Shortlist For Captain America 2 Directors Is Revealed

For awhile now, we’ve known that Marvel Studios has begun preliminary plans for their post Avengers movie line-up. Iron Man 3 is already confirmed for 2013, as is Thor 2. But there are still two untitled movies set for 2014 from Marvel. One is rumored to be a brand new property (probably Dr. Strange, possibly Ant-Man) and now it looks like the other is going to be Captain America 2. Vulture.com has released a shortlist of contenders Marvel is looking at for the directing gig, and oddly enough, original Captain America director Joe Johnston is nowhere to be found.

So far, this is who Marvel seems to be warming up to the most: George Nolfi, the writer-director of The Adjustment Bureau; F. Gary Gray, director of the American remake of The Italian Job, and the real surprise here, Anthony and Joe Russo, from television’s Community and Arrested Development. According to the original article, Marvel studio chief Kevin Fiege is said to be a ‘vibe guy; He likes to see if he gets along with people before he’ll decide about spending the next two years with them. And apparently, they hit it off with Kevin in the room.”  So in a nutshell,  it comes down to who’ll come cheap and not get on Feige’s nerves for any extended period of time.

Seems strange that Marvel wouldn’t even approach Joe Johnston, who most agree did a great job and nailed the whole World War II period vibe of the first movie. But maybe Marvel is just being cheap again; Johnston would no doubt want a substantial raise, and Marvel is going to have to pay Robert Downey Jr a lot of money to come back for Avengers 2, as he only signed for Iron Man 2, 3 and Avengers after the massive success of the first Iron Man movie. And unlike directors like Joe Johnston or actors like Terrance Howard and even Edward Norton, RDJ can’t be replaced. So maybe Marvel is gonna start saving their pennies, and this might be phase one of that.