Chris Evans

Cap is embarking on another solo adventure. Marvel Studios announced Monday that production is set to begin on “Captain America: The Winter Soldier.” Chris Evans will reprise his title role from “Captain America: The First Avenger” in the sequel, which will be directed by Joe and Anthony Russo from a screenplay by Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely, who also wrote the first film. The film, set to shoot in Los Angeles, Cleveland and Washington, D.C., will also feature Scarlett Johansson as Black Widow and Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury. In addition, Robert Redford has joined the cast as Agent Alexander Pierce, a senior leader within the S.H.I.E.L.D. organization. “I’m doing this film because it’s different. It’s a new thing for me,” Redford explained during a Q&A as part of the L.A. Times Indie Focus Screening Series. The Academy Award-winner was appearing […]

Turns out Hulk isn’t the only one who can deliver a big green smash. Joss Whedon just scored a Galactus-sized success with “The Avengers,” which not only topped the “Harry Potter” single-weekend record, it made the once magical Hogwarts crowd seem like, well, schoolchildren waving sticks in the air. The sixth Marvel Studios release just completed the best opening weekend in movie history, earning $200.3 million at the domestic box office, an especially staggering number when you consider that previous mark by “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows — Part 2″ was $169.2-million. More than that, with all the sparkling reviews, director and co-writer Whedon has a genuine summer cinema supernova — Tony Stark is still at the center of the Marvel Studios universe, but now he’s not the only one standing there in the warm glow of cascading cosmic rays. The numbers are bigger the deeper you look. The North […]

The news is grim — a team member has gone down, the worst is feared — and Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.) and Captain America (Chris Evans) exchange pensive looks while, all around them, the agents of a super-spy agency called S.H.I.E.L.D. tend to their duties as an off-planet enemy force threatens the entire planet. The scene, being filmed on an elevated set, was watched from a safe — and ironic — distance by Joss Whedon. “You know, you shouldn’t worry too much,” the director and co-writer of “The Avengers” reassured a visitor to the New Mexico set. “This kind of stuff happens here almost every day in the Marvel universe.” It does feel sometimes like Hollywood has become a digital factory dedicated to cosmic dangers, costumed heroes and CG magic but “The Avengers” is a special case even in this summer […]

In last year’s ”Captain America: The First Avenger,” the title hero not only proved himself on the battlefields of World War II he also showed enough at the box office to earn a sequel, which will reach theaters April 4, 2014, and will feature a modern-day setting, according to Marvel and Walt Disney Studios. Chris Evans is expected to return as the star-spangled avenger in that sequel, but first he’s doing a tour of duty in “The Avengers,”  the May 4 release that represents an all-star squad of Marvel Studios heroes. That movie, directed by Joss Whedon, will put the patriotic character together with Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.), Thor (Chris Hemsworth), the Hulk (Mark Ruffalo), Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson), Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner) and spy-master Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson). “Captain America: The First Avenger” made $369 million in worldwide box office, a solid total considering some observers […]

When “The Avengers” arrives in theaters on May 4 it represents an unprecedented Hollywood experiment — can the narrative threads from four different superhero franchises come together to form a unified tapestry in a fifth, all-star franchise? With “The Avengers,” director Joss Whedon will bring together the stars of three franchises — Robert Downey Jr. as Iron Man,  Chris Evans as Captain America and Chris Hemsworth as Thor — and the title character of a fourth — the Hulk, whose human alter ego, Bruce Banner, will be portrayed this time by Mark Ruffalo. From day one, the lead architect of the plan has been Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige, who said Friday that the marathon reaches out to the most fervent of fans. “We have always made the Marvel movies as stand-alone superhero stories, each autonomous of one another and delivered to appeal audiences everywhere,” […]

In “Captain America: The First Avenger,” Chris Evans plays a man who can’t wait to wear a uniform but off-screen it sounds as if the actor was reluctantly drafted to duty. Evans had so much trepidation about taking on the role of Steve Rogers — and his red, white and blue alter ego — that he repeatedly turned down the part. But director Joe Johnston and Marvel Studios executives felt strongly that he was the right man to carry the shield of Captain America. “Unfortunately, before he said ‘no,’ we envisioned him in the role. And then we went on to screen test 12 or 15 guys and we were never really happy with what we were getting and we felt like we were settling if we went with any one of those guys,” Johnston explained on Tuesday at the […]

If any actor knows the anxieties and payoff of stepping onto the silver screen as a superhero, it’s Robert Downey Jr., who super-charged his career by donning the armor of Iron Man for a franchise that has pulled in more than $1.2 billion  in worldwide box office. On Tuesday at the premiere of “Captain America: The First Avenger” at the El Capitan Theatre, Downey said he knew what it was like to walk a mile in the red boots of Chris Evans, the latest Marvel Universe star. “Evans has had just a nerve-racking summer up to this point,” he said. “Up until this night, you’re starting to get the feedback and people are saying, ‘Wow, this really works. And we’re happy and reviews are good and it looks like the numbers are gonna be good.’ It’s a horrible part of the job that we do. […]

Joe Johnston dropped by Hero Complex this morning for a live-chat with our readers and  the ever-candid filmmaker shared plenty of insights about “Captain America: The First Avenger,” his career and his future (including that could-it-be-true Boba Fett film). You can  read the whole chat right here but here are some of highlight comments. On the Marvel Universe films: “We didn’t really direct this film toward ‘The Avengers.’ All I had to do was to bring Cap back to life and hand him off to ['Avengers' director Joss Whedon]. On the film’s villains: “We turned the Nazis into Hydra, the uber Nazis. Real Nazis aren’t funny, but you can slaughter them in all kinds of interesting ways and get away with it … Red Skull is a great comic book villain, but I wanted him real and more ‘human’ than he is in the […]

Square-jawed superhero Steve Rogers lays strangely immobile in the bowels of an enormous “suborbital bomber” — a contraption that looks like Howard Hughes’ legendary Spruce Goose if it were pimped out for Darth Vader. His eyes closed, the hero might be lost in deep contemplation or possibly praying for help to foil an evil plot, in this case the impending launch of a missile targeted at a major American city. But from a certain vantage point, his face pressed against the glass encasing the weapon, it sure looks as though Captain America’s snoozing. Even if Chris Evans, who plays the weakling soldier wannabe turned strapping superhero in the new film “Captain America: The First Avenger,” were catching a few winks, it would be tough to blame him. The actor, 30, had to bulk up at the gym to better embody […]

Marvel Studios printed up 100 copies of a special poster just for the cast and crew of “Captain America: The First Avenger” and we’ll be giving away five of them on Sunday at the Hero Complex Film Festival in Hollywood. The retro-minded poster (and a nod to the first issue of the comic book) was created by the talented Paolo Rivera, whose many credits include covers for ”Fantastic Four,” “Spectacular Spider-Man” and “X-Men: Unlimited.” I’m thinking that one of those posters might go to the person in audience with the best Marvel Universe costume. The giveaway will be part of our big Marvel presentation on Sunday. We’ll be showing, for the first time anywhere, the new trailer for “Captain America: The First Avenger,” the wartime adventure directed by Joe Johnston and starring Chris Evans as the star-spangled character that has been fighting the good […]