Joe Johnston offers more CAPTAIN AMERICA Updates: Villian, Look, Casting, and Costume

Director Joe Johnston was bombarded with Captain America questions at his latest press junket for his new film The Wolfman. Collider, LA Times, Shock Till You Drop and AICN were all there to ask the question we all have on our minds, and Joe Johnston was kind enough to answer them. We already knew a few of the answers to the questions he was asked but there are also a few interesting surprises like who the villain will be.

Villain

It's been confirmed that Red Skull will be the villain in the film. So how freakin awesome is that!? We kinda assumed thats who it would be, but it's nice that we've got a solid confirmation.

Casting

Steve Rodger's A.K.A. Captain America will definitely be played by an American actor. This is something we've heard from the very beginning, we also heard that Marvel was more interested in casting a big name actor in the role to appeal more to a world wide audience, but it sounds like Johnston has other plans. He wants to discover a complete unknown actor and surround him with bigger name actors. He’s currently testing five or six guys, “The youngest is 23, the oldest is 32. Most of the guys in the war are just kids, 18 or 19, but we want to go a little bit older.” Casting needs to be completed by March 1st 2010.

Costumes

They are actually going to explain why Captain America wears a bright red, white and blue costume in the World War II battlefields:

After he’s made into this super-soldier, they decide they can’t send him into combat and risk him getting killed. He’s the only one and they can’t make more. So they say, ‘You’re going to be in this USO show’ and they give him a flag suit.... So he’s up on stage doing songs and dances with chorus girls and he can’t wait to get out and really fight. When he does go AWOL, he covers up the suit but then, after a few things happen, he realizes that this uniform allows him to lead. By then, he’s become a star in the public mind and a symbol. The guys get behind him because he embodies something special.

According to Johnston the costume will be very close to the classic Jack Kirby-designed outfit, but as the movie plays out he will eventually be wearing 

a sturdier, more muted version that he makes himself that is more like battle togs. The stripes across his mid-section, for instance, will be straps, not colored fabric. He realizes the value of the uniform symbols but he modifies his suit and adds some armor, it will be closer to the Cpa costume in some of the comics in more recent years.

Sounds freakin awesome to me!

Location and Shooting Date

We already reported on this but, the film will be shot in the UK as most of the story is set in Europe. As you know it's an origin story and pretty much the whole movie set in World War II, aside from “the bookends.”  Filming starts in London at the end of June.

Visual Look

The film will be shot in 2D High Definition, with a visual style Johnston describes as “a bit different,” trying to interpret the visual style of the more recent comics “into a film in a way that I think hasn’t been tried before”

Hell yeah I'm excited! How can you not be!? It sounds like they are doing everything right! I knew Johnston was the right guy to bring Captain America to the big screen. This guy gets it. I can't wait to see who he ends up casting and I'm really interested to see this visual style he wants to make the movie in. Make sure to read the full coverage from the websites in the reference section below.

What do you all think about Johnston's plans for The First Avenger: Captain America?