Joe Johnston apologizes for The Wolfman, says Captain America will be way better

After THE WOLFMAN was a pretty big let down, people started to point out that the director of that and JURASSIC PARK III might not be the best choice to helm a property as high profile as CAPTAIN AMERICA. But not me, I said “come on guys, he also did JUMANJI and HONEY I SHRUNK THE KIDS and those were totally awesome.”

But whatever your opinion on Joe Johnston, I think from what little we’ve seen from the set, most of us are pretty pumped for CAPTAIN AMERICA and our crossing our fingers it turns out well. ComicBookMovie recently had a brief chat with the director where he explains what went wrong with THE WOLFMAN, and why CAP AM will be loads better. Honest.

I had three weeks of prep on WOLFMAN, a ridiculously inadequate amount of time to try to bring together the fractured and scattered pieces of the production. I had taken the job mostly because I had a cash flow problem, the only time in my career I’ve ever let finances enter into the decision process.

Money is always the wrong reason for doing something that requires passionate devotion. The production was a leaky, rudderless ship in a perfect storm suffering from bad decisions, infighting, reluctance of the powers-that-be to take responsibility, and too many under-qualified cooks in the kitchen. The good news and bad news about directing is that when the picture works you’re showered with all the credit and when it doesn’t work you’re dumped on with all the blame. Both scenarios are undeserved. I take full responsibility for THE WOLFMAN not working because it goes with the territory.

But never fear:

I had thirty weeks of prep on CAPTAIN AMERICA. I have a small team of qualified, supportive, creative producers who are actually helping me achieve my vision of the film. I had a dream cast headed by Chris Evans. I had the best designers, artists, sculptors, craftspeople…a creative team that could design, build and photograph anything and have it look amazing and beautiful. We had unbelievable luck with the weather wherever we shot in England. The weather was so good we were compelled to make it rain for a couple of sequences just for some variety. At times I felt as if the gods were saying, “Ahem, sorry about that wolfman thing…let us make it up to you.” CAPTAIN AMERICA was probably the most universally positive experience I’ve had in this mad business.

Well that sounds promising, though it’s not like he’s going to come out and say “this is a disaster” if it was. But I haven’t heard about any problems on set, and it should be smooth sailing until its release in July. Then the audience has to decide how things went.