| Posted: 19 Dec 2008 20:21 |
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Hey guys I just came across this onine and wanted to share....
I'm not sure if it's legit, but
It states that Will Smith was offered the roll of Cap in the new movie coming up.
http://www.articlesbase.com/movies-articles/will-smith-as-captain ...
Any thoughts?
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| Posted: 19 Dec 2008 20:29 |
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Aww wait I just found this article stating that it isn't so?
http://www.aintitcool.com/node/38258
Who knows what is going on behind the scenes? 
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| Posted: 19 Dec 2008 22:30 |
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Back in the late 70s, when people were looking for someone to play Superman, some thought Muhammad Ali could be Superman, since he was all over the news back then. Chris Rock went on the news saying that he wanted to play Spiderman, all he wanted was just a screen-test, knowing full well that Spidey will be played by a white guy. There was a radio commentator that brought up the topic of James Bond being played by an African-American.
In my opinion, I'm just sick and tired of this trend that an African-American actor in an established white-dude role, Honeymooner, Cat-woman, Kojak, ...I would rather see Will Smith as Luke Cage, or Black Panther, heck, even Black Lightning.
This must be something to do with that group in Hollywood screaming about that there's not enough 'people of ethnic minority in film and tv'. My theory is because of BET, all the talent went there, leaving the major networks dealing with the second strings or left overs.
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| Posted: 20 Dec 2008 00:35 |
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Will Smith would be a great African American Cap.
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| Posted: 21 Dec 2008 01:10 |
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With the Truth story line now officially Canon, it's not impossible for an Isaiah Bradley character to make an apperance in story, especially if they want to go dark with Cap.
Heck you could probably even keep Steve off camera (solving that whole who could play cap issue, and just focus on the other characters. Keep cap from ever being seen, and just present him as this symbol that influences everything around him.
That'd be a little heavy handed for a super hero movie of course, but I tell you since they rolled out Isiah Bradley I've been chomping at the bit to see some more of his adventures, and an Isiah Bradley movie (or hey how about an HBO series) would be a must see.
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| Posted: 23 Dec 2008 21:51 |
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Marvel has too many other movies that need to be made before they should worry about this Isiah Bradley dude. After the Avengers, Cap, Iron Man 2, Thor and Spidey 4 are done they should move on to more important projects, like the sequels to those, plus some new ones, like Black Panther, Silver Surfer, Iron Fist, Hawkeye, Werewolf by Night, etc. I doubt Bradley is even on the list.
And whoever plays Cap, he has to be white.
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| Posted: 23 Dec 2008 22:16 |
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You'd put Iron Fist or Hawkeye or Werewolf By night before Bradley?
Well, no accounting for taste.
I'm just saying that within the concept of the Captain America films, and as was touched on in the Hulk, the quest to recreate the super soldier serum after it is lost is a paramount issue that has the potential to drive a great deal of the plot. Isaiah Bradley fits directly into that plot line, as does the grand director.
You could theoretically create your entire first film, around this mythical Cap, and the quest to recreate him using the characters of Isiah Bradley (who would have to be retconed) and the Grand Director.
Something like that, where you are setting up the evil done in Cap's name while he's forzen, sets up a very interesting world for cap to come into when he is unfrozen in the Avengers film.
As has been pointed out, there is little point in a cap film when cap is out of the comic spot light, and little point to bring him back before the film. Why not increase your marketing possibilities not to mention book tie ins by increaseing the number and type of charactes in the film.
Heck you could even work in a very interesting mystery where Cap learns that while he's fighting all is not right with the continued super soldier program back home. His investigations lead him back to Zemo (who is perhaps playing both sides of the field) and we all know how that story ends.
There is so much interesting happening in the Cap universe right now, so many layers involved, it would kind of be a shame to stick him back in a two dimensional world war I world. Heck, I'd be interested in seeing an Isiah Bradly vs. the Winter Soldier Film before another good guy punches bad guy spectical.
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| Posted: 24 Dec 2008 04:56 |
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I really like Will Smith, and gladly pay to go see his movies(except Bad Boys, not my taste). But casting him as Cap would be the wrong part for him. Smith's natural character, which comes through in many of his performances, just does not fit who Steve Rogers was or what he was about.
The whole Cap before Cap story, frankly, ticked me off. In my mind it diminishes what Steve did and further serves to feed the racial/policital machine that I just don't want in comics.
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| Posted: 24 Dec 2008 16:16 |
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Hey Big Duke;
Actually, Isiah Bradley wasn't Cap before Cap, per say, what it was was a program after Cap was created, to recreate the serum. In the story he is activated over seas before cap, however, you should remember that Cap was actually active in the US (fighting spys and the Red Skull's network in the US) prior to being deployed.
As such, Cap was still first, though Isiah was deployed over seas first. The whole retcon is a little sketchy, but what you gonna do. The official statement still has Steve Rogers as Captain America #1, and technically, I don't think Isiah Bradley was ever given the oficial code name of Captain America, but had the term black captain america applied to him by others. In fact as part of his conviction that put him in levinworth after he returns to the US, included with disertion was impersonation of Captain America.
As to Will Smith, I actually think his acting ability is such that he could handle the more somber aspects of Captain America, while at the same time capturing the gung ho optimism that I think exemplifies the 1940's cap.
But it's all moot anyway since the fellow didn't get chosen.
And really, I'm just saying it's an interesting place to start the story of Cap, and defuses most of the (unjustified) crtiicism of cap that he's too jingoistic and fluffy for our modern age.
Heck you could even tell the story in flash back and open up with Isiah Bradley, heck even make it a documentary style film. totally turn your standard superhero conventions on their head. You could still have great "news reel footage" of Cap in battle.
The real problem with Cap has always been how do you connect this old school hero to our modern age. I think they really failed with the new superman trying to do the same thing, but perhaps you could take the liability of Cap as an old school hero and make it your center piece.
Cap through the eyes of others would be a fascinating concept. You could see how each person is effected and how their image of Cap is influenced by their own experience.
Isiah Bradley for example has a very differnt view of Cap than say The Grand Director, but both see the man as a hero. You could even have interviews with "Reformed" Nazi's like Blitzschlag, or Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury and get a great deal of history into people's minds setting them up for the Avengers.
Oh well, unless the writer of the film reads this board I doubt that's how they'd go, but it would be sweet.
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| Posted: 24 Dec 2008 16:51 |
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Thanks for straightening me out Matches. I had refused to read the mini with Bradley because I was irritated by the retcon I thought was happening. Guess I should go read it now so I'm don't sound so ignorant when I post 
Given the popularity of Band of Brothers and Saving Private Ryan, if they set the first movie in WWII, we really don't have to deal with ideals being out sync with the modern world. They will fit with the setting and most people understand, on some level, what and who those guys were and that they lived in a different time and thought a different way. And let's be honest, the way information (news, entertainment, etc) was lot more white bread and innocent in the 40s and 50s, but people weren't nearly so.
It's when they defrost Cap in the Avengers movie that he becomes the man out of time with old fashioned values.
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| Posted: 24 Dec 2008 17:20 |
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I do recomend the Truth miniseries. There are parts of it that are really very heavy handed, and there are parts that just don't make sense from a practical point of view for a clandestine program like the super soldier program, but aside from those minor issues (which you are going to have with any thing) this is far less of a retcon then people first imagined. Much like Wolverine's origin it is presented much more as a hidden bit of history then changing the history we have. And Cap himself comes off very well in the book and it's made clear that he is neither the product of these experiments nor was he aware of them.
As to saving Privet Ryan and the like, of course you can do a gritty dirty dozen kind of story with Cap, and maybe the howling comandoes, the issue is putting somebody in a red white and blue jump suite in the middle of all that olive drab.
It certainly can be done, and that's likely how it will be done. What the issue always is, is how do you tell the honest story of a living legend with out losing the legendary quality of it.
You know for all the issues with the Matt Salinger Cap I did enjoy the film. But I don't know in a world where you're following the Dark Knight, Iron Man, etc. If that kind of project works and if you're going to have to answer all the questions that now permiate these stories of unchecked power both of the heroes and the governments and agencies of their world as well.
At the inception of the Truth series the creators asked a panel what they thought of a government program experimenting on a human subject, and their minds immedeatly raced to the Tuskegee Syphilus Study. I don't think you can get a pass on the 1940's cap without dealing with what the world was back then, which was a world where the institutions of the US were not so far from the institutions of Germany as we like to think.
Finding a way to attack that issue head on in a Cap movie would allow you to difuse the criticism and take the super hero genre in a much more serious direcction.
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| Posted: 24 Dec 2008 19:21 |
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Quote:
You'd put Iron Fist or Hawkeye or Werewolf By night before Bradley?
I think most people would, right? They are more important in the marvel universe than Bradley. They have been around a lot longer and have played larger roles. Also, the films for those characters have already been announced, but no other details have been revealed.
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The whole Cap before Cap story, frankly, ticked me off. In my mind it diminishes what Steve did and further serves to feed the racial/policital machine that I just don't want in comics.
i agree 100%!
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| Posted: 26 Dec 2008 13:37 |
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I think most people would, right? They are more important in the marvel universe than Bradley. They have been around a lot longer and have played larger roles. Also, the films for those characters have already been announced, but no other details have been revealed.
The may have more "history" but they are all alot less interesting.
Don't get me wrong, I like Hawkeye, and i might want to see a Hawkeye film. But you just have to watch the green arrow on smallville (A show I love by the way) to realize the limitations of archers in an action film. Beyond that, the characters just don't have much to say. Hawkeye does have something to say about the quest for fame and self importance (according to his origin) but that also requires his existance with in the Marvel Universe. That means we'll probably see Hawkeye in the Avengers films, but maybe not in his own solo adventure.
The entire Isiah Bradley story touches on themes so often overlooked in comic books and the hero genre, or handled ham handedly when they are touched upon, that bringing out a character like that would really make for an interesting film.
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| Posted: 26 Dec 2008 21:52 |
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There's also a Luke Cage, Hero for Hire, being worked out.
I have to throw in my 2 cent over the Captain America Truth mini, and I just can't recommend it as a must-read Cap book, through it isn't as bad and offensive like Liefield's Heroes Reborn crap (Cap has green blood and feeds it to a wounded Sam Wilson? WTF!!!).
We all know Cap, we all read hundreds of Cap books, we all like Cap and understand him and his character, ...but the general audience doesn't know Cap. The regular comic buyer just have a familar knowledge of Cap. To bring up the Isiah Bradley Cap, without first establishing the Cap universe, it'll just confuse the audience and further alienate the viewers or movie goers.
My brother asked me 'why's Green Lantern black' when he first saw the Justice League cartoon. I was there to explain it to him that it was Jon Stewart and that he provided a 'military' mind to the league. Without someone to explain the Cap universe, that viewer will be asking, "Why's Captain America black?" and bringing up racism and unwanted controversity to the Cap movie and not just letting the viewer become awed or entertained by Cap.
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| Posted: 27 Dec 2008 05:21 Last Edited By: Stars and Stripes |
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The may have more "history" but they are all alot less interesting.
Dude I'm beginning to doubt your taste in comics. What's not interesting about those guys?
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But you just have to watch the green arrow on smallville (A show I love by the way) to realize the limitations of archers in an action film.
I watch Smallville too and I think Green Arrow is cool. What limitations are you talking about? Hawkeye's not only an expert marksman, but also a martial artist. There's movies about action guys without super powers all the time.
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Beyond that, the characters just don't have much to say.
Werewolf movies are always good. Don't you agree that a marvel werewolf movie would be interesting? And Iron Fist: guy who has mastered kung fu and is able to use it to fight supervillains. It shouldn't be too difficult to come up with an exciting storyline for him.
Go to wikipedia. All three of these films have already been announced to be in the works.
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| Posted: 27 Dec 2008 06:09 |
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My brother asked me 'why's Green Lantern black' when he first saw the Justice League cartoon.
See, I know others who upon seeing the books ask why Green Lantern's White.
Isiah Bradley isn't the same as replacing Hal Jordan with Jon Stewart, especially if it's done within the context of larger Cap story.
I skipped heros reborn, so I can't really comment on it. However, getting back to what I think is improtant in a story featuring the blonde haired blue eyed super man as the hero in 1941, you need to talk about what America was back then. That doesn't necessarily mean Issiah Bradley, that doens't necessarily mean Samuel Jackson as Nick Fury, but that does mean you have to step up your game.
Letting the Captain America film being another big budget punch fest without a soul leaves it to be just another forgotten attempt to translate the character to the screen.
What has always been the issue with Super Hero movies in general was studios being afraid to examine the complexity of the characters and their worlds. If you run Cap through 1940 without examination of what his character really means in that world in that context then you just sell cap short.
At least that's my opinion.
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| Posted: 27 Dec 2008 06:17 |
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Werewolf movies are always good. Don't you agree that a marvel werewolf movie would be interesting? And Iron Fist: guy who has mastered kung fu and is able to use it to fight supervillains. It shouldn't be too difficult to come up with an exciting storyline for him.
Go to wikipedia. All three of these films have already been announced to be in the works.
Actually a warewolf vs. superhero movie would probably be pretty lousy. And aside from that, I don't think there's enough uniqueness to a Werewolf by night story to really make it a compelling character for film.
Pretty much ever character and license is owned by someone and is in some state of development, and any one of them could get put on screen. It's just a question of whether it would be a good movie or not.
I do not see Iron Fist, Hawkeye, or Werewolf by Night made into a film of any quality. They could be fun bits of eye candy, but that's not really the treatment they deserve.
The most recent Punisher film was utter dreck despite maintaing the proper story line, and bringing in really fantastic actors.
It is a delicate balance to take larger than life characters and put them on the screen believably. And the bigger suspension of disbelief you put into it the more likely it is that the film will fall apart.
The guys in the tights are believable, but ignoring the world around them, the part that's supposed to our world, that just doesn't work.
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