TeleChimp | TV Journalism

The recently released live action film Captain America: The First Avenger has struck a deep chord with fans of television/ movie adaptations of marvel comics storylines. .Anyone that grew up (or maybe didn’t completely grow up at all) reading Marvel Comics and claim to know their superheroes would definitely know the Captain America story well; of a gaunt youth going by the name of Steve Rogers, who was born during the great depression and lost his dad when he was a adolescent and his mother when he was in his late teens. Becoming appalled by newsreel footage of the Nazis in Europe, Rogers decided to try to join the Army. But, due to his frailty and bad health, he was turned down. A little later his earnest plea is heard by General Chester Phillips of the U.S. Army and young Steve Rogers is selected for a top secret US Government program called “operation rebirth” during WW-II, and is administered a Super-Soldier serum and is exposed to “vita-rays” to accelerate and alleviate the serum’s effect on his body. At the end of that experiment Captain America emerges the pinnacle of human physical perfection. He then goes on to spearhead the American onslaught against Nazi Germany.

Old school Marvel aficionados will care for the fact that “Captain America: The First Avenger” remains dedicated to the original comic book storyline; loyal almost to a fault. Everybody else will love this movie as well, particularly for the thoroughly honest way this movie has been made.

Actor Chris Evans, who plays the title character in Friday’s release of “Captain America: The First Avenger,” put on 15 lbs. of muscle to play the role.

Making the movie wasn’t as simple as one would think; the people involved with the making of the movie had to figure out how the six-foot something Evans, who they’d managed to turn into a remarkably muscled specimen, was going to fit into the role of a frail young Steve Rodgers before the experiment. It may seem that shooting the part of ‘Skinny Steve’ before Evans gained all that muscle would have been the sensible thing to do. But wait a minute; take some time out here to picture Evans prior to bulking up, think back the Fantastic Four movies where Chris Evans played The Human Torch. So now you know that even at that point, passing Evans off as a wan skinny Steve Rogers would have been a stretch and would have involved altering the storyline to make it so that Steve used to be a normal human male. We already know, from the surprising loyalty to the comic that the makers have shown for the comic book, that even mulling over that adjustment would have been sacrilege.

Initially, director Joe Johnston used the ‘body-double and head-replacement’, but that did not pan out too well as the body double could not replicate the original actor’s movement well.

The filmmakers now decided to use a technology called “shrinking”: essentially erasing portions of Chris Evan’s muscular body on screen. The filmmakers used a “shrinking” technique and computers to basically erase portions of Evans’ strong physique on screen. It involved reshaping the jaw line, shrinking the skeleton, particularly the shoulders to make them look slimmer.

The makers of the movie admit that this part was more harrowing than any of the more impressive special effects that were put in and the movie has not disappointed.

~

Popularity: 12% [?]

The Power of Three is making a comeback. Zenescope Entertainment revealed this week that they've obtained the comic book rights for "Charmed," a supernatural-themed TV series that aired on the WB Network for eight seasons. Created in 1998 by Constance M. Burge, the series followed three sisters — Piper (Holly Marie Combs), Phoebe (Alyssa Milano) and Paige (Rose McGowan) — who were descended from a long line of good witches and tasked to face the forces of evil. Zenescope's "Charmed" comic book series will pick up with an original story that takes place after the series' eighth season. Paul Ruditis and Raven Gregory ("The Gift") are co-writing the title with artist Dave Hoover ("Captain America"). Ruditis has written several books based on TV series — including "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" and "Roswell" — in addition to two "Charmed" novels. "The key to this series success is to strike a nice balance in creating a brand new, intriguing storyline for fans of the television show while also not alienating Zenescope and comic book readers who haven't really followed it before but might want to now that it's a comic," said Zenescope Editor-in-Chief Ralph Tedesco. "The great thing is that Paul and Raven have done just that with this story arc," continued Tedesco. "Anybody will be able to pick up this series and follow it whether or not they ever watched the show before. Moreover, fans of the show are going to be thrilled when they see where this story goes." Given the newfound freedoms of the comic book medium, it may even be possible for characters like Prue (one of the original Halliwell sisters portrayed by Shannen Doherty) and Cole Turner (Julian McMahon) to return in some form. Both characters were written out of the "Charmed" TV series when their respective actors left the show. "Charmed # 0" will be released in June and the first issue will debut at the San Diego Comic-Con International in July.