Well, it looks like Marvel is continuing its trend of diverse choices for directing chores on their franchise films, this time with Anthony and Joe Russo about to sign the dotted line to take on CAPTAIN AMERICA 2. The Russo brothers are mostly known for their comedy work on Community and the Matt Dillon/Owen Wilson flick YOU, ME, AND DUPREE.
I know there are a lot of fans of Community out there. I’m not one of them. This news comes as a bit of a bummer for me, as I had hoped that someone other than the choices laid out before us would have been thrown into the mix. The Russo brothers were contenders amongst F. Gary Gray (who took himself out of the running) and George Nolfi (THE ADJUSTMENT BUREAU), none of which stirred any excitement for me.
Marvel’s Kevin Fiege has had a good track record thus far for spearheading the director’s on THE AVENGERS (Joss Whedon), THOR (Kenneth Branagh), IRON MAN 1&2 (Jon Favreau), CAPTAIN AMERICA: THE FIRST AVENGER (Joe Johnston) and the phase 2 directors for THOR 2 (Alan Taylor) and IRON MAN 3 (Shane Black), but this feels like a misstep along the lines of the hiring of Patty Jenkins (MONSTER) as the original director of THOR 2.
With no experience in big-budget action or superheroes, I can only guess that The Russo brothers pitched the shit out of CAPTAIN AMERICA 2, so maybe they have a bang-up idea for how to approach the project. I’m more nervous about the execution. My only complaint about CAPTAIN AMERICA: THE FIRST AVENGER was the lack of action and the hiring of non-action directors doesn’t exactly give me hope for a better showing in the sequel.
Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely, screenwriters of the first Cap film, have been working on a script for the sequel for the last year and details are pretty much null, with the exception of Fiege’s statement that, “The primary storyline [for Captain America 2] takes place post-Avengers, Steve figuring out his place in the world. Tony goes back to Malibu, Thor goes back to Asgard, but there are a number of people who stay in S.H.I.E.L.D. Steve, for the time being, is going to be one of them.”
What do you guys think about this choice? You have a better director in mind?
CAPTAIN AMERICA 2 is slated to open on April 4th, 2014.