to Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures.