Capt. America nabs writers of Chronicles of Narnia

[Snake Eyes-Joe Ninja]

I haven't seen either of them, but they are well-recieved epics, which is needed for a Captain America film.

I'm glad Cap has screenwriters, but how well written are the Narnias?

Any thoughts?

[spacemonkeymafia]

God I hope they nail this....

[Snake Eyes-Joe Ninja]

No kidding. I've bought all of the Cap books by Brubaker the last two weeks and I've read them 3 times.

[Imperial_Serpentor]

Originally Posted by Snake Eyes-Joe Ninja

I haven't seen either of them, but they are well-recieved epics, which is needed for a Captain America film.

I'm glad Cap has screenwriters, but how well written are the Narnias?

Any thoughts?

Well I only watched the first Narnia movie, and I had mixed feelings about it. First off I did like the BBC Narnia series as a kid and also the books, but I feel the Narnia books were a little too forward in their religious agenda (not that I have an objection to it I am Christian myself, though very liberal in my veiws), but I always thought that Lewis' message overpowered his actual writing sometimes and it came across as bland.

Translating it into a movie, I thought they did a good job for the most part, they introduced a new character (the fox who I felt added a lot of drama to the story) and foccused on the World War II scenes at the begining to draw a stronger parallel between Hitler and the Witch. But they also glazed over some important aspects of the story which hurt the film... Over all though, I think they did a good job.

My major concern is that they will go ahead with the rumour and cast Will Smith as Captain America... I will not watch this movie if that's the case.

[Snake Eyes-Joe Ninja]

It got debunked, but current speculation and word is that Will Smith is being talked to about the Falcon, Cap's 21st century partner. My buddy in tinsel town said he heard the same thing.

[oliverbox]

I'm very worried about these Narnian writers work on Captain America.

Let me begin by saying that I'm a huge C.S. Lewis fan. I did a great deal of work in graduate school on his work, one paper was specifically on the Chronicles of Narnia. They are undoubtedly a religious allegory - though Lewis denied the term 'allegory' emphatically. I think he was cutting things a bit finely.

In any case, the first film was dreadful and the second wasn't much better. They simply were not true to the books and they were overly sentimental and "cute". I think Mr. Lewis would have been very disappointed. Leave it to Disney to destroy classic children's literature. They are religious books, to be certain. If Disney didn't want to deal with that, they should have chosen another story to adapt or they should have made up a story of their own. The over sentimentality of the movies is almost nauseating and the overt inaccuracies of the adaptation of the books is infuriating for me.

That being said, I would hate to see Captain America given the same treatment of a total lack of respect for the source material and turning the story into something overly sentimental. I love Captain America. He's the one Marvel Character I could really see working with the Joe Team.

He's a character about duty, and selfless service, and honor. However, if they put in a bunch of cheesy dialog that specifically placed to elicit emotion, and combine it with overly dramatic music - Captain America will come across as VERY cheesy.
Captain America's patriotism is expressed through his calm, stoic, manner of a soldier. His quiet resolve and actions speak much more than some speech he could give in a film set to symphonic music.

I'm a bit of a nationalist. I believe in America for Americans. And most Superheros have an appeal to an international audience. Canadians love Wolverine - he's one of theirs. People all over the world love Spider-man and Batman. DC Comics has even moved away from making Superman an "American" Hero... he's not really fighting for the "American Way" any more. He's fighting for the earth.

That's fine. Those heroes don't need to be "American", not really. But that's not the case with Captain America. He's an American military agent - he works for S.H.I.E.L.D., but he's an American Army Officer. He wears an "A" right on his forehead... as Ultimate Captain America once said, "Do you think this 'A' stands for France?!"

Captain America stands for the very best of American values... but most assuredly, he stands for old fashioned, 1940's, WW2 veteran, AMERICAN values. That's the core of his character. He's conservative; he goes to church on Sunday; he's polite; he's strong on defense and tough on crime; he's not overly concerned with political correctness - he's more concerned with things like "right and wrong" and "fair play".

There's not a lot of gray area with Cap. He's just old school tough, and old school good - the kind of good that sees things in black and white, and sees gray areas as just a lighter shade of black, but still isn't white. He isn't a flawed character, rather, by his own goodness - his own light, he shows the world how flawed it is currently, and how life doesn't necessarily have to be so flawed. He shows modernity that life doesn't have to be gray; it can shine with hope and honor. Cap shames modernity just a little and makes us feel guilty, but he also inspires us to be better than we are, better than we thought we could be. Cap shows us how to be better.

Lewis' books were the same. His characters weren't flawed. Lewis wrote those books to show his own Christian world view: that life could be viewed more simply; that morality was not so complex as to be impossible to navigate; that the Son illuminates our existence and shows us that we can be better people and we don't have to live in darkness or in gray areas.

The modern movie adaptations of Lewis' books have gotten the characters all wrong. And that's the main problem with them; they don't understand the characters. Old books don't have so many flawed characters. That's a post modern invention - and Lewis was adamantly opposed to Post modernism and liberalism.
The movie fails because it doesn't bother to understand the characters in the first place...

Captain America is not like Iron Man or Wolverine. He's not flawed or post modern. He's good. Plain and simple, Captain America is just good. And if these writers fail to understand that about him, the movie won't be true to Cap's essential nature...

And it's the same mistake they made with Lewis' great children's epic. They hardly have a good record to stand on.

So, as I said, I'm worried for the Captain America movie.

[Snake Eyes-Joe Ninja]

Well spoken my friend. Cap is definitely the moral cornerstone of the Marvel U, and I would hate to see him screwed up. I have never read the books or seen the movies, so I'm glad to here info on them, though this does make me slightly worried. I'm going to rent them, regardless, and see what they're like. I believe in Marvel Studios though, and I doubt they'll let what is arguably the protagonist of the Avengers team be depicted in a less-than perfect story.

[CaptainDinobot]

Originally Posted by oliverbox

He's a character about duty, and selfless service, and honor. However, if they put in a bunch of cheesy dialog that specifically placed to elicit emotion, and combine it with overly dramatic music - Captain America will come across as VERY cheesy.
Captain America's patriotism is expressed through his calm, stoic, manner of a soldier. His quiet resolve and actions speak much more than some speech he could give in a film set to symphonic music.

I'm a bit of a nationalist. I believe in America for Americans. And most Superheros have an appeal to an international audience. Canadians love Wolverine - he's one of theirs. People all over the world love Spider-man and Batman. DC Comics has even moved away from making Superman an "American" Hero... he's not really fighting for the "American Way" any more. He's fighting for the earth.

That's fine. Those heroes don't need to be "American", not really. But that's not the case with Captain America. He's an American military agent - he works for S.H.I.E.L.D., but he's an American Army Officer. He wears an "A" right on his forehead... as Ultimate Captain America once said, "Do you think this 'A' stands for France?!"

Captain America stands for the very best of American values... but most assuredly, he stands for old fashioned, 1940's, WW2 veteran, AMERICAN values. That's the core of his character. He's conservative; he goes to church on Sunday; he's polite; he's strong on defense and tough on crime; he's not overly concerned with political correctness - he's more concerned with things like "right and wrong" and "fair play".

There's not a lot of gray area with Cap. He's just old school tough, and old school good - the kind of good that sees things in black and white, and sees gray areas as just a lighter shade of black, but still isn't white. He isn't a flawed character, rather, by his own goodness - his own light, he shows the world how flawed it is currently, and how life doesn't necessarily have to be so flawed. He shows modernity that life doesn't have to be gray; it can shine with hope and honor. Cap shames modernity just a little and makes us feel guilty, but he also inspires us to be better than we are, better than we thought we could be. Cap shows us how to be better. Captain America is not like Iron Man or Wolverine. He's not flawed or post modern. He's good. Plain and simple, Captain America is just good. And if these writers fail to understand that about him, the movie won't be true to Cap's essential nature...

So, as I said, I'm worried for the Captain America movie.

Damn straight, well put. With as anti-American Hollyowood can be I'm somewhat worried about this and G.I. Joe as well.

[Snake Eyes-Joe Ninja]

True, but fortunately, Hollywood can occasionally treat WWII correctly...

[spacemonkeymafia]

Originally Posted by Snake Eyes-Joe Ninja

It got debunked, but current speculation and word is that Will Smith is being talked to about the Falcon, Cap's 21st century partner. My buddy in tinsel town said he heard the same thing.

I dont think you have to worry about Falcon or Will Smith. The movie will end with him going on ice or coming out. Maybe the Avengers Will find him at the end or maybe they continue the Cap movie with Avengers.....

Its a period piece set in WW 2......