Who will direct Captain America 2? That’s the question that is currently on the minds of many studio execs in Hollywood. It’s been a while since we’ve heard any news on the upcoming sequel but today, we have the official shortlist of directors that Paramount and Marvel are mulling over.
The film is still a ways off, with The Avengers, Thor 2 and Iron Man 3 all set to take the superhero stage before The First Avenger appears again. But, that doesn’t mean that the film isn’t on anyone’s mind. Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely have been working on a script and production is said to start before year’s end. Now, all they need is a director so they can get the ball rolling.
Vulture tells us that the studio has narrowed it down to three choices. F. Gary Gray, George Nolfi and The Russo Brothers (Anthony and Joseph) are the top three contenders for the job of helming the second Cap film.
F. Gary Gray is best known for his remake of The Italian Job but he’s also done a couple other great films like Law Abiding Citizen and The Negotiator.
Nolfi only has one film under his directing belt (The Adjustment Bureau) but he has writing credits on both Ocean’s Twelve and The Bourne Ultimatum.
Lastly we have The Russo Brothers. They’ve done a couple of comedies, like You, Me and Dupree, and they’ve also done a lot of work on NBC’s Community.
Personally, my vote is for F. Gary Gray. He’s had experience doing some violent and darker action like we saw in Law Abiding Citizen as well as more fun and light-hearted action, like we saw in The Italian Job. He also knows how to create tension and suspense, which he showcased in The Negotiator. I think he can bring a lot of the same elements to the sequel that director Joe Johnson brought to the original and out of all the directors on the shortlist, I think he’s the most capable.
As for Nolfi, The Adjustment Bureau was a respectable debut but it did miss the mark on quite a few points and that was mostly due to Nolfi’s inexperience as a director. I’m not sure he’s ready to take on a big franchise picture just yet.
When it comes to The Russo Brothers, I’m really not sure how their names came up on the list. Most of their work has been in the comedy genre so I’m not sure what exactly they could bring to the film.
Captain America: The First Avenger was a good film but not a great film. It suffered from what I like to call the “Marvel syndrome.” It seems that with each new release leading up to The Avengers, the quality in Marvel’s films dropped. The first Iron Man is still their best movie and I’m hoping that once The Avengers is finally released they can go back to making quality films, rather than just making movies that act solely to tie everything together for the spectacle that is The Avengers.
Unfortunately, I don’t think that will be the case. As their universe expands, and more and more heroes start earning their own spin-off films, coupled with the existing superhero films that they already have, the whole Marvel mess is just going to get more and more irritating and frustrating.
But then again, as long as the films keep pulling in those big box office numbers, who cares about how good they are, right?