Interview: ‘Captain America’ Screenwriters Stephen McFeely And Christopher Markus
By Peter Sciretta/July 19, 2011 11:00 am EST
Question: I loved the film by the wayStephen McFeely: Thanks.Christopher Markus: Thank you.Stephen McFeely: If you didn’t though, how would you have opened this? (Laughs)Question: I wouldn’t have said anything.Stephen McFeely:You would’ve said, “Thanks for sitting down with me…”
[Everyone Laughs]
Question: Exactly and let me say I came into the film very hesitant.Christopher Markus: Were you Cap guy or not really?Question: Not really and the commercials and stuff seem very… The tone in the commercials and the clips make it seem very jokey and corny, but in the movie it completely fits. It works. Were you guys big Cap fans? Did you grow up with the comics?Stephen McFeely: Chris was a comic book guy.Christopher Markus: I was a comic book guy, not so much a Cap guy, when I was a kid and then I kind of fell of entirely. I think because he’s not as kid accessible in a way in that he’s like a grown up, but now I’m like “I can’t stop.” I’m still researching the movie even though it’s out in the movie theaters.Question: How did you guys become involved?Stephen McFeely:We chased it down. It was May of 2008 that we got word that Marvel was likely going to do a period CAPTAIN AMERICA and we just froze. We went “Oh my God!“Question: So that is what appealed to you? The period?Stephen McFeely: The period is huge for us. I mean we had sort of in vacuum, not that anybody approached us, said “Wouldn’t it be great to do a superhero movie in period?” It would solve so many villain problems for one you know, you don’t have to go very far in the 1940’s to find a guy who wants to take over the world. You don’t have to make up a whole crazy background about a billionaire.Christopher Markus: And it also solves hero problems. Because it’s been so good and has been so successful, the darkness of the BATMAN movies… There’s a tendency where you want to make everybody corrupted and if you are going to do the old fashioned superhero, it just comes off corny if it’s now for some reason. It’s just sort of like…Stephen McFeely:Well he’s a product of WWII, so why would you hide from how he was created? It makes a lot more sense for a guy to step out in a slightly American flag outfit in 1942 than I does in 2011. You are making a different statement if you walk out of your garage in a Captain America outfit for the first time now than you would have during WWII.Questions: So had there been a script done before you?Stephen McFeely:We never read it.Christopher Markus: We have been told there was a script, but we’ve never seen it.Question: So you went into Marvel and you pitched your idea?Stephen McFeely:Yeah, we said “Hey…” And we weren’t necessarily on their radar. For them and for a lot of people we were “The guys who wrote the NARNIA movies” and so that’s not necessarily the same ground.Christopher Markus: And they certainly had elements that they knew they wanted. WWII, Red Skull…Stephen McFeely: And that’s what everyone wanted. I mean if I tell you “You’ve got a Captain America movie and you’ve got one shot, it’s going to be an origin story.” You know your villain, because there’s one leader in the clubhouse, right? And you’ve got to get him to the end, you’ve got to freeze him, so you kind of know the beginning and you kind of know the end and there are ways to do all of that, but really the bulk is “What story are you going to tell in the middle that’s going to give you something about this character?“Question: I was surprised that Hitler wasn’t really on screen.Stephen McFeely:No, but think about that. You would really have to link Hitler and the Red Skull. I think we all want the Red Skull to be the villain; you don’t want him to be Hitler’s lackey.Christopher Markus: And also if Cap fights Hitler…
Christopher Markus: “This is neutral ground.“Stephen McFeely: “How does it work?“Question: What is your process? It’s always different, as you know.Christopher Markus: Sure.Stephen McFeely: Yeah, ours is sort of three pronged, so we outline the hell out of stuff, so that’s cards on the floor and everything is possible and that’s sort of the most laborious, least fun, part. Whether it’s a Peter Sellers biopic or its 70 years of Captain America comics, everything gets a card and so you look at it and go “All right, what’s repetitive?” Pick those out. “What do we need? We know we need the origin story. We know he needs to go in the arctic at the end.” You know it sort of whittles itself into this structure and then once we have done that first part, the second part is splitting it up. So I’ll take one through six of the outline and he will take seven through twelve and then we will go away and come back.Christopher Markus: There are too many pointless arguments you can have at that stage of writing that you just need to have words on the page and you don’t need to argue about them.Stephen McFeely: Right, because at the third part you are going to rewrite it any way. So once we have that big ugly Frankenstein draft that’s kind of repetitive and has some little nuggets of goodness, then we take that script and we rewrite that together in the same room and that’s getting in and out of the chair.Christopher Markus: There’s a lot of reading it out loud and really noticing when it just sort of grinds to a halt and we go “That’s not right…”
[Both Laugh]
Question: When you are in there with Marvel and they are like “We need this, this, and this,” is there anything that they pitched to you guys that just couldn’t fit into the movie?Stephen McFeely: Good question.Christopher Markus: I mean there are certainly things…Question: Or even ideas in the comics that you guys wanted.Christopher Markus: There are certainly things that we all loved that I mean either wouldn’t’ fit, because they are clearly from a present day Cap as opposed to a period Cap…Stephen McFeely: Yeah and I mean there’s some stuff that they just don’t have the rights to the character for you know. “Wouldn’t it be great if that guy stopped by?” “That guy can’t stop by… That’s a different studio…“Question: Did you ever write that and then they were…Stephen McFeely: No, we knew who they had control of.Christopher Markus: And also because we are dealing, for a large chunk of the movie, with a brand new Cap who is only just then learning his skills you know he can’t do a quadruple back flip and whip the shield and fling it off for a large part of the movie.Stephen McFeely: He has to grow.Christopher Markus: Yeah, you’re kind of jonesing for full on battle Cap who you can’t have until a little bit.Question: In setting this one in the period, I think that sets a sequel up for… The thing I did like about THOR is a guy from another universe on Earth and dealing with that stuff and it seems like you are setting yourself up for “This guy from another time…“Stephen McFeely: Ah, a similar kind of thing. Cap’s not the angstiest of characters, but he’s going to be… It’s that first few moments of AVENGERS and whatever we are left with after AVENGERS of this man out of time.Christopher Markus: In a way, this movie is the Kirby Simon and you kind of want to travel into Stan Lee country in the next one where he’s a little more fucked up about having left that world behind.Stephen McFeely: Right, “All of my friends are dead. My values may not be the values around me. Why do you guys do it this way? What am I looking at?” You know, that kind of stuff.Question: I think that’s really interesting. And that comes to the end of my questions. I want to thank you guys.Christopher Markus: Thank you.Stephen McFeely: We appreciate it.Question: I appreciate it.Stephen McFeely: Thank you.
