Captain America: The First Avenger First Avenger" tells the story of Steve Rogers, a sickly man from Brooklyn who is transformed into super-soldier Captain America and must stop the Red Skull, who intends to use an artifact called the "Tesseract" as an energy-source for world domination. "Captain America: The First Avenger" began as a concept in 1997 and was scheduled for distribution by Artisan Entertainment. However, a lawsuit, not settled until September 2003, disrupted the project. In 2005, Marvel Studios received a loan from Merrill Lynch, and planned to finance and release it through Paramount Pictures. Directors Jon Favreau and Louis Leterrier were interested in
Captain America: The First Avenger or actual vehicles from the period were used as inspiration. Daniel Simon, who was previously responsible for many vehicle designs in "", was appointed Lead Vehicle Designer. Director Johnston cited Simon's book "Cosmic Motors" as a reason to trust his influence, saying "he's sort of the guy I wanted to be when I was designing stuff for "Star Wars"". The Red Skull's car, for instance, was based on two Mercedes-Benz vehicles from the 1930s, the 540K and the G4. "Variety" reported in March 2010 that Chris Evans was cast as Captain America and Hugo Weaving as the Red Skull; Marvel