Development In April 1997,
Marvel Studios was in negotiations with
Mark Gordon and
Gary Levinsohn to produce
Captain America, and Larry Wilson and
Leslie Bohem were set to write a script. In May 2000, Marvel teamed with
Artisan Entertainment to help finance the film. However, a lawsuit arose between
Marvel Comics and
Joe Simon over the ownership of
Captain America copyrights, disrupting the development process of the film. The lawsuit was eventually settled in September 2003. Following the settlement, Marvel was preparing to license the film rights to
Warner Bros. until producer
David Maisel suggested that the company produce the film themselves. In 2005, Marvel received a $525 million investment from
Merrill Lynch, allowing them to independently produce ten films, including
Captain America.
Paramount Pictures agreed to distribute the film. Originally, the film would stand alone; producer
Kevin Feige said "about half" the movie would be set during
World War II before moving into the modern day. Producer
Avi Arad said, "The biggest opportunity with
Captain America is as a man 'out of time', coming back today, looking at our world through the eyes of someone who thought the perfect world was small-town
United States. Sixty years go by, and who are we today? Are we better?" He cited the
Back to the Future trilogy as an influence, and claimed he had "someone in mind to be the star, and definitely someone in mind to be the director". In February 2006, Arad hoped to have a summer 2008 theatrical release date.
Jon Favreau approached Arad to direct the film as a comedy, but he chose to make
Iron Man (2008) instead. In April 2006,
David Self was hired to write the script. He explained that Captain America was his favorite superhero as a child because "my dad told me I could one day be Captain America".
Joe Johnston met with Marvel to discuss directing the film.
Captain America was put on hold during the
2007–2008 Writers Guild of America strike. However, in January 2008,
Marvel Entertainment reached an interim comprehensive agreement with the
Writers Guild of America that would put writers immediately back to work on various projects that were under the company's development. On May 5, 2008 (after the success of
Iron Man), Marvel announced the film
The First Avenger: Captain America (the working title) for release on May 6, 2011 (before being pushed back to July 22).
Louis Leterrier, director of
The Incredible Hulk (2008), viewed some of the
concept art being created for the film and was impressed enough to offer his services, but Marvel turned him down. Johnston finally signed on in November 2008, and he hired
Christopher Markus & Stephen McFeely to rewrite. Feige cited Johnston's directorial work on
October Sky (1999) and
The Rocketeer (1991) and his special effects work on the
original Star Wars trilogy (1977-1983) to explain why he was an appropriate choice.
Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981), in which Johnston worked for the special effects, was an influence on the film, because they hoped the film would not feel like a period piece. When asked whether anti-US sentiments would affect the film's box office, Feige said, "Marvel is perceived pretty well around the world right now, and I think putting another uber-Marvel hero into the worldwide box office would be a good thing. ... We have to deal with much the same way that Captain America, when thawed from the Arctic ice, entered a world that he didn't recognize," similar to the way Stan Lee and
Jack Kirby reintroduced the character in the 1960s. Likewise, Arad noted, "Captain America stands for freedom for all democracies, for hope all around the world. He was created to stop tyranny and the idea of stopping tyranny is important today as it was then. So I think that we will have some interesting challenges but at the end of the day if the movie is terrific and the movie talks to the world, it's not about one place, it's about the world and I think [on] that basis it will be very successful". Later, after the election of US President
Barack Obama, Feige commented, "The idea of change and hope has permeated the country, regardless of politics, and that includes
Hollywood. Discussions in all our development meetings include the
zeitgeist and how it's changed in the last two weeks. Things are being adjusted". The creative team opted to not push the title character to fight any members of the
Nazi Party like in a usual World War II movie, as their goal was to depict the conflict through the
Marvel Universe's "prism". Although they didn't have problems to feature Nazis in the film, with Feige loving an iconic Captain America cover where the character punches
Adolf Hitler out, the team felt that using
Hydra as the main antagonists would make them be "true" to the comic book's many aspects. It was because of this that Markus and McFeely found sense in using the
Cosmic Cube, already set up in
Thor (2011), as the film's
MacGuffin, while using a younger
Howard Stark as a key ally for the protagonist would bring, according to Markus, "that
Tony Starkness".
Pre-production In December 2009, director Joe Johnston indicated that he planned to start filming in April 2010. In a separate interview that month, he described the film's
pre-production: "
Rick Heinrichs is
production-designing and we're set up down in
Manhattan Beach, California. ... 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. The film, he said, will begin "in 1942, 1943" during World War II. "The stuff in the '60s and '70s [comic books] we're sort of avoiding. We're going back to the '40s, and then forward to what they're doing with Captain America now". In February 2010, Johnston stated that the
Invaders will appear in "the entire second half" of the film, leading fans to speculate this was the World War II-era Marvel superhero team of that name, and in November, Johnston refuted speculation that the
Sub-Mariner, an Invaders team-member in the comics, would be included. Johnston later explained that "the Invaders" had been discussed simply as a possible name for the squad of commandos Captain America leads in the film. Christopher Markus, one of the screenwriters, said the unnamed group was "called the
Howling Commandos in the script, but no one says that out loud". The design as a whole tried to create technology that could be built in the 1940s, though with the added Cube technology in Hydra's case. Abandoned Nazi projects or actual vehicles from the period were used as inspiration.
Daniel Simon, who was previously responsible for many vehicle designs in
Tron: Legacy (2010), was appointed Lead Vehicle Designer. Director Johnston cited Simon's book
Cosmic Motors as a reason to trust his influence, saying "he's sort of the guy I wanted to be when I was designing stuff for
Star Wars". The
Red Skull's car, for instance, was based on two
Mercedes-Benz vehicles from the 1930s, the
540K and the
G4. In March 2010, it was reported that
Chris Evans was cast as
Captain America and
Hugo Weaving as the Red Skull; Marvel Studios confirmed the latter in May.
John Krasinski,
Channing Tatum,
Chace Crawford,
Ryan Phillippe,
Garrett Hedlund,
Michael Cassidy,
Patrick Flueger,
Scott Porter,
Wilson Bethel,
Mike Vogel,
Dane Cook,
Ryan McPartlin,
Ethan Peck,
Zachary Levi,
Glen Powell,
Jensen Ackles,
Wyatt Russell, and
Chris Pratt were also considered for the role of Captain America. Casting director
Sarah Halley Finn said Evans was cast in part because of his relatable humility alongside a vulnerability and strength that could portray both "skinny" Steve Rogers and Captain America. In April 2010,
Sebastian Stan, who also originally auditioned for the title role, was cast as
Bucky Barnes. Stan was contracted for multiple films. When casting Stan, Feige believed he would be a good Barnes but a ""
Winter Soldier in future films. Also in April, Marvel announced that
Hayley Atwell had been cast as
Peggy Carter, and that the film's name had been changed from
The First Avenger: Captain America to
Captain America: The First Avenger.
Keira Knightley,
Alice Eve, and
Emily Blunt were also considered for the role of Peggy Carter. The next day it was reported that
Joss Whedon would be rewriting the script as part of his negotiation to write and direct
The Avengers (2012). Whedon said in August, "I just got to make some character connections. The structure of the thing was really tight and I loved it, but there were a couple of opportunities to find his voice a little bit —and some of the other characters' — and make the connections so that you understood exactly why he wanted to be who he wanted to be. And progressing through the script to flesh it out a little bit".
Samuel L. Jackson revealed in an interview that he would reprise his role as
Nick Fury in the film. In May,
Toby Jones entered final negotiations to play
Arnim Zola.
Iron Man director Jon Favreau said a younger Howard Stark would appear in the film, played by
Dominic Cooper. Atwell revealed that
Tommy Lee Jones would have a role in the film. By June,
Neal McDonough was in talks to play
Dum Dum Dugan. Four days later, he confirmed he was taking the part. The same day,
Stanley Tucci joined the cast as
Dr. Abraham Erskine, the scientist who created the super-soldier serum.
Filming on the set of
Captain America: The First Avenger Principal photography began on June 28, 2010, with the
working title FrostBite. On the same day, Marvel confirmed that Lee Jones had been cast to play
US Army Colonel Chester Phillips. The next day Marvel confirmed that Cooper would portray the younger version of Howard Stark, the character played by
John Slattery in
Iron Man 2 (2010). It was announced that the film would shoot in
London in late July and was expected to include scenes featuring key London landmarks. War scenes were filmed in September at the former
Royal Navy Propellant Factory in the
Welsh village of
Caerwent. Filming was scheduled to take place that month in the
Northern Quarter of
Manchester, where parts of
Alfie (2004) and
Sherlock Holmes (2009) had been shot, followed by the
Stanley Dock area of
Liverpool, both doubling for the period's
Lower East Side of
Manhattan. Further scenes were scheduled to be shot in Liverpool's
Albert Dock. Johnston included a scene of a technology fair that includes in passing a display case containing the 1940s android superhero known as the original
Human Torch, another character, like Captain America, in comics published by Marvel Comics' predecessor,
Timely Comics. Some filming also took place at Pinewood Studios, with Pinewood's A Stage, their South Dock, and their Underwater Stage all being used by the crew. Six months of filming also occurred at Shepperton Studios, with nine stages being used. In July 2010,
Marvel Studios head
Kevin Feige said that both this film and
Thor would be released in
3-D. Johnston did a one-day test shooting with a 3-D rig, rather than shooting in
2-D and converting, and found it "a nightmare" due to bulky gear, calibration issues and restricted filmmaking options. Nevertheless, he said he believes 3-D is "a new challenge and it's exciting". Feige insisted that the conversion would not compromise the film's image quality, as the decision to release the film in 3-D was made early in development, and that "an unprecedented amount of time" would be devoted to the conversion process, to render all the film's
visual effects in true 3-D. In November 2010, Stanley Tucci stated that he had completed filming his scenes and that the rest of the production would wrap in about three weeks.
Post-production before (top) and after (bottom) he was visually reduced In February 2011, it was announced that
Alan Silvestri had been chosen to compose the
film score. In March 2011, it was reported that
Captain America: The First Avenger would be undergoing reshoots in the United Kingdom and in Los Angeles in April 2011. Writer
Eric Pearson, who was part of Marvel Studios' writers program, did uncredited work creating lines of dialogue for Evans to say during
automated dialogue replacement (ADR) to help make the film cohesive. A scene was also filmed in New York City's Times Square on April 23, 2011. The film features nearly 1,600 visual effects shots, which were split between thirteen different companies. To achieve the appearance of the skinny, pre-serum Steve Rogers, director Joe Johnston stated that he used two major techniques:
Captain America's shield, which serves as both a defensive tool and a weapon, came in four types: metal,
fiberglass, rubber, and
computer graphics (CG). Prop master Barry Gibbs specified that "We had the 'hero shield,' which was made of aluminum, for our beauty shots [and] close-up work. We then created a lighter shield that was aluminum-faced with a fiberglass back, for use on a daily basis. ... And then we had a stunt shield made of
polyurethane, which is sort of a synthetic rubber ... and we made an ultrasoft one we put on [Evans'] back, so that if there were an accident, it wouldn't hurt him". Visual effects supervisor Christopher Townsend said Evans "would practice swinging the practical shield so he knew the arc and the speed at which he should move. We would take the shield from him and shoot the scene with him miming it. Then we would add in a CG shield". Hugo Weaving, who portrayed the Red Skull, wore a latex mask conceived by prosthetic makeup designer David White. The visual effects team had to manipulate his face considerably, as the mask was bulky and they wanted to make it look like tight skin wrapped around a very bony structure. They thinned out Weaving's cheeks and lower lip, hollowed out his eyes, and removed his eyelashes and nose to make him appear more like the Red Skull character.
Closing credits were created by visual effects firm Rok!t by means of 3-D and stereoscopic processing that used iconic American war propaganda, such as
James Montgomery Flagg's
Uncle Sam recruitment poster from World War I and
J. Howard Miller's "
We Can Do It!" poster from World War II. ==Music==