Post by thejovian on Dec 13, 2016 21:10:42 GMT
Bruckheimer's Cinematic Marvel (Part 1) - The Rise of the First Avenger
Film producer Jerry Bruckheimer had secured the film rights to several prominent Marvel superheroes chief among them being the star-spangled avenger, Captain America. After seeing the disaster that was the 1990 direct-to-video movie, Marvel and their new partners Walt Disney Pictures were apprehensive as to whether or not the movie would be a success, but Bruckheimer assured them that this time they would get the best possible people to work on it and that there would be no way the film would be anything else than a bona fide smash hit to rival Fox's Watchmen and Warner/DC's Batman: The Dark Knight.
Bruckheimer also had plans to make an Iron Man, Incredible Hulk and Spider-Man films, all of which would have shared continuity and would lead into an Avengers film, a fully fledged cinematic universe to rival that of the comic book, aware that Warner and DC were already cooking up similar plans and that he needed to beat them to the punch, preferably with a late-1996 release.
He began looking over potential casting choices for the Super Soldier, briefly considering Arnold Schwarzenegger before he remembered that the accent was a deal breaker and that Arnie wouldn't allow someone to dub over his voice, in addition to it just being a massive distraction to those already familiar with the actor.
As he continued to go over potential action stars, he tapped Bad Boys director Michael Bay to helm the film and Steven E. de Souza to pen the script, with production of Captain America: Super Soldier being fast-tracked for a November-1996 release, following the casting of Nicolas Cage as Steve Rogers / Captain America, a casting choice that fueled much controversy, Rutger Hauer as Johann Schmidt / Red Skull and Billy Zane as Captain America's sidekick James "Bucky" Barnes, here re-imagined as Steve Rogers' childhood friend as opposed to their relationship in the comic where he was Rogers' teen sidekick in a similar role Robin had for Batman, lastly the role of Captain America's love interest Peggy Carter would be filled by Angelina Jolie, fresh from the set of Stargate due to her strong chemistry with Cage.
The film's production can best be described as frantic, as Bay had a 200-page script to film, turned in by de Souza and production just barely remained on schedule. Things turned even sourer when the rough cut of the film was an astonishing three hours long. Neither Bruckheimer or Disney were happy with the length but despite Bay's protests, as he had really grown attached to the project and tried his best to ensure the best possible product, the studio ordered the film be trimmed by at least 30 minutes, resulting in most of Rogers' relationship-building scenes with Bucky and Peggy Carter be either removed or shortened. What de Souza had written was a massive war epic and what the studio wanted was a breezy pulpy adventure, a compromise was only going to harm the film and after a very tepid test screening of the shortened cut, Bruckheimer and Bay knew that they'd be facing an uphill battle until release day to ensure that the film didn't bomb.
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An Excerpt from Mike "Mr. Plinkett" Stoklasa's review of Captain America: Super Soldier
1. Directed by Michael Bay
So Captain AmeriCage: Super Hamdier was directed by a guy named Michael Bay, which has the raw filmmaking talent of the acclaimed director of BioDome. I mean how much more of a miss-matching director can you have for this movie? The guy is less concerned with story and authentic recreation of the 1940 time period and more with shoving as many explosions and racist caricatures into your ass as possible, and the only person who gets to shove things in my ass is the guy doing my colonoscopy because of my spastic colon. I did write him a letter to apologize for the mess, I just hope he doesn't decide to tranquilize me and sell my balls at the Russian black market during my next visi...Anyway, the only reason Bay was even hired was because that fat, lazy hack known as Jerry Bruckheimer already had him on speed dial because they'd just finished making Bad Boys, that's it. I mean why bother getting some quality talent that really shows reverence for the time period and source material, I mean it's not like there was another director of another superhero film set in that time period that was currently doing nothing.
Instead we've got Michael Bay. Because he took Bruckheimer up the ass.
Film producer Jerry Bruckheimer had secured the film rights to several prominent Marvel superheroes chief among them being the star-spangled avenger, Captain America. After seeing the disaster that was the 1990 direct-to-video movie, Marvel and their new partners Walt Disney Pictures were apprehensive as to whether or not the movie would be a success, but Bruckheimer assured them that this time they would get the best possible people to work on it and that there would be no way the film would be anything else than a bona fide smash hit to rival Fox's Watchmen and Warner/DC's Batman: The Dark Knight.
Bruckheimer also had plans to make an Iron Man, Incredible Hulk and Spider-Man films, all of which would have shared continuity and would lead into an Avengers film, a fully fledged cinematic universe to rival that of the comic book, aware that Warner and DC were already cooking up similar plans and that he needed to beat them to the punch, preferably with a late-1996 release.
He began looking over potential casting choices for the Super Soldier, briefly considering Arnold Schwarzenegger before he remembered that the accent was a deal breaker and that Arnie wouldn't allow someone to dub over his voice, in addition to it just being a massive distraction to those already familiar with the actor.
As he continued to go over potential action stars, he tapped Bad Boys director Michael Bay to helm the film and Steven E. de Souza to pen the script, with production of Captain America: Super Soldier being fast-tracked for a November-1996 release, following the casting of Nicolas Cage as Steve Rogers / Captain America, a casting choice that fueled much controversy, Rutger Hauer as Johann Schmidt / Red Skull and Billy Zane as Captain America's sidekick James "Bucky" Barnes, here re-imagined as Steve Rogers' childhood friend as opposed to their relationship in the comic where he was Rogers' teen sidekick in a similar role Robin had for Batman, lastly the role of Captain America's love interest Peggy Carter would be filled by Angelina Jolie, fresh from the set of Stargate due to her strong chemistry with Cage.
The film's production can best be described as frantic, as Bay had a 200-page script to film, turned in by de Souza and production just barely remained on schedule. Things turned even sourer when the rough cut of the film was an astonishing three hours long. Neither Bruckheimer or Disney were happy with the length but despite Bay's protests, as he had really grown attached to the project and tried his best to ensure the best possible product, the studio ordered the film be trimmed by at least 30 minutes, resulting in most of Rogers' relationship-building scenes with Bucky and Peggy Carter be either removed or shortened. What de Souza had written was a massive war epic and what the studio wanted was a breezy pulpy adventure, a compromise was only going to harm the film and after a very tepid test screening of the shortened cut, Bruckheimer and Bay knew that they'd be facing an uphill battle until release day to ensure that the film didn't bomb.
----
An Excerpt from Mike "Mr. Plinkett" Stoklasa's review of Captain America: Super Soldier
1. Directed by Michael Bay
So Captain AmeriCage: Super Hamdier was directed by a guy named Michael Bay, which has the raw filmmaking talent of the acclaimed director of BioDome. I mean how much more of a miss-matching director can you have for this movie? The guy is less concerned with story and authentic recreation of the 1940 time period and more with shoving as many explosions and racist caricatures into your ass as possible, and the only person who gets to shove things in my ass is the guy doing my colonoscopy because of my spastic colon. I did write him a letter to apologize for the mess, I just hope he doesn't decide to tranquilize me and sell my balls at the Russian black market during my next visi...Anyway, the only reason Bay was even hired was because that fat, lazy hack known as Jerry Bruckheimer already had him on speed dial because they'd just finished making Bad Boys, that's it. I mean why bother getting some quality talent that really shows reverence for the time period and source material, I mean it's not like there was another director of another superhero film set in that time period that was currently doing nothing.
Instead we've got Michael Bay. Because he took Bruckheimer up the ass.
