Joe Johnston on Directing a Captain America Sequel, Spin-Off or Other, Marvel Movie; Plus an Update on Jurassic Park IV
Posted 07.18.11 by BrentJS
Director Joe Johnston's new movie, Captain America: The First Avenger, doesn't open until this Friday, but Johnston is already planning his follow-up, a Marvel Studios "period" superhero movie. Johnston surprised — and thrilled — a lot of sci-fi fans recently when he revealed that he has been trying to convince George Lucas to "make a feature based on Boba Fett," the über-popular Star Wars character that he created for Lucas back in the '70s.
But, dream projects aside, Johnston has a deal with Marvel to make at least one more movie and he said over the weekend that he would consider doing anything from a sequel to Captain America or a spin-off movie featuring James "Bucky" Barnes (Sebastian Stan) to an adaptation of some altogether different character from the "Marvel vault." Johnston also offered an update on the long-gestating Jurassic Park IV, a project he last updated back in January 2010.
In an interview with MovieWeb, Johnston said that his decision to direct a sequel to Captain America depends, at least in part, on how the character is handled in Joss Whedon's The Avengers, which is currently in production.
I would definitely look at [The Avengers], and see what they've done. We have talked about a sequel to this film possibly staying in the 1940s. He had a lot of his interests, and he was Captain America for three years during WWII, so there are more stories there. We don't necessarily have to come back to the present day with it. Though, we could...
In an interview with ScreenRant, Johnston seemed even more excited about the possibility of exploring a different character from the Captain America universe — Cap's (Chris Evans) partner, Bucky, who goes on to become a Soviet assassin named the Winter Soldier in comic book lore and, later, Cap's fill-in when Rogers is presumed dead.
We talked about "The Winter Soldier" which is the continuation of what [Bucky's] story is. It's basically that he is captured by the Russians and he's brainwashed and turned into an assassin. But you know there are a thousand ways to go with that. I just think that it would be interesting to take a character that was in Captain America and build a story around him. Plus, I like [Bucky actor] Sebastian Stan a lot I think he would be an interesting actor to build another feature around.
And, even if there's no Captain America sequel or Bucky movie coming down the pipeline, Johnston told ScreenRant that there are plenty of other characters that he could see building a movie around.
...there are thousands of characters in the Marvel Universe, of which I am only familiar with a very few of them and it might be interesting to sort of go into the Marvel vault and find a character that you can develop a whole story around. I would definitely be interested in doing that.
Finally, Johnston confirmed to ScreenRant that he is involved in "discussions about Jurassic Park IV," and verified what he had earlier said about it being the beginning of a second trilogy of movies.
The most important thing I can tell you is that it starts a new trilogy that will go off in a different direction — a completely different direction that is very exciting, and different from anything we've seen. It starts with the history of the first trilogy, but it spins it off in a completely different direction. That’s all I can tell you.
While this is a pretty vague update on the movie, it does give credence to a recent report that stated that the movie is still in development, with producer Steven Spielberg and screenwriter Mark Protosevich (I Am Legend, Thor) reportedly having multiple "exploratory" meetings "to discuss story ideas."
Next Showing: Captain America: The First Avenger opens Friday