Joe Johnston talks a bit more about Captain America

CAPTAIN AMERICA (I’m still hoping they drop that goofy THE FIRST AVENGER subtitle) arrives next summer just a few weeks after THOR. And while the Thunder God has a full cast and is already rolling before cameras, it seems like CAP is just sitting in the corner polishing his shield.

While finishing up THE WOLFMAN (finally?!?), CAP director Joe Johnston gave FilmJournal a quick update on Marvel’s square-jawed U.S. hero: “We’re in prep. Rick Heinrichs is production-designing and we’re set up down in Manhattan Beach [California]. It’s the part of the process that I love the most. We have eight or ten really talented artists, and we all just sit around all day and draw pictures and say, ‘Hey, wouldn’t it be cool if we could do this?’ It’s that phase of the production where money doesn’t matter: ‘Let’s put all the greatest stuff up on the wall and [then later] see what we can afford.'”

Let’s hope they have some kind of reasonably solid script they’re working from, and not still just spitballing ideas, huh?

But don’t worry — Johnston says you’ll get to see the guy with the stars-and-stripes deliver patriotic knuckle sandwiches to the Nazis, as well as modern-day villains. “We’re going back to the ’40s, and then forward to what they’re doing with Captain America now.”

The movie will supposedly start shooting this summer, so there’s surely a short-list of actors being considered to wear the forehead-A. But aside from fancasting, I haven’t heard a single name rumored so far…