From Marvel Studios comes the highly anticipated “Captain America: Civil War,” the third film in the Captain America franchise and the first film in Phase 3 of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
Marvel’s “Captain America: Civil War” finds Steve Rogers leading the newly formed team of Avengers in their continued efforts to safeguard humanity. But after another incident involving the Avengers results in collateral damage, political pressure mounts to install a system of accountability, headed by a governing body to oversee and direct the team. The new status quo fractures the Avengers, resulting in two camps one led by Steve Rogers and his desire for the Avengers to remain free to defend humanity without government interference, and the other following Tony Stark’s surprising decision to support government oversight and accountability.
Based on the beloved Marvel comic book series, first published in 1941, Marvel’s “Captain America: Civil War” stars Chris Evans (“Captain America: The Winter Soldier,” “Marvel’s The Avengers”) as the iconic Super Hero character Steve Rogers/Captain America; Robert Downey Jr. (“Avengers: Age of Ultron,” “Iron Man 3”) as Tony Stark/Iron Man; Scarlett Johansson (“Avengers: Age of Ultron,” “Captain America: The Winter Soldier”) as Natasha Romanoff/Black Widow; Sebastian Stan (“Captain America: The Winter Soldier,” “Black Swan”) as Bucky Barnes/Winter Soldier; Anthony Mackie (“Captain America: The Winter Soldier,” “The Hurt Locker”) as Sam Wilson/Falcon; Don Cheadle (“Avengers: Age of Ultron,” “House of Lies”) as Colonel James Rhodes/War Machine; Jeremy Renner (“Avengers: Age of Ultron,” “Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation”) as Clint Barton/Hawkeye; and Elizabeth Olsen (“Avengers: Age of Ultron,” “Godzilla”) as Wanda Maximoff/ Scarlet Witch.
The film also includes an outstanding supporting cast, including Paul Bettany (“Avengers: Age of Ultron,” “Iron Man 3”) as Vision; Paul Rudd (“Ant-Man,” “Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues”) as Scott Lang/Ant-Man; Chadwick Boseman (“42,” “Get on Up”) as T’Challa/Black Panther; Emily VanCamp (“Captain America: The Winter Soldier,” “Revenge”) as Sharon Carter; Daniel Brühl (“Inglourious Basterds,” “Bourne Ultimatum”) as Zemo; Frank Grillo (“Captain America: The Winter Soldier”) as Brock Rumlow/Crossbones; William Hurt (“A History of Violence,” Marvel’s “The Incredible Hulk”) as General Ross; and Martin Freeman (“The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey,” “The Hobbit: The Battle of Five Armies”) as Everett Ross.
Marvel Studios’ “Captain America: Civil War” is directed by Emmy® Award-winning directors Anthony and Joe Russo from a screenplay by Christopher Markus & Stephen McFeely. Kevin Feige is producing the film with Louis D’Esposito, Victoria Alonso, Patricia Whitcher, Nate Moore and Stan Lee serving as executive producers.
Directors Anthony and Joe Russo’s creative team also includes director of photography Trent Opaloch (“Captain America: The Winter Soldier,” “Elysium”); production designer Owen Paterson (“Godzilla,” “Matrix”); editors Jeffrey Ford, A.C.E. (“Avengers: Age of Ultron,” “Captain America: The Winter Soldier”) and Matthew Schmidt (“Avengers: Age of Ultron,” “Iron Man 3”); three-time, Oscar®-nominated costume designer Judianna Makovsky (“Captain America: The Winter Soldier,” “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone”); visual effects supervisor Jen Underdahl (“Captain America: The Winter Soldier,” “The Avengers”); and six-time Oscar® nominee, special effects supervisor Dan Sudick (“Captain America: The Winter Soldier,” “The Avengers”).
“Captain America: Civil War” releases in the Philippines on April 27, 2016.
THE DIRECTORS & THE STORY
With the box office and critical success of “Captain America: The Winter Soldier,” producer Kevin Feige and his team were excited to bring the Russo brothers back to direct the third movie of the franchise. With each of the first two films in the franchise having different styles and tones, the Russo Brothers explain how they approached “Civil War.”
“The concept of Civil War is very important,” says Joe Russo. “We felt like we needed to go in a radical direction if we were going to direct another Captain America installment. From the beginning, we strongly advocated for the Civil War storyline. Once everyone agreed to it, we immediately sat down and started carefully discussing the arcs of each character, which helped us figure out what we wanted the movie to be.”
While the Russo Brothers wanted to continue the visceral tone established in “Captain America: Winter Soldier,” they also wanted that dynamic to permeate throughout the entire cast of characters. “Every character in this film has a distinct voice,” says Anthony Russo. “After working together on ‘Winter Soldier,’ they deeply understand the tone that we like to bring to these films. It’s more grounded; it’s based in realism. There are also political undertones that reflect real world issues in the story, which gives it an immediacy for the audience.”
The director continues, “Our goal was to tell the story in such a way that both sides have really compelling cases. Both Tony Stark and Steve Rogers individually as characters have very compelling points of view. We wanted people to be conflicted and torn, which creates a sense of tension about what’s going to happen going forward after this film.”
THE CAST ASSEMBLES
With screenwriters Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely putting the final touches on the screenplay, the filmmakers turned their sights on finalizing the cast of characters that would be included in the epic “Civil War” story line. Despite the large cast of characters ultimately needed to tell the story, “Captain America: Civil War” begins and ends with its lead character Steve Rogers, aka Captain America.
Returning for the fifth time to play the greatest soldier of all time is Chris Evans, and he is excited about his character’s arc in “Captain America: Civil War.” “What I think is nice about where they’re pushing him is that it’s the first time Steve doesn’t really know the answer,” says Evans. “It’s always pretty cut and dry for him to know which side of the coin to fall on but this one is tricky because this conflict is a little more akin to a day-to-day struggle that we all go through where there are no clear lines between what is right and what is wrong. There’s just a point of view, and I think it’s hard for him to understand what the right thing to do is and what his role is this time around.”
Making his Captain America franchise debut, Robert Downey Jr. returns as the godfather of all Super Heroes, Tony Stark aka Iron Man. The actor explains what it means when Iron Man and Captain America find themselves at odds in the film’s story. “You don’t want to see these two characters create a tear in the fabric of their relationship because you know how pervasive it can be,” says Downey. “So it gives you a fair amount of shatter to play with. I’ve always liked the idea of how do you recover from that. What has to happen for there to be any sort of homeostasis by the end of a rift like that between Steve and Tony?”
Returning to the fold as one of Steve Rogers’ best friends and ally is Natasha Romanoff, aka Black Widow. For Scarlett Johansson, playing a character for the fifth time is something the actress has never experienced before in her illustrious career. “I really can’t think of any other opportunity where I would have the opportunity to grow with a character as I have with Natasha Romanoff,” says Scarlett Johansson. “After all we know from what’s happened in ‘Avengers: Age of Ultron,’ she has a greater calling, and I think that’s what makes this character really heroic. She dug her heels in and did not go down the road that would be personally more desirable, to disappear and live off the map and have what everybody wants. But she chooses this greater calling and in this film we really see her move closer to a leadership position.”
One thing that Steve Rogers continues to struggle with is what happened to his once best friend Bucky Barnes. While the character has been a killing machine for many years in the form of the Winter Soldier, Steve still holds on to a glimmer of hope that somehow he could get his best friend back.
For Sebastian Stan, getting the chance to play the fan-favorite character for the third time was a welcomed surprise. “They could’ve done anything with the character,” says Stan. “But I was really happy as an actor because I felt like I got a chance to play a lot of different colors. The Winter Soldier is a little bit in the middle in this film; you see flashes of Bucky Barnes. Things are coming back to him and he’s learning about himself. At the same time, he’s no longer that same guy. He’s always going to have that Winter Soldier shadow over him going forward.”
Returning after his debut in “Captain America: The Winter Soldier” is Sam Wilson aka Falcon. A fully initiated Avenger now, Anthony Mackie plays the Falcon who has become Steve’s right hand man on the team. “In this movie you see Falcon in more of an authoritative role,” reports Mackie. “It’s not so much him following Steve or Steve giving demands. He’s more of an ally and more of a companion to Steve. He has more input on the missions and what’s going on.”
Making his debut in a Captain America film is another recently christened Avenger, Colonel James “Rhodey” Rhodes aka War Machine played by Don Cheadle. “As a new member of the Avengers, we find Rhodey trying to figure out how to still be on the side of his friends who are these self-appointed protectors of the universe and at the same time still maintain his military standing and try to abide if he can by the letter of that law,” says Cheadle.
Coming off one of the biggest character reveals in “Avengers: Age of Ultron,” Clint Barton aka Hawkeye played by Jeremy Renner returns to the mix. “For Hawkeye, it’s really like a direct link from ‘Avengers: Age of Ultron’ into ‘Captain America: Civil War,’” says Renner. “When we last left Hawkeye, he went back to see his family. That was where he was the entire time until the Avengers started fighting. So he comes out of retirement, if you will, when he is asked to come help out Steve.”
Elizabeth Olsen returns as Scarlet Witch, now a full-fledged member of the Avengers team. But after a messy mission in Lagos results in collateral damage, the government steps in, creating a situation where Scarlet Witch has to choose a side. “Basically it ends up being this argument politically about whether or not the Avengers follow their own rules or if they should follow the government rules and become a government-regulated union,” explains Olsen. “At that point of the film, Wanda’s more terrified of causing harm to people than choosing a political side. She ends up fighting with Cap’s team. It was more about being accepted and less about actual political beliefs.”
One of Wanda’s developing new friendships at the outset of the film is with Vision, played by Paul Bettany. For Bettany, returning to role after the birth of his character in “Avengers: Age of Ultron” was exciting as it provided the opportunity to expand and explore more deeply the fascinating character. “What I love about Vision is that he’s on his own quest, which is to understand human beings,” says Bettany. “Right now he realizes that real loyalty has got to come through love. If new facts come to light, his allegiance could change because he’s existing with logic and only with logic. So I think that he’s very intrigued by what love is and what affection is and is trying to figure that out because I think it’s the most human of qualities. I really like that; it’s sort of moving because not having that quality makes him dangerous and I think he’s aware of that.”
Another new face on the Avenger team is Scott Lang aka Ant-Man. For actor Paul Rudd, making his first crossover into another franchise was a bit surreal for the actor. “It’s been a real trippy experience so far and amazing,” says Rudd. “When we shot ‘Ant-Man,’ I thought, it’s amazing, it’s great, it’s really fun, but we were also kind of working in a bubble. When I showed up here for the first time and was doing a scene with Captain America and Falcon and all of them, I turned into a bit of a 10 year old. It was pretty strange and really cool. For the first time I thought, ‘Man, I really am part of it,’ and it’s exciting.”
One of the most anticipated additions to the Marvel Cinematic Universe, making his debut in “Captain America: Civil War,” is T’Challa aka Black Panther. In casting the pivotal character that will become the first African-American standalone franchise in 2018, the filmmakers chose Chadwick Boseman, who caught the eye of Hollywood playing Jackie Robinson in the film “42.” “We’ve been seeding the notion of the Black Panther and the nation of Wakanda all the way back to ‘Iron Man 2,’” explains Kevin Feige. “So it really felt like the time was right to bring in a character that had his own agenda and Chadwick Boseman was our first choice to play him. He is an incredibly talented actor who possessed all of the qualities that we wanted to inject into the character.”
Describing Black Panther, Boseman offers, “He is a paradox. He is so aware of and so connected to a tradition and lineage. Yet, he is a forward thinker, a maverick. He is very strategic. You never know quite what he’s going to do next, so there’s a certain mystery about the character. At the same time, he’s a public figure. Known by everyone but known by no one.”
While the Avengers are busy dividing into different factions, the mysterious Zemo, played by Daniel Brühl, is busy with his own agenda. “While the story of ‘Civil War’ primarily is about the conflict between Captain America and Iron Man, at the same time in the story there is somebody in the shadows operating who is not responsible for the events that lead up to the Civil War, but is someone who is fanning the flames,” explains Kevin Feige. “He’s a very different kind of character who has his own backstory and motivation.”
Rounding out the talented supporting cast of “Captain America: Civil War” are Emily VanCamp as Sharon Carter, Frank Grillo as Crossbones, Martin Freeman as Everett Ross, with William Hurt as General Thaddeus Ross.
MAKING “CIVIL WAR”
On April 27, 2015, principal photography commenced at Pinewood Atlanta Studios, marking the start of one of Marvel Studios most revered and coveted story lines. While the production would use Pinewood Atlanta Studios as its home base, it also shot in many practical locations in and around the Atlanta area in order to capture the visceral and grounded tone that has become the trademark for the franchise.
For directors Joe and Anthony Russo, shooting in practical locations was vital to the tone and style of the film that they wanted to infuse into the film. “We have always felt that at the end of the day what makes the Captain America character special in the spectrum of what the Avengers are, is that he’s the most grounded and everyman of them who people can relate to in a lot of ways,” says Anthony Russo. “So in the ‘Winter Soldier’ we tried to make the style of the film something that was human-size and more relatable to what people are capable of as opposed to what superheroes and demigods are capable of. So that led us to shoot more practical locations than we normally would and executing action in a way that’s more grounded and visceral, more real world rather than fantastical.”
The director continues, “We took that same style into this film even though we had to expand it a bit because this story isn’t confined to that type of super hero as much as it was in the ‘Winter Soldier.’ In this film we have other Marvel characters with much more fantastic abilities entering the equation. So we sort of took that grounded world of ‘Captain America’ and blew it up a little bit for this movie. But we still kept the same dynamic of staying rooted in that fidelity of real locations.”
With the production rolling through its Atlanta portion of the schedule, the moment the entire cast, crew and filmmakers were waiting for had finally come. On June 18th on the backlot of Pinewood Atlanta Studios, the first scenes of the historic “Civil War” scenes began shooting, pitting the Avengers against each other with teams led by Captain America and Iron Man. For Joe and Anthony Russo shooting the so-called “Splash Panel” Civil War sequence was something that they had looked forward to for a long time.
“For comic book fans it’s an historic day,” exclaims Joe Russo. “We refer to it as the ‘splash panel’ because it is like a double panel illustration in the comic book. You open it up and it’s beautifully done and you see all of the characters fighting each other all over the double panel. You look through it and you look for all the details of who’s fighting whom. It is one of the biggest scenes in the film and probably one of the most epic scenes in any Marvel film to date. You have almost every hero in the Marvel universe out here and they’re going to war with each other.”
Long before the sequence would be shot, the filmmakers would first have to decide which character would be on which side of the fence when it comes to governmental regulation of the Avengers. Because the Marvel Cinematic Universe does not always follow in line with the comics, the filmmakers wanted the film version of Civil War to have its own uniqueness as to which team Team Cap or Team Iron Man each superhero would align with.
With careful consideration and thought, the filmmakers decided on the split of the characters that would find Sam Wilson, Bucky Barnes, Hawkeye, Scarlet Witch and Ant-Man following Captain America with Black Widow, War Machine, Vision and Black Panther following Tony Stark.
On Friday, August 21st after 80 days of shooting, the production would shoot its final “Civil War” battles scenes on the tarmac of the airport in Leipzig, Germany. For the cast, crew and filmmakers it was an amazing worldwide journey to bring one of the greatest story lines in Marvel Comics to the big screen.
GET SET TO PICK YOUR SIDE
“For all of the great action in the film, at the end of the day it’s a really grounded story,” says Chris Evans. “The Russos make human stories with a superhero feel as opposed to superhero movies with human touches. It’s real storytelling about a genuine family conflict. That’s what makes it so great. There’s no right, there’s no wrong, and there’s no clear evil going on either side of this. It’s just a matter of whose side you connect with and agree with.”
“That conflict between both sides is what will start the conversation amongst fans and audience members,” offers Scarlett Johansson. “When they leave the theater, they can hopefully still argue for either side. It will give them something to take home. We build a case for either side and as the stakes become higher and higher, the personal stakes rise as well.”
“The film is also surprising and it’s scary,” adds Anthony Russo. “I think people will like that it tracks to a place that you just can’t predict when you sit down to watch the film. Also on a simple level there’s just the thrill of watching your favorite Super Heroes beat the hell out of each other, which is always a lot of fun to see.”