Guessing who Marvel are going to pick to direct their movies is increasingly becoming a fool’s errand. We could see why Jon Favreau and Louis Leterrier were picked to helm “Iron Man” and “The Incredible Hulk.” But since that opening salvo, they’ve mostly shied away from A-list names and those experienced with action, with names like Kenneth Branagh, Joss Whedon and Shane Black being picked out to helm “Thor,” “The Avengers” and “Iron Man 3.“
And experience in the genre seems to be even less necessary for their sequels: “Monster” director Patty Jenkins, who’s mostly worked on TV, was the original choice to helm “Thor 2,” before another small-screen veteran, Alan Taylor (“Game Of Thrones“) landed the gig. And now a shortlist has emerged as to who might end up directing the sequel to the company’s other 2011 superhero flick, “Captain America: The First Avenger,” and it’s another unexpected, diverse mix.
Vulture report that the studio’s longlist of ten for the sequel (“Captain America: The Second Avenger“?…) has been whittled down to three, and they’re three very different names: George Nolfi, who wrote “Ocean’s Twelve” and “The Bourne Ultimatum” before going on to helm “The Adjustment Bureau,” F. Gary Gray, the director of “Friday,” “The Negotiator” and “The Italian Job” and Joe & Anthony Russo, the TV veterans behind “Arrested Development,” “Community” and “Happy Endings,” who also helmed the features “Welcome To Collinwood” and “You, Me & Dupree.”
They’re an odd collection, certainly, and imagine it’s another case of the hands-on studio wanting cheaper names that won’t rock the boat too much. We have to say, the Russo Brothers would certainly be our pick of the bunch: their TV work is superb, their features underated, and while they haven’t had that much action experience, they recently signed to direct Dwayne Johnson in actioner “Ciudad,” so they’re clearly looking to move into the genre. And according to Vulture, they’ve already won the approval of Marvel head Kevin Feige: the site’s source tells them “[Feige] likes to see if he gets along with people before he’ll decide about spending the next two years with them. And apparently, they hit it off with Kevin in the room.”
It’s the clearest indication that a “Captain America” sequel, which will again be penned by Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely, is moving forward:co-star Neal McDonough was recently quoted as saying that the film would be before cameras by the end of the year, and the timeline seems to match up with that now. Marvel have already bagged two release dates in 2014 for unknown projects, April 4th and May 16th, and it’s looking increasingly likely that “Captain America 2” will be one of them.