Joe Johnston

Captain America: The First Avenger is based on the classic superhero created by Joe Simon and Jack Kirby that first appeared in Captain America Comics #1 (March 1941). It tells the story of how Steve Rogers was turned down for service to his country only to become America`s first and only super-soldier during WWII after volunteering for a secret government experiment.

Inspired by the classic Universal film that launched a legacy of horror, The Wolfman brings the myth of a man cursed into lycanthropy back to its iconic origins and stars Academy Award_ winner Benicio Del Toro as a haunted nobleman lured back to his family estate after his brother vanishes. Reunited with his estranged father (Academy Award_-winner Anthony Hopkins), he sets out to find his brother...and discovers a horrifying destiny for himself. Also starring Emily Blunt and Hugo Weaving.

In October 1957, news of the Soviet Union's launch of Sputnik 1 reaches Homer Hickam (Jake Gyllenhaal) in the mining community of Coalwood, West Virginia, who is inspired to build his own rockets despite the skepticism of his friends and family, especially his father John Hickam (Chris Cooper), who strictly wanted Homer to work in the mines. John says that one year of work in the mines would make sure that Homer builds enough body strength to be selected for the football team and could even land a football scholarship to college. Homer is the younger brother to Jim (Scott Thomas). Jim works at the machine shop of the mine. There is talk of layoffs at the mines, which is a source of tension for the town. John is the manager of the mine and the owners want him to fire half the miners as the tonnage of output has reduced to half in the last 10 years. Sputnik had ushered in a wave of anxiety across the US and was responsible for a new and grim phase of the cold war. Dr. Wernher Von Braun is in charge of the US Army Ballistic Missiles agency and is confident that the US will be launching artificial satellites of its own pretty soon. The Sputnik is visible over the US October sky for an hour before sunrise and an hour after sunset. Homer teams up with math geek Quentin Wilson (Chris Owen), who shares an interest in aerospace engineering, with the support of friends Roy Lee Cooke (Chris Owen) and Sherman O'Dell (Chad Lindberg), and their science teacher Freida J. Riley (Laura Dern), they construct small rockets. Quentin helps them get the exact formula for rocket fuel using publicly available materials in the library, which Homer was not able to search for himself. Homer and the gang want to request Jim for the welding services needed on the rockets, as Jim has access to a welding machine in the machine shop. Homer knows that Jim would inform John, and so he goes to the machine shop manager Ike instead. Miss Riley wants to enter the rocket in the upcoming regional science fair, where the winners go to the National Science Fair in Indianapolis. Here colleges from all over the country attend the fair, and hand out scholarships to deserving students. When one of them lands near John's office and nearly injures some workers, John warns Homer not to build rockets on his property again. The boys hike over the edge of the coal company's property to continue, where they succeed with the help of the townsfolk, including the mine's machine shop manager Ike Bykovsky (Elya Baskin). He is later punished by John for helping the boys, being sent to work in the mine. Ike teaches Homer how to weld. The boys launch several prototypes but each explodes at some stage or the other. Quentin figures out that the fuel has air pockets inside it, and when it Combusts, it explodes when it comes in contact with the air. So, they mix the fuel with a stable binder like alcohol to create a rocket fuel paste. The rocket launch is now successful. Pressure on Homer increases when Jim gets a football scholarship. The team starts experimenting with bigger rockets. The rocket launches begin attracting townsfolk. However, the boys abandon rocketry after they are accused by the police of starting wildfire with a stray rocket and arrested. In a mining accident, John is injured and Bykovsky is killed, devastating Homer, who feels responsible for his death. However, John later tells him that he offered Bykovsky to return to the machine shop, but he declined because he was making more money in the mines. Homer drops out of high school to work in the mine and provide for his family while his father recovers. Homer is inspired by Miss Riley to read a book on applied rocket science, with which he learns to calculate a rocket's trajectory. Using this, he and Quentin locate their missing rocket and prove it could not have caused the fire. The boys present their findings to Miss Riley and the school principal, Mr. Turner (Chris Ellis), who determines the cause was a flare from a nearby airfield. Homer tells his father he is returning to high school and no longer wants to work in the mine. The boys return to rocketry and win the school science fair. When the opportunity arises for one of them to participate in the National Science Fair in Indianapolis, Homer is chosen. The miner's union goes on strike against the coal company. With the mines set to close and resenting his father's pressures, Homer storms out of the house, vowing never to return. At the National Science Fair, Homer's display is well-received. Overnight, someone steals his machined rocket part model, the De Laval nozzle, and his autographed picture of Dr. Wernher Von Braun. Homer makes an urgent phone call home to his mother Elsie (Natalie Canerday), who implores John to end the strike so that Mr. Bolden (Randy Stripling), Bykovsky's replacement, can build a replacement nozzle in the machine shop. John relents when Elsie, fed up with his lack of support for their son, threatens to leave him. With the town's support and replacement parts sent to Indianapolis, the boys win the top prize, and Homer is bombarded with college scholarship offers. He also shakes hands with Dr. Wernher Von Braun himself, however Homer does not realize it was him until after Dr. Von Braun left. Homer returns to Coalwood as a hero and visits Miss Riley, who is dying of Hodgkin lymphoma. Preparing for the launch of their largest rocket yet, Homer asks his father to come, telling him that Von Braun is brilliant but is not his hero, implying John is his true idol. At the launch of their rocket, named for Miss Riley, almost all of Coalwood turns out to watch, including John, who had never come to any of their previous launches. John is given the honor of pushing the launch button. The Miss Riley reaches an altitude of 30,000 feet (9,100 m) higher than the summit of Mount Everest. As the town looks to the skies, John puts his hand on Homer's shoulder and smiles, showing Homer that he is proud of him. An epilogue reveals the real-life outcomes of the main characters' lives, noting that Miss Riley died, the mine closed, John dies later on, Elsie moves to Myrtle Beach and all four Rocket Boys went to college, going on to successful careers, with Homer working at NASA.