SCIFI MEDIA ZONE: Entering the project, what sort of apprehensions or expectations did you have and how did the actual experience compare?
JOE JOHNSTON: I had been so conditioned to expect it to be less than pleasant that I was happily surprised on a daily basis. I thrive on chaos…I secretly enjoy it when everything is falling apart and success or failure is hanging by its fingernails, but thanks to my great crew and AD team, there just wasn’t that much chaos. CAPTAIN AMERICA ran about as smoothly as a picture this big can run. We had a lot of laughs and a hell of a lot of fun in the process and based on first reactions from the post-production team, the fun translates onto the screen.
SCIFI MEDIA ZONE: Along those same lines, what did you think of Captain America when you started and had your opinion been affected at all in the aftermath of shooting the film?
JOE JOHNSTON: I went into this wanting to make a great version of a comic book film…MY version of a comic book film. I’ve turned down other superhero movies because I never related to the superpower thing but I love the idea of Steve Rogers/Captain America from the beginning. Here’s a guy who is basically Everyman…actually less than everyman. He’s a 98-pound weakling who becomes the perfect human specimen in the space of a few minutes. Think of the world’s greatest Olympian…the fastest runner, the strongest weightlifter, an unbeatable fighter…and add another 50%. Every feat of strength or speed that Steve Rogers performs is awesome, but totally believable. I think that grounding the visual effects in the laws of physics (and I’m very fond of the laws of physics) helps to engage the audience in the character’s journey.
SCIFI MEDIA ZONE: The real question fans want answered is when we're going to see a trailer for the film.
JOE JOHNSTON: All I can say is we're working on it now and it's great, but we're not putting it out there until the vfx shots are perfect.