Blimey!
When Captain America throws his mighty shield, he’ll be doing it in England, not the US.
Producers for the big budget movie “Captain America: The First Avenger” movie are moving the production of the $140 million film on the patriotic Marvel Comics superhero from sunny Los Angeles to soggy London, it was reported today.
Marvel Studios co-President Louis D’Esposito told the Los Angeles Times they were outsourcing of one of the country’s greatest resources for financial and common sense reasons.
Much of the film, which stars Chris Evans as Cap and Hugo Weaving as the evil Red Skull, is set during World War 2, and features a number of scenes in London, including one in Piccadilly Circus, the Times said. It also includes other European locales, as the Star-Spangled Avenger fights the good fight against the Nazis.
D’Esposito said it wouldn’t have been economically feasible to do stage work in LA and shoot exteriors in London given the heavy filming required in Europe.
“I actually had location scouts [in LA] to see what could be done,” he said. “But it would have required so much visual-effects work and set construction, it didn’t make sense.”
He also told the paper that England’s favorable tax incentives played a role in the decision-making as well.
The report noted that Marvel Studios had shot most of its first three projects — “Iron Man,” “Iron Man 2” and “Thor” — in Los Angeles. “Thor,” starring Chris Hemsworth as the hammer-swinging Norse god of thunder, recently wrapped filming and is set to open in May of next year. “Captain America” is scheduled to open in July of 2011, and then all three characters are expected to team-up for “The Avengers” in 2012.
Other Marvel mainstays such as the Hulk may appear in the movie as well.
While the Captain not-in-America announcement has angered many fans online because the red, white and blue costumed crimefighter is as American as apple pie, the character doesn’t have any West Coast roots.
In the comics, the shield-slinging defender of the American way is a New York guy named Steve Rogers who was born and raised on the Lower East Side during the Great Depression. After a few decades in suspended animation, he emerges into modern life — and moves to the more affordable Red Hook, Brooklyn.
The Sentinel of Liberty got involved in World War 2 a full year before his country did — the cover of the December, 1940 Captain America No. 1 features him slugging Hitler in the face.