FILM DRUNK - Director Joe “Cap’n Mediocrity” Johnston is currently in the process of casting for Captain America. THR reports that they’ve narrowed it to seven candidates, the most recognizable of which are John Krasinski of The Office and Chace Crawford of my Tiger Beat prison fantasies.
Those known to be on the list with Krasinski include Michael Cassidy (who appeared in ”Smallvile” and who tested for the Superman movie when McG was going to direct it), Patrick Flueger (one of the stars of “The 4400″ who most recently appeared in the Tobey Maguire movie “Brothers”), Scott Porter (TV’s “Friday Night Lights”) and Mike Vogel (”Cloverfield”).
First, let’s throw out Krasinski, because he isn’t really right for the part.People complained about the idea of casting a foreigner as Captain America, but as you can see, the problem with that is that most younger, American actors tend to be fruity wienerfaces.I blame the Disney Channel.Clearly, we’re in desperate need of an American Statham.
Wow. Where to start…
First off, let me agree with my boy over at Film Drunk. As I’ve said SEVERAL times before, I also blame Disney. This stems back to the misguided “F-Ron for Spiderman” campaign that for some reason seems to be gaining steam. Masculinity is dead. Charlie Bronson, Steve McQueen, and John Wayne, all members of a lost era. A generation without dietitians and hair “product”. War veterans who we believed to be Badasses because they were real. They didn’t look like they lived in a gym or got manicures. They looked beaten down a little by life, because they had mileage. These guys didn’t travel in Limos or have bodyguards.
While writing this piece by piece over the last couple of days, I pulled out a few classics. Sunday night I watched THE DIRTY DOZEN, and then on Monday, after 24, I popped in GRAND TURINO. It made me further recognize just how bad this has gotten. I’ve noticed how popular it has become on TV and in commercials to show men and fathers as bumbling idiots, always screwing up and living in fear of their wives. And this is something that has been happening for years. Red Foreman is a favorite among TV dads because he’s not Danny Tanner. He made no apology for being who he was and we loved him for it. Well, that and killing Murphy, thus making Robocop possible.
But this isn’t recent, Dennis Leary released a song in 1993 that touches on this.
Now that’s not to say you have to be an asshole to be masculine, but he goes back to the John Wayne comparison. I once saw a behind the scenes special about the filming of WHERE EAGLES DARE, a WWII Movie with Richard Burton and Clint Eastwood. They said that on the first day Burton’s chauffer drove him up to the set, where some stage hands ran up to help with his luggage, one of those ‘stage hands’ was the already very famous Clint Eastwood. Clint had arrived moments earlier on his motorcycle and was helping out the set runners, because he is awesome.
This is from IMDb’s WHERE EAGLES DARE trivia page: In the scenes where Richard Burton and Clint Eastwood climb the step fortress walls, Burton moves with ease, while Eastwood is clearly working hard physically. This was due to the fact that Burton, who was a hard-drinker and out-of-shape by that point, chose to ride a crane (made invisible by special effects) up the wall, whereas the young, healthy Eastwood was actually climbing the wall.
Opposite that, my buddy Chris was once kicked out of the bathroom at E3 in LA by Vin Diesel’s THREE bodyguards so that Vin could take a leak. What the hell does Vin Diesel need 3 bodyguards for at a video game convention? Did he feel threatened by the little 150 lb. Pilipino guy who was in the bathroom first? Because, Manny Pacquiao, Chris is not.
Anyhow, my point is that there are few roles that inspire such an attitude as Captain America. And there seem to be no actors left that embody the spirit that I would want Cap to have. I absolutely hate all the above choices.
I have to admit, I have no solution. I hope some unknown, old school, badass is about to step forth, but right now it doesn’t look good. To me, Cap, even when out of uniform, should be an intimidating figure. The kind of guy who’s way you move out of, not for fear, but out of the respect that his mere presence seems to demand.
All they gotta do is put Jensen Ackles from Supernatural in a Cap suit and call it a day. He has the chops to pull it off and the right look.
2010-03-05 11:03:26
billtn
Does this not have John Cena written all over it? Maybe Chase could play Steve Rogers pre-treatment I guess.
2010-03-05 11:03:48
Toni Smith
Getting pissed about Spider-Man not being manly enough is a tad absurd Kronner; but I do agree that these guys don't have the chops to play Cap. While Cap should be accessible enough to be a teenage fuck-fantasy, considering he's a propaganda tool, the dude should have some degree of machismo and leadership charisma. That's why my two picks for Cap are always going to be Scott Eastwood and the New England Patriot's Tom Brady.
2010-03-05 12:03:31
yaguara
John Cena!?! Are you kidding me? Don't we want someone who can act? John can pose for the poster but that is about the limit of his acting abilities. He may be a little old but I'll throw this out there. What about Matt Damon? He can act reasonably well and he's done good work in the action genre. Send him to "300 school" for six weeks to buff up and I think you've got a pretty good Capt A.
2010-03-05 12:03:43
Toni Smith
Damon is one of those anti-military Hollywood liberals, he'd make Cap into some kind of caricature of himself.
2010-03-05 14:03:13
himenohogosha
I also cringed when I saw this rumor list.
@oldskool : Jensen Ackles would definitely be better than anybody on this list, but I duno if he would have the charisma and leadership attitude to pull this off.
John Cena and Matt Damon would be terrible in this role. Cena is too much of a meathead and Damon just seems like a bad fit.
2010-03-05 14:03:24
billtn
Any chance we could get David Chokachi to muscle back up? Seriously Cap is a big, cut guy.
2010-03-05 15:03:42
MUNKRAWK
Matt Damon sucks
2010-03-05 19:03:35
Grimmey71
what ever happened to the Channing Tatum or Ryan Gosling rumor? Clint is the Man!
2010-03-05 19:03:46
Dr. Kronner
If they cast Channing "I'm the worst actor ever" Tatum, I'll firebomb something.
2010-03-05 20:03:09
MUNKRAWK
I vote David Duchovny. He'd be perfect for the role.
2010-03-05 20:03:56
Grimmey71
LOL. Is he worse than Hayden Christensen?
2010-03-06 02:03:03
Ranger6
holy shit. its like this article was made for me. I've been preaching it for months: masculinity is dead. In the 80s we had Rambo, in the 2000s we had Cloud.
2010-03-06 03:03:52
vxplaya23
Why not make an actor's career, just like Singer gave Routh a career in superman returns. The problem with these big name actors is that their name alone can overshadow a film, at least for the general audience, then it becomes the actors film not a film including such actor. However, if a proven actor with an appreciation for the comic book movie genre and who won't overshadow the film i say james marsden is your man. He's got the look and you can film him skinny before the super-soldier serum,
2010-03-06 14:03:16
bubaroni
OMG steve mcqueen was SO BADASS i would hire him as my bodyguard, and he wouldn't even take money, he would take like 40 guns 50 barrels of ammo and a truck full of beer. omg yeah man, when i was a kid and ff7 came out, i was the only kid with a playstation who said that game was fuckin' trash, fuckin' cloud is a badass? are you shittin' me motherfucker? cap needs to be a fuckin' soldier first. period. you're fuckin talkin' about the greatest battlefield general ever. the person who plays him h
2010-03-06 14:03:37
MUNKRAWK
I hope everyone knows I was kidding about Duchovny, but James Marsden? My god, if I had to pick the worst person to play the role of Cap, I'd have to pick James Marsden. I know it was the writing, but I hated him as Cyclops. He was a whiney bitch through the whole series of X-Men movies.
2010-03-06 14:03:38
bubaroni
has to have that swagger. like the only thing i can think of is in da' ultimates right when cap wakes up and giant man grows and knocks him out. then cap wakes up later finds out whats goin' on den looks dat fucker dead in the god damn face n' says "GROW". FUCKIN' AWESOME.
2010-03-06 16:03:34
Nanchancan
You guys wanna know something? Captain America is a HERO, therefor we need an actor (or actress) who has that same HERO mentality; hence, JAMES CAMERON. James Cameron would make a perfect Cap with some hollywood makeup. He's who every man dreams to become, and who every woman dreams of giving birth with.
2010-03-06 16:03:38
mingo
don cheadle for sure
2010-03-06 19:03:04
vxplaya23
Shit anyone next to "huge" jackman is gonna look like a whiney bitch. But you cant just cast any muscle bound idiot as Cap. He is gotta be able to act, and marsden has some chops, look at rdj initially he seemed like a miscast but his acting pulled him through to stardom. Shit if looks, youth, and acting werent the qualifications for casting Cap i would say randy couture is the guy. That or brett favre
2010-03-06 20:03:15
MUNKRAWK
lol, Huge. I have always stated that in any comic movie an unknown should be cast. Get someone that just IS the caracter.
2010-03-07 00:03:45
Toni Smith
VXplaya, I'm pretty sure casting Downey as Iron Man was just about the only time fanboys don't bitch about a casting choice.
2010-03-07 01:03:02
Jorn
If they're gonna go with a (WWE) wrestler, I'd say Jack Swagger looks more the part than John Cena, though I wouldn't cast either of them in the role.
As far as I can see, there are only two ways to adequately cast the role: find an unknown who can pull it off, or build a time machine and cast Steve McQueen.
(Though of course Toni's right- everybody seems to love Jackman as wolvie, but I remember no end of whining when that was announced)
2010-03-07 01:03:04
MUNKRAWK
I didn't mind at all when I saw him as wolvie. I can't recall ever seeing Jackman before X-Men. I think it was his first summer blockbuster anyway. So he was an unknown when cast.
2010-03-07 09:03:35
bubaroni
OMG brett fuckin' favre are you kiddin' me motherfucker?
if i wanted cap to be a fuggin' douchebag sure, that old bastard would be number 1 on my list. huge is terrible, period, terrible everything.
2010-03-07 15:03:33
MUNKRAWK
So bub, problem solved. Both homos on Spartacus are dead. Should only be tits and blood from now on.
2010-03-07 22:03:39
bubaroni
doncha' mean all three homo's are gone man, cause that one guy who took over barkas punk took a swan dive off a fuckin' mountain. and yeah man, unless they wanna do anudder nude cock stare down soon. dood if rome was nuttin' but hot bitches and people gettin' sliced n' diced then build my ass a time machine right the fuck now man, accurate my ass.
2010-03-08 00:03:45
MUNKRAWK
Haha it is a good concept though. What works as well as 4 prison walls? 3 prison walls and a cliff of ultimate demise.
2010-03-08 10:03:22
kilcal
Just FYI from IMDB - Scott Porter has announced that he has lost his chance to be the lead actor in "The First Avenger: Captain America". On Friday, March 5, the "Friday Night Lights" star posted a statement on his Facebook, mentioning "aint Cap. Thank you all for the prayers though, I appreciate them all so very much though!!"
The day before, another contender, Michael Cassidy, has also informed that he was not chosen to be the depicter of the superhero. "No Captain America for me," so the "
2010-03-08 10:03:43
kilcal
Me personally, I like Patrick Flueger, He was an ok actor in 4400. Same with Mike Vogel, he is not the best actor but I actually enjoyed the Grind movie he did. Chace Crawford is to much of a pretty boy to play Cap and John Krasinski shouldn't be anywhere near this film. Besides the current list I would throw my support for either of the super natural guys.
2010-03-09 09:03:09
mingo
Am I the only one who wants to see a black Cap? Obviously not Don Cheadle. But still, are there no minority Avengers?
2010-03-09 12:03:50
bubaroni
yes you are the only one who wants to see a black cap, really you are. like i watched that episode again right, and when he's a flyin' off the damn cliff they do that long ass bullet time shit at the wrong time. they needed to do the bullet time when he hit the rocks so you could see his head explode like 400 different ways, cherry pie all over the fuckin' place BLAM.
2010-03-09 14:03:17
mingo
I think a black Captain America would be pretty awesome. Why not? Fury's black. Mix up Marvel Universe a bit.
2010-03-09 16:03:00
bubaroni
not to mention cap is the only character ever, ever, ever, ever, ever that needs to be exactly like he was drawn. omg if they cast a black dood as cap right i'm going to go all arsonist and start fuckin' burin' theaters down.
2010-03-09 16:03:12
MUNKRAWK
A black American poster boy in the 40's? Think about that for a min. Racism was on everyones plate back then.
2010-03-09 19:03:38
Nanchancan
The more that I think about it, casting a black captain america WOULD be a good idea. I hated the idea at first, hearing early rumors that Will Smith would play Steve Rogers. But conceptually and theoretically, a black captain america would create a positive shockwave throughout marvel universe, both in comics and in film. And if cap was to be black, Will Smith should lead the role. President Obama is black, why not captain america?
2010-03-09 21:03:41
Toni Smith
Having a Black Captain America rewrites American history to say that blacks were always treated equal in this country, part of what makes Cap so compelling is his displacement in time and trying to better his notions of how the world works. I would love to see an amalgam of the Truth miniseries and Ultimate Origins and have Cap fight along side a black super soldier prototype, only to later learn it is none other than Nick Fury
2010-03-09 23:03:16
MUNKRAWK
Aside from that, Fuck Will Smith. I stick with my long standing notion of using unknowns for the part. Usually to get the character to resemble the character your trying to portray. but I guess if you guys want to change the cloth the character is cut from then ...... fuck nevermind, lol
2010-03-09 23:03:33
MUNKRAWK
Man I didn't see it before, thank you for making it clear. Obama IS black isn't he? Aside from that, a NEW president is black yes, we are not talking about going back and turning Lincoln black are we? I believe in equal rights with every ounce, but simply put making CAP black is a fucking terrible idea. you want a black hero? make a black hero fuck, don't try and just make long standing characters black.
2010-03-10 20:03:19
bubaroni
EXCEPT for nick fury, omfg, sam jackson is the most perfect nick fury fuckin' ever. but i guess that's fittin' the part.
