America’s First Avenger will battle his foes on the streets of Manchester and Liverpool during filming on the big-budget superhero film.

Manchester’s Northern Quarter is to be transformed into 1940s New York for a dramatic car chase in Captain America: The First Avenger.

Producers chose the Northern Quarter to recreate New York because of its towering buildings and pre-war architecture.

The location was organised through the Vision+Media film office, based at Mediacity in Salford Quays, which brought the big budget production of Sherlock Holmes to Manchester and Liverpool.

Susan Williams, drama liaison manager, said the company was approached by the studio, which is also behind the successful Spider Man and Hulk films, in February.

“We suggested the area to Marvel as its wide streets, towering buildings and pre-war architecture will make the perfect 1940s New York.”

Residents, local businesses and Manchester City Council have all been consulted about the production, which will last about two weeks from mid September.

Details of scenes due to be filmed at Liverpool’s Stanley Dock are yet to be finalised.

“But [the suit]‘s not bad. It’s a World War II movie, so I think a little bit of a cumbersome feel to it and something that’s a bit chunkier … not only serves the time period, I think it looks better. […] It’s not this sleek spandex suit. It looks like something you might wear in the ‘40s in the middle of a war.”

“There’s a couple stages and initially in the script, Steve isn’t Captain America right away. […] He gets the injection and isn’t asked to go to war right off the bat. He’s used in different areas, so he has different stages of the suit. I don’t think he actually jumps into the final suit until the third act of the film.”

[talking about the shield]

“Well, during the USO tour, there’s obviously a different shield. […] And he goes on a couple missions, he goes AWOL and kind of takes the USO shield. And he’s kind of allowed to be this soldier and they outfit him with the new uniform. They decide to outfit him with an updated shield.“

Description of footage from Quint at AICN:

Kevin Feige started the panel which began with a teaser for Captain America, a film that has only been shooting for 5 days.
The teaser was WW2 footage… typical stuff: planes bombing, anti-aircraft guns firing, soldiers marching, superimposed over what is obviously a very slow reveal of the red, white and blue shield. Roosevelt’s Day of Infamy speech plays over this footage as text appeared on the screen:
Our courage and strength led us into battle, stories emerged of heroes … but one story has never been told.
Bam, the full circular shield. Is shown, then fades to black as text appears: Every army starts with one man.
Captain America’s silhouette, shield on the arm, standing in near profile. To black.
“Next summer meet the world’s first avenger.”
Chris Evans turning around in costume, very much like the designs we’ve seen over the last month or so. No wings on head, but very much a practical army suit.
The title hit and then the zinger (you know the zinger… every trailer has one… you think it’s over and then BAM something else) was of Evans launching the shield right at camera.

Description of footage from /Film:

The teaser begins showing clips from World War II superimposed over close-ups of the Captain’s shield, while audio plays of FDR’s “Day That Will Live in Infamy” speech. On screen text reads: “Stories emerged…. But one story has never been told…. Every army starts with one man.” Cut to a shot of a silhouette of Captain America. On screen text reads: “Next Summer you will meet the First Avenger” We then see a short shot of Chris Evans in costume as Captain America shown from behind/side. Captain America logo. Cut to another shot of Evans in costume, this time from the front view. We don’t get to see much as he tosses his shield at the camera.

Hugo Weaving footage

Quint again:

Norway, May 1942. Two men stand in a stone castle as one of the walls is busted inward, crushing one of the men. The room fills with Nazis as they restrain the older gentleman (who looked just like Finch from Potter, but I’m not 100% positive it was actually David Bradley).They go to an elaborate coffin, with an intricate stone design on top. “Open it! Quickly! Before he gets here.”

Of course “he” is The Red Skull. Hugo, looking sharp in an SS uniform, is silhouetted in the hole the Nazis busted into the keep. After a beat, he comes down, obviously feared by his crew. His face is just normal Hugo Weaving as he approaches the terrified older guy that may or may not be Finch from Potter.

“It took me a long time to find this place,” Weaving said with an eloquent menace.

“What you seek is just a legend!” says the Old Man.

:Then why make such an effort to conceal it?”

Weaving easily pushes the heavy stone slab off the coffin, revealing a skeleton clutching a cube, which Weaving called the Jewel of Odin’s treasure room. The Cosmic Cube? I don’t remember if it’s tied to Thor in the books, but I like them already tying these franchises together.

Weaving holds the cube, looking at it and suddenly smashes it. It’s a fake, a decoy and Skull saw through it. “It is not something one buries, but I think it is close, yes?”

He walks to an elaborate door with a carving on it of a large tree. Tree of the world, garden of wisdom… and fate… Weaving says as he admires it. He reaches out and touches a snake eye in handle, which opens a container filledwith a glowing blue light. Weaving looks longingly inside and then back up at the old man. “You have never seen this, have you?” The old, defiant man answers: “It is not for the eyes of ordinary men… “ With a wicked smile Weaving says: “Exactly!”

End of scene.

/Film’s version of events:

They then premiered footage they claim was filmed just last week. The footage was very rough, complete with timecode. The footage begins with the title card “Norway, May 1942″ we see told older men in a stone castle-like interior. The walls are shaking, dust and dirt falling. The wall implodes inward as a Nazi soldiers come rushing in, and examine a crypt in the center of the room. And then Johann Shmidt (Hugo Weaving pre Red Skull) makes his entrance from the huge hole in the wall. He orders the surviving old man to hand over “The Tesseract.” The man tells Shmidt that what he is looking for is just a legend. Shmidt responds, “then why go through so much work to conceal it?” The crypt is opened, and inside is the bones of a crusader holding a misty crystal white cube. Shmidt picks it up, and says “The Tesseract was the prize of Odin’s collection.” But he isn’t fooled. He throws it down on the ground, smashing it to bits. This is not what he was looking for.

He then turns his attention to the wall, which contains a large wood caving of Yggdrasil, the Norse Tree of Life. In the wall he finds a hidden compartment. Hell pulls it out and opens it. Blue glow fills his face. Shmidt says to the man “You haven’t seen this yet, have you?” The man responds, “It’s not for the eyes of ordinary men.”

Iron Man 2

In the first movie the film makers managed to get the tone just right, for the sequel they are looking to add characters and up the action whilst maintaining this tone — keeping the right sense of humour. Filming is half way through and the majority of the spoken parts are complete, the next six weeks shall be dedicated to action scenes!

Thor

There will be no Shakespearean dialogue in the Thor movie, despite its usage in the comics. Some scenes will take place in Asgard.

Captain America

The first avenger movie shall be a period piece, set predominantly during WWII. It is hoped that the movie can capture a feeling similar to Raiders of the Lost Ark, with the same levels of fun. Sidekick Bucky (wiki) will also make an appearance, in some capacity.

As for director Joe Johnston,

A little bit of The Rocketeer, lots of October Sky, and a little bit of the ship designs that Johnston did for Star Wars, alluding to how this is the perfect movie for him to direct. “It’s the movie his entire career has been leading towards.”

Pre-production shall officially begin this October, with full production set to start on June 28th 2010. It is likely to contain a number of international locations, rather than say, just New York or LA as the focus. With it, there will be a number of international actors. The storyline in the movie isn’t likely to follow the ‘Truth’ arc set out in the comics, but more likely in some far off sequel.

The topic of Will Smith was raised, Feige acknowledged his international status but didn’t directly comment on casting.

Iron Man

When Pepper Potts walks in on Tony Stark being undressed by JARVIS’ robot arms, at around the 1h30 mark, in the background you can see a half complete shield that matches Captain America’s red, white and blue design. According to the exclusive Walmart comic book that came with the Iron Man DVD, Howard Stark (now rumored to appear in Iron Man 2) created the shield’s technology and Tony is using an old discarded prototype to create an alloy for his suit’s armor. This implies that, rather than creating the shield, Tony Stark is taking it apart, as previously rumored when the shield was first spotted.

The Incredible Hulk

On the 3-disc special edition DVD there is a cut scene set in the snowy north where Bruce Banner goes to commit suicide, before turning into The Hulk and starting an avalanche. As the snow crumbles you can just about make out the outline of a human body and shield, meant to be Steve Rogers frozen in suspended animation, first spotted by Film School Rejects.

Other hat tips to Captain America include mention of the WWII ‘supersoldier serum’ created by Dr. Reinstein, as injected into Emil Blonsky. Incredible Hulk director Louis Leterrier comments on this (IGN):

I wanted to address because I thought it was fun. But like Dr. Reinstein and Vita Rays, that actually was done on the day because we wanted the super serum. And the prop master said, “What do you want me to do with this?” And I said, “OK. Give me the serum.” And he said, “What color should the serum be?” I said, “Blue like Captain America and I want the cap for the vile to be red like Captain America.” And he said, “What do you want me to put on the sticker?” And I gave him Dr. Reinstein and Vita Rays;

The appearance is at 2:25 in this video, not that you can really see it in this quality:

However a lawsuit between Marvel Comics and Captain America co-creator Joe Simon halted the proceedings, a settlement was agreed upon in September 2003 (Variety) but by this time the original plans had been scrapped.

The project kick-started again in 2005 with Merrill Lynch’s $500m investment and a new plan to create 10 movies, one of those being Captain America, with distribution by Paramount Pictures.

In 2005 then producer Avi Arad commented on the plans (MTV), with a projected 2008 release date and Jon Favreau at the helm.

“Captain America is the most famous character out there, by name. The biggest opportunity with him is as a man ‘out of time,’ coming back today — looking at our world through the eyes of someone who thought the perfect world was small-town America. Sixty years go by, and who are we today? Are we better?

“I have a writer,” he says. “And I have someone in mind to be the star, and I definitely have someone in mind to be the director. This script is going to take a little bit of time, because it has to be a masterpiece. It’s ‘Back to the Future’ kind of stuff.”

Favreau ultimately decided to take on the Iron Man and Iron Man 2 projects instead and he explained his choice in an interview with Superhero Hype:

SHH!: So why did you decide to do an Iron Man movie?
Favreau: […] I’d always [Avi Arad] about “Captain America,” this was long before Marvel broke off and became its own studio, so that was the one I was interested in, because I thought there were a lot of comedic possibilities with a guy who got frozen and then turned around and now is fighting for America. “Iron Man” has always been the flipside of “Captain America,” representing maybe more pragmatic, darker aspects of America. When we first talked about the notion of doing “Iron Man,” I felt excited because it lends itself, very easily, to the technology that is available today. Where as an organic superhero, you know anybody who is a guy in tights is a little scary in CGI, but a robot-based guy is really a marriage made in heaven, so I’m exploring what the technology has to offer. To me, with the political climate what it is now, it’s such a complex character and these times are so complex, mirroring in a lot of ways, his inception in the 60’s when on the cusp of Vietnam, it was just as unpopular to have an arms manufacturer as your hero. I really wanted to explore that so it’s very exciting to me in that way. It’s also exciting because it’s Marvel’s first movie on its own.

Then in 2007 current producer Kevin Feige reported a 2009 release with David Self writing (hired in 2006) (IGN),

“I have a writer on Captain America right now. […] I’m hoping to get a director on that very soon, to get that into the pipeline in the next year or so. David Self is writing Captain America.”

The movie would be split half and half between present day and World War II. Feige also commented on the political climate and the strongly American themed hero:

“I certainly think we’ll have to play with that. Play with Captain America being this patriotic propaganda machine on one hand, but being a very human Steve Rogers, interesting, fascinating hero in his own right,” Feige says. “The good news is Marvel is perceived pretty well around the world right now, and I think putting another uber-Marvel hero into the worldwide box office would be a good thing. The script David Self is writing [and] the director that we end up hiring… we certainly are going into it with our eyes open that these are all things that we have to deal with much the same way that Captain America, when thawed from the Arctic ice entered a world that he didn’t recognize, and had to sort of deal with the changes, whether it was when Stan [Lee] did it in the ‘60s and that world Steve Rogers was coming into, or the world of 2009.”

Self also comments,

“He’s a Norman Rockwell character who is faced with today’s America and is forced to look at his own past, things in the ‘40s that weren’t necessarily what they were cracked up to be, and also how today’s country may be different than it looks,”

The movie’s production was put on hold by the 2007–2008 Writer’s Guild of America strikes, with production starting up again in January ’08. On May 5th 2008 the film’s release date was set at May 6th, 2011. Joe Johnston (Jumanji, Jurassic Park III) officially signed on to direct in November 2008 with Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely (Chronicles of Narnia) hired to re-write the script.

With Barack Obama’s election, international opinion on American politics has had an up surge in popularity leading to changes in the movie, Kevin Feige (EW):

“The idea of change and hope has permeated the country, regardless of politics, and that includes Hollywood. Discussions in all our development meetings include the zeitgeist and how it’s changed in the last two weeks. Things are being adjusted.

The production release date has since been pushed back slightly, to July 22nd 2011.