Joe Johnston has signed a deal to direct ‘First Avenger: Captain America’ for Marvel Studios.  Lest you know him simply as the guy who directed ‘Jumanji’, ‘Jurassic Park III’, and ‘Hidalgo’, Johnston has had a much more interesting career than that, especially when it comes to geekdom.

He acted as effects illustrator and designer: miniature and optical effects unit on ‘Star Wars IV: A New Hope’, and art director visual effect on ‘Empire Strikes Back’, ‘Return of the Jedi’, and ‘Raiders of the Lost Ark’.  He’s also currently in post-production on ‘The Wolfman’.

“This is a guy who designed the vehicles for ‘Star Wars,’ who storyboarded the convoy action sequence for ‘Raiders of the Lost Ark,’ ” said Marvel’s Kevin Feige. “From ‘Rocketeer’ to ‘October Sky’ to ‘The Wolfman,’ you can look at pieces of his movies and see how they lead to this one.”

Set in World War II, ‘Captain America’ tells the story of Steve Rogers, a sickly man who undergoes government experiments to become a super-soldier.

‘First Avenger: Captain America’ is another in a long line of films Marvel has slated building to their ‘Avengers’ movie in 2011, in which the main characters from ‘Iron Man’, ‘Hulk’, ‘Captain America’, and ‘Thor’ team up.

‘First Avenger: Captain America’ is set for a May 6, 2011 release.

Source: The Hollywood Reporter

So, who’s your choice to play Captain America?  Let us know below!  Personally, I’m rooting for Josh Holloway (Sawyer on ‘Lost’).