Director Anthony Russo Talks ‘Captain America: The Winter Soldier’
One of the most anticipated movies in Marvel’s “Phase Two” is Captain America: The Winter Soldier. When announced at San Diego Comic-Con fans nearly lost it. Hell..even Ed Brubaker lost it and even tweeted “HOLY SHIT” when he found out about it. The Huffington Post recently sat down with Anthony Russo, one half of the directing team behind the sequel, and had a little chat about the movie. Below are some of the highlights of the interview.
When asked what they thought landed them such a big project:
Well, first of all, Marvel’s this incredible company that has shown in the past that they think outside the box with directors. I mean, it’s shocking the people they’ve hired, over and over again, and they’ve had great success as a result. They like character, and they like storytelling and they like fun. We were surprised, but they were big fans of “Community” and you can sort of draw a line between some things we did on “Community” and a Marvel movie.
How they sold themselves to get the job directing the sequel:
We were comic book geeks from a young age and big fantasy geeks. We got to talk to them in detail about that history. They knew that we understood the brand really well and the characters really well. It was a long process, actually, of talking to them over and over again, through a series of meetings over a long period of time. And I think they just — we were really passionate about the movie, incredibly passionate about the movie. They felt that, and they felt like it was the right match.
In regards to what appealed to them about Ed Brubaker’s “Winter Soldier” story:
Well, we like the [story.] I can’t talk too much about specifics, that’s the way Marvel handles things. I can say in general that there’s sort of a darker, edgier sensibility at work there that we found appealing, and that is going find its way into Captain [America] in the modern day.
When asked if we would possibly be seeing World War II flashbacks:
Certainly Cap has this complicated history. We’re making the movie for first-time viewers, not just for fans, so, because Cap does have this complicated history — he was this skinny guy who became a super-soldier, he was born back then and he’s living [now] — in the storytelling, you need to convey that to an audience who doesn’t know Cap’s story.
When asked if the expected heavy visual effects were intimidating to them:
They said to us early on in the interview process, “We don’t expect you to know anything [about special effects and so forth] — you don’t have to know everything about this stuff, because we’re here for that.” They’re very respectful of directors. They’re an amazing company to work with.
In regards to if any of the comic creators were involved and have offered advice:
We’re actually going to have lunch with Brubaker soon. But no, they haven’t been involved. In the same way that they would develop a new comic-book series, they give its own space to develop. But certainly everybody is aware [of what’s in the comics], has read everything, is aware of all their other material. But they do like each thing to be its own, organic process, which is nice.
