RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK used as a template for CAPTAIN AMERICA says Joe Johnston

Director Joe Johnston spoke to the LA Times about the connection between Captain America: The First Avenger with Raiders of the Lost Ark, which Johnston served as a visual effects art director. Kevin Feige's goal was to find a director that could handle directing a period action piece. From the looks of the trailer, it looks like he nailed it.

Here is what Johnston had to say about Captain's heritage: 

“We used ‘Raiders’ as a template when we were developing the story, but we sort of moved away from it as time went on,” Johnston said. “This is futurism in the 1940s; if you went to 1942 and thought of what the future would be, that’s what the approach was. The villain has a much more futuristic style and his science and his apparatus — he has a whole design motif that is beyond 1942 but it’s what you might have perceived as futuristic from a 1942 vantage point. So we went away from the ‘Raiders’ template in that sense but where we sort of stuck with it was in the structure and the action and the way the main characters are thrown into these situations and then have to get themselves out of them.”

He goes on to say that the film's are linked more in their rhythm and that it's easier to see from the viewpoint of a moviemaker than the moviegoer.

“When you sit down to watch it, it’s certainly not ‘Raiders of the Lost Ark,’ which is a very different kind of film in the final analysis. But sometimes when we had questions and we were stuck we would say, ‘What would Indiana Jones do?  What would be the answer to this in “Raiders of the Lost Ark”?’  I’ve always loved ‘Raiders’ and the great achievement of it was the tone and the fresh feeling of the movie. It was period but didn’t feel like it was made in the period. It felt like a contemporary film about this period in the past, and that is the goal we have with ‘Captain America.’ And I can say this — it definitely has an Indiana Jones pace.”

I am a huge fan of Raiders and am extremely excited to see Captain America on the big screen.