It was recently confirmed that Hugo Weaving (The Matrix, Lord of the Rings, The Wolf Man) was to play the Red Skull opposite Chris Evans’ Captain America. Today news is out that Toby Jones (The Mist, Infamous) is to play the evil Nazi scientist, Arnim Zola. Joe Johnston’s film is shaping up to have a great cast of actors.
Arnim Zola was a biochemist during World War II who became one of the first human genetic engineers in history after finding papers and equipment used by the offshoot race of humanity, the Deviants. He found a ready home among the Nazi party, who saw his actions as the ability to ensure the existence of a master race.
One of his first accomplishments was the creation of a brain pattern imprinting device, which would allow someone’s mental essence to be projected into a cloned brain. Zola presented such a gift to Adolf Hitler, creating the Hate-Monger.
Born with a frail, dwarfish body, Zola used his scientific skills to genetically fashion a new stronger body for himself. Having done so, Zola used the mind-transferrance technique he devised to project his mind into the cloned brain of his new body, a brain that he situated in the chest cavity where it would be more protected. Since the brains of all of his genetic creations were grown from cells of his own, he can mentally project his intelligence into any of his creations.
As you can see from the figure by Bruce Ross above, he looks sort of like Krang from the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles cartoon from the 80s. I don’t think he will have that look in the Captain America film (well at least not at first) and will probably be a normal human mad scientist until some kind of accident or maniacal scheme. To be honest I think it is great that they have Zola involved as it may well give the necessary reason for the Red Skull to survive into the present day. However, it does mean that we may well see Toby Jones crop up in other Marvel Studios films and I could see him in The Avengers having created some kind of crazy looking army of genetic freaks.
If you have seen Iron Man 2 (opening today in the States) you will know that Tony Stark’s (Robert Downey Jr) father is in it. He shows up briefly on some old films that Tony watches.
As you may also know, the Captain America movie is going to be set mainly during World War 2. This means that Howard Stark (John Slattery) would have been in his prime back then. Plus being a mover and shaker in the technology world he would probably have been involved in some way with the Super Soldier project. Nick Fury (Samuel L Jackson) even mentions that Howard was involved in the formation of SHIELD.
MTV news spoke to director Jon Favreau about the possibility of Howard Stark showing up in the Captain America movie.
“Yeah, because he was around then,” confirmed Favreau.
“[‘Captain America’] is World War II,” he explained. “It wouldn’t be that same actor, probably, because he would be much younger.”
“[Howard Stark] was starting out during that time, and [he] was involved with the war effort, much like Howard Hughes,” said the filmmaker.
The main parts have been cast, although still not sure if Hugo Weaving has definitely signed up as the Red Skull. Now UGO have a rumour from a reliable source that Tommy Lee Jones may also be starring in the film.
No word on who he will be playing if he does get involved, but as shooting begins at the end of June and Men in Black 3 is also due to start filming this summer Mr Jones may either be very busy or won’t be in Captain America.
You may well recognise Justin Theroux’s face from Mulholland Drive and Charlie’s Angels 2. He is also a cool screenwriter who wrote Iron man 2. With the film due out in the UK on Friday and the USA next week he has been chatting to MovieWeb about the story.
They asked him whether Iron Man’s arch-nemesis, The Mandarin, would show up in the sequel (he was hinted at in the first with the whole 10 Ring terrorist group).
“Yeah, we tip our hat to that but that’s a tough one to get in because it’s such a big storyline,” explained Theroux. “So that, I don’t know, and I don’t dare say it but it might feature in Iron Man 3, I don’t know?”
As he is also an actor are there any roles Theroux would live to play in the Marvel universe?
“I don’t know? Hawkeye would be great,” answered Theroux. “No, I don’t know? Yeah that would be fun. We’ll have to see because I’ve never even thought of that? We’ll see?”
Collider also spoke to him and got onto the subject of what we may see after the credits (we got to see Nick Fury at the end of the first one) and whether something like that could be improvised as many of the scenes in the film were.
“No, that’s got to be very specific because you can’t…if it was all of a sudden Tony opens a tool box and there’s a friggin’ hammer in there, you can’t bone the next guy. You know it’s not like…you want to create possibilities. So that’s a very thought out piece. If the shield all of a sudden just falls out of the sky, whatever it is, whatever that thing is, you want to be very specific about it.
Only a few more days to wait until we get to see. What would you like to see after the credits?
Now, according to CHUD, the Howling Commandos may be in it.
I just spoke to Marvel Studios own Odin, Kevin Feige. Running after Kevin in a hallway in the Four Seasons Hotel I got him to confirm that the Howling Commandos will show up in the Captain America movie.
The first group of Howling Commandos was an elite special unit formed in World War II. The original team consisted of Nick Fury, Corporal Thaddeus Aloysius Cadwallander “Dum Dum” Dugan, Private Gabriel Jones, Private Robert “Rebel” Ralston, Private Dino Manelli, Private Isadore “Izzy” Cohen and Private Jonathan “Junior” Juniper who was killed in action after the first few issues. He was replaced by Private Percival “Pinky” Pinkerton, a British soldier – Wiki
They’ll be fighting alongside him in The First Avenger: Captain America, but they may not be specifically called ‘The Howling Commandos.’
“The characters will be there as part of the larger Marvel Universe,” Feige said. One character he would confirm was Gabe Jones. Why have the Howling Commandos in the film and not refer to them by name? Surely you should have that little fan boy nod.
They wouldn’t even have to be in it much maybe just a ten minute deal. I want to know if they will have Nick Fury in it. As we know Samuel L Jackson is the Fury of the Marvel Movieverse (and the Ultimate Marvel Universe), however he was originally the grizzled old white dude with the cigars and attitude. His longevity in the comics was down to the Infinity Formula, hence the reason he didn’t have to go into the future by the suspended animation route as Cap did.
I am not sure whether they will want to have Fury mixed up in it from all those years ago in the film so Jackson may well just be in modern times. Now what would be cool is if they had someone playing the Nick Fury from the original comics so we get to see both versions. They wouldn’t have to mention him by name, just get someone who obviously looks like him.
I am made up that Marvel are using their many years of stories to flesh out the movieverse. What other aspects of the World War II era Marvel stories would you like to see? Who could they get to play the Commandos?
Marvel Studios have been doing a great job with the big name characters such as Iron Man, Hulk, Thor and Captain America. However, they have so many characters to choose from, but many are lesser known so they would never get the big budget treatment.
That means those of us who love the smaller characters – Moon Knight, Dr Strange, Dazzler, Ka-Zar, Power Pack, Deathlok, Luke Cage, Sleepwalker, Night Thrasher, Speedball and so many more may never get to see them on the big screen.
Well hold onto you hats true believers. Turns out Marvel Studios may be doing just that. According to CHUD they are meeting with writers and directors to work on small scale movies based on some of those very characters. The movies would cost in the range of 20 to 40 million dollars (very small when we’re talking studio films) and would allow them to take risks with less obvious characters and with interesting talent.
Filmmakers are being offered their pick of characters and it sounds as if Marvel will go with any cool story put to them.
I think this is excellent news and Kick-Ass shows that with a low budget and minimum advertising you can make headway against some of the bigger budgeted film.
Plus lower budget means filmmakers will make sure every penny is spent well and could lead to some awesome kind of films. Imagine the street level Marvel characters such as Luke Cage made in a French Connection style, Iron Fist as an R rated kung-fu movie, or a truly gory body part swapping Terror Inc!
Of course no word yet on what characters will be used just yet but I think this is a breath of fresh air for the comic book movies and exciting for comic fans such as me.
What characters would you like to see get onto the big screen? Who could play them and who could direct?
Check out the excellent work of Rogan Josh. He’s really done excellent jobs in the minimalist style. Hell, he’s even included a reference to Frog Thor. Lots more to check out on his Etsy site and you can buy them for $18.00 a pop.
I think the Doctor Strange one is my favourite.
Source: Scifi Wire
While chatting to various people about his new indie film Mother and Child Samuel L Jackson got onto the subject of his work as Nick Fury for Marvel Studios.
He is signed up for nine films as Fury and sounds as if the role will get bigger as the films move on.
“I got started on it when I did the end of Iron Man 1. My foot was on the path. Now, my foot is a little deeper on the path ’cause we’ve got Iron Man 2. I’m not in Thor. I’m supposed to do Captain America this summer in London.”
It is a surprise that he is not in Thor. Even Jackson didn’t know why Fury wouldn’t be featuring.
“I have no idea. I’m not in charge of making those decisions. I thought I was. They said I was in the trades, and I was like, “Oh, I’ve got a job!” And then, I called my agent and she said, “Nah, you’re not in it. They misprinted.” I was like, “Well shit, they need to pay me just ’cause they put my name in it.”
They asked Jackson if he does in fact get to “kick some major ass” in Iron Man 2 and if we will finally get to see his badass Fury in full action? “No, I get to talk really harshly with Robert Downey Jr., but that is about it,” answered Jackson. “So far that’s all I’m doing.”
As for The Avengers how big a role will Fury have in that team film?
“The Avengers is my own starring vehicle for that character, pretty much. That’s not that far away. It’s in February. It’s just February. I’ve got time to get in shape and everything.”
“[He will] shoot somebody,” he said. “I’d like for him to do something eventually.”
“I’m totally looking forward to finally getting Nick Fury into action,” he added.
They finished by asking Jackson if he was happy that Whedon would be directing the The Avengers and if he was excited to be working with him on the project? “Yes I am,” replied Jackson. “I’m looking forward to that.”
Glad to hear that Whedon is definitely on for The Avengers and good to see more Jackson as Fury. Would you want to see a Nick Fury movie?
It was recently confirmed that Hugo Weaving (The Matrix, Lord of the Rings, The Wolf Man) was to play the Red Skull opposite Chris Evans’ Captain America. Today news is out that Toby Jones (The Mist, Infamous) is to play the evil Nazi scientist, Arnim Zola. Joe Johnston’s film is shaping up to have a great cast of actors.
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