Captain America: The First Avenger

LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) – Marvel is plugging holes all over its "Avengers" franchise.

In its latest casting news, the studio said Monday that Stanley Tucci will play Dr. Abraham Erskine in "Captain America: The First Avenger," which comes out next July. The "Julie & Julia" star joins headliner Chris Evans, Sebastian Stan, Hugo Weaving and Hayley Atwell in the superhero movie.





In the early comics, Erskine was a German scientist behind Project Rebirth, the secret experiment that created the Super Soldier known as Captain America.

Tucci received an Oscar nomination this year for his role in "The Lovely Bones." His next films include the drama "Margin Call," the comedy "Easy A," which hits theaters in September, and the musical "Burlesque," which Screen Gems will open in November.

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Last month we reported Tommy Lee Jones might be in the soon to be filming Captain America: The First Avenger. At the time it was a rumor, and many doubted it as Men in Black 3 is getting ready to film and Jones has a part in that.

But on a red carpet a few days ago, Hayley Atwell, who is playing Chris Evans love interest Peggy Carter, confirmed the rumor and said Tommy Lee Jones is in the film. She also said she’s training six days a week to make it convincing that she can “kick butt”. Hit the jump to see what she had to say and I’ve also grabbed more info on General Chester Phillips – who is the character Tommy Lee Jones might be playing.

Here’s the Hayley Atwell interview via comicbookmovie. She talks about Captain America in the last minute. And for more on General Chester Phillips, it’s down the page. It sounds like Jones is the one who gives the Super-Soldier serum to Chris Evans.

General Phillips hand picked 4-F army reject Steve Rogers to become a part of the 1940 Operation Reborn experiment. In particular, he admired Rogers patriotic spirit. Later, Phillips was a part of picking Rogers as the eventual Super-Soldier Captain America. Phillips also oversaw Rogers initial training as well as some of his early missions.

After the fact, Phillips was aware that an unauthorized military group gave the Super Soldier Serum to Protocide, prior to Steve Rogers. As he displayed no life functions, Phillips believed Protocide to be deceased and the General dealt severely with the perpetrators through military channels.

Phillips was a hard nosed commander who did not tolerate errors from his charges. Phillips eventually retired from the military and lived a long life. He was killed in a rest home in Kentucky. He and Captain America were attacked by Lemurian assassins. While battling his assailants, General Phillips throat was fatally slit.

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This week's news is ending up with a definite Marvel tilt. But hot on the heels of the concept art for both Thor and Captain America, comes the announcement from Deadline that Neal McDonough is in talks to play bowler-hatted, moustachioed tough guy Dum Dum Dugan.

Interesting this, because Timothy Aloysius Cadwallader "Dum Dum" Dugan is generally more connected with Nick Fury than Cap (although there's historically been plenty of crossover), suggesting that he's being set up to continue through to the SHIELD movie that Sam Jackson says is happening post-Avengers.

Dugan is a Stan Lee / Jack Kirby creation from the 60s, first appearing in the comic Sgt Fury and His Howling Commandos. He's a circus strongman turned expert marksman, who first works with Fury on a mission during WWII. He later becomes Chief of Security on the SHIELD helicarrier base.

McDonough previously featured in Minority Report and Star Trek: First Contact, and played villain duties opposite The Rock in Walking Tall. He also voiced Bruce Banner in the 90s Incredible Hulk cartoon, so has Marvel previous. They look after their own.

The UK shoot starts next month, with a July 2011 release date already set. Chris Evans is Captain America, Hugo Weaving is his arch nemesis The Red Skull, and Sebastian Stan and Hayley Atwell are also on hand, with Joe Johnston (The Wolfman) behind the camera.

PS. We already reported on Jeremy Renner's possible Avengers casting as super-archer Hawkeye, but several sites this morning suggest that an official announcement may be getting closer...

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The father of Iron Man, Howard Stark, is set to be featured in Marvel’s upcoming Captain America movie…

Later this summer, the cast and crew of The First Avenger: Captain America will - ironically - be heading to Britain to film the movie, which is arriving in cinemas in the summer of 2011. And part and parcel of the film will, it appears, be the role of Howard Stark, the father of Tony.

Even though it's not expected that Iron Man will be appearing in Captain America, it's fair to suggest that this is a further building up towards 2012's Avengers movie. And the inventing genius of Howard Stark will be a part of that process.

Dominic Cooper, it has been revealed at Salon.com, is set to become the third actor to play Howard Stark on the big screen (following Gerard Saunders in the first Iron Man movie, and John Slattery in the second). At this stage, the extent of the role in the film is unclear, and Marvel hasn't confirmed it. But it seems likely that it's happening nonetheless.

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Marvel Studios announced today that Hugo Weaving has been cast to star as Johann Schmidt aka the Red Skull in the studio's highly anticipated movie Captain America: The First Avenger opposite Chris Evans and Hayley Atwell. In the early comics, Johann Schmidt was drafted into loyal service of The Third Reich and renamed "The Red Skull." The character will be updated for the feature adaptation. Joe Johnston will direct the film penned by Christopher Markus & Stephen McFeely.

Marvel Studios' Kevin Feige will produce Captain America: The First Avenger. Alan Fine, Stan Lee, David Maisel and Louis D'Esposito will executive produce. The film will be released in the US on July 22, 2011 and distributed by Paramount Pictures.

Captain America: The First Avenger will focus on the early days of the Marvel Universe when Steve Rogers volunteers to participate in an experimental program that turns him into the Super Soldier known as Captain America.

Weaving was last seen in The Wolfman and his voice is very recognizable as Megatron from Transformers and Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen as well as Noah the Elder from Happy Feet. His other film credits include starring in V For Vendetta, "The Matrix" franchise, and "The Lord of the Rings" trilogy.

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Captain America is starting to gather his sidekicks, with Sebastian Stan set to play Bucky Barnes in Marvel's "The First Avenger: Captain America."
Character is a key role in the Captain America comicbooks. He's an orphan who discovers Captain America's true identity and partners up with him to fight the Nazis. He later becomes the covert assassin Winter Soldier.
As is the case with most of the thesps Marvel signs to star in its pics, Stan's deal includes appearing in multiple films, including sequels to "Captain America" and other superhero titles such as "The Avengers."
Stan recently had a recurring role on the CW's sudser "Gossip Girl" and on NBC's short-lived drama "Kings." His film credits include the comedy "Hot Tub Time Machine" and the upcoming thrillers "The Apparition" and "Black Swan," as well as "The Covenant."
Thesp also tested to play the star-spangled hero in the pic, a role that went to Chris Evans.
Joe Johnston will helm the actioner that unspools in theaters July 22, 2011, with Par distribbing. Production starts this summer.

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Over the weekend news broke that Chris Evans had been offered the role of Captain America in Marvel's upcoming superhero film, The First Avenger: Captain America. At the time Evans was reportedly mixed on whether he'd take the role since he'd already played a superhero in the Fantastic Four movies. After much deliberation, though, Heat Vision now tells us that he's accepted the role. Chances are Evans and Marvel weighed fan reaction after word originally hit, saw that everyone thought he'd made for a fine Captain, and moved forward on the deal, which, right now, hasn't been fully disclosed.

What we do know, though, is that Evans will probably have to sign on for upwards of nine films, including three Captain America movies and possibly three Avengers movies, as well as whatever else Marvel has up their sleeve (cameos on other films, etc ...). As we noted in our piece over the weekend, Evans brings a lot of fun, charismatic energy to the role -- much like Downey Jr. with Iron Man. He's a funny guy, sure (Evans always stole every scene throughout the Fantastic Four series), but he's proven to be well-equipped when it comes to action scenes, too.

This is a great choice for Marvel. Here's a guy who's known throughout the fanboy community, but he's never been given a chance to truly spread his wings and take charge of a major franchise. He's a guy folks can (and will) root for, which is exactly what you want when creating a brand new franchise. With the right script, direction and supporting cast, this could be a big time winner when it hits theaters on July 22, 2011.