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| Joss Whedon, director of The Avengers |
Joss Whedon, director of The Avengers, about the film.
Development
Avi Arad, the CEO of Marvel Studios, first announced plans
to develop the film in April 2005, after Marvel Enterprises declared
independence by allying with Merrill Lynch to produce a slate of films that
would be distributed by Paramount Pictures. Marvel discussed their plans in a
brief presentation to Wall Street analysts; the studio's intention was to release
individual films for the main characters—to establish their identities and
familiarize audiences with them—before merging the characters together in a
crossover film. Screenwriter Zak Penn,
who wrote The Incredible Hulk (2008), was hired by Marvel Studios to write the
film in June 2007. Penn confirmed his involvement but said he did not believe
work would begin soon. In the wake of the 2007–2008 Writers Guild of America
strike, Marvel negotiated with the Writers Guild of America to ensure that it
could create films based on its comic book counterparts, including Captain
America, Ant-Man and The Avengers. After the successful release of Iron Man
(2008) in May, the company set a July 2011 release date for The Avengers. In
September 2008, Marvel Studios reached an agreement with Paramount—an extension
of a previous partnership—which gave the company distribution rights for five
future Marvel films.
Casting began in October 2008 with the signings of Robert
Downey, Jr. and Don Cheadle, who would reprise their Iron Man 2 (2010) roles as
Iron Man and War Machine, respectively. Despite previous reports, Cheadle
denied such statements in an interview with MTV News, saying that he would not
appear in The Avengers. At the same time, two major prospects occurred for
Marvel; Jon Favreau was brought in as an executive producer for The Avengers,
and the company signed a long-term lease with Raleigh Studios to produce three
other big-budget movies—Iron Man 2, Thor (2011), and Captain America: The First
Avenger (2011)—at their Manhattan Beach, California complex. Lou Ferrigno, who
voiced Hulk in The Incredible Hulk, stated that he would be involved in the
film. In February 2009, Samuel L.
Jackson signed a nine-picture deal with Marvel Entertainment to play the role
of Nick Fury in Iron Man 2 and other films, acting as a vehicle for characters
such as Captain America, Thor, the Avengers, and S.H.I.E.L.D. In September
2009, Edward Norton stated that he was open to returning as the Hulk for The
Avengers. The next month, executive producer Jon Favreau stated that he would
not direct the film, but would ". . . definitely have input and a
say". Favreau also expressed concerns, stating, "It's going to be
hard, because I was so involved in creating the world of Iron Man, and Iron Man
is very much a tech-based hero, and then with Avengers you're going to be
introducing some supernatural aspects because of Thor. . . . [Mixing] the two
of those works very well in the comic books, but it's going to take a lot of
thoughtfulness to make that all work and not blow the reality that we've
created". In March 2009, actress Scarlett Johansson replaced Emily Blunt
in portraying Natasha Romanoff in Iron Man 2, a deal that subsequently attached
her to The Avengers. An earlier draft of the script, written before Johansson's
involvement, included the female superhero Wasp. The following day Marvel
announced that the release date for The Avengers had been pushed back to May 4,
2012, almost a full year later. Chris Hemsworth and Tom Hiddleston joined the
cast of The Avengers in June, returning as Thor and Loki, respectively.
In July 2009, Penn talked about the crossover process,
stating, "My job is to kind of shuttle between the different movies and
make sure that finally we're mimicking that comic book structure where all of
these movies are connected. . . There's just a board that tracks 'Here's where
everything that happens in this movie overlaps with that movie'. . . I'm
pushing them to do as many animatics as possible to animate the movie, to draw
boards so that we're all working off the same visual ideas. But the exigencies
of production take first priority". The following month, Marvel Studios
chief Kevin Fiege stated he would introduce more characters into The Avengers
and that the Hulk would factor in the film.
In January 2010, Kevin Feige was asked if it will be
difficult to meld the fantasy of Thor with the high-tech science fiction in
Iron Man and The Avengers. "No," he said, "because we're doing
the Jack Kirby/Stan Lee/Walt Simonson/J. Michael Straczynski Thor. We're not
doing the blow-the-dust-off-of-the-old-Norse-book-in-your-library Thor. And in
the Thor of the Marvel Universe, there's a race called the Asgardians. And
we're linked through this Tree of Life that we're unaware of. It's real
science, but we don't know about it yet. The 'Thor' movie is about teaching
people that". In March it was reported that Penn had completed the first
draft of the script, and that Marvel editor-in-chief Joe Quesada and Avengers
comic-book writer Brian Michael Bendis had received copies. Also in March,
Chris Evans accepted an offer to play the role of Captain America in three
films including The Avengers. In April 2010, Variety reported that Joss Whedon
was close to completing a deal to direct the film, and to rework Penn's script.
Pre-production
Joss Whedon, a fan of the comics of the same name, was
announced as the director of The Avengers in July 2010, a notion that was first
hinted by Arad and comic co-creator Stan Lee Arad stated: "My personal
opinion is that Joss will do a fantastic job. He loves these characters and is
a fantastic writer. . . It's part of his life so you know he is going to
protect it. . . I expect someone like him is going to make the script even
better". Whedon stated at the 2010 San Diego Comic-Con International, that
what drew him to the movie is that he loves how "these people shouldn't be
in the same room let alone on the same team—and that is the definition of
family".
The casting process continued into much of 2010, with the
additions of Jeremy Renner, Mark Ruffalo, and Clark Gregg. Ruffalo replaced Edward Norton, who declined
the role of the Hulk due to creative reasons. "We have made the decision
to not bring Ed Norton back to portray the title role of Bruce Banner in The
Avengers," stated Kevin Feige, Marvel's president of the production team.
"Our decision is definitely not one based on monetary factors, but instead
rooted in the need for an actor who embodies the creativity and collaborative
spirit of our other talented cast members. The Avengers demands players who
thrive working as part of an ensemble, as evidenced by Robert, Chris H, Chris
E, Samuel, Scarlett, and all of our talented casts. We are looking to announce
a name actor who fulfills these requirements, and is passionate about the
iconic role in the coming weeks." In response, Norton's agent Brian
Swardstrom decried Feige's statement, calling it "purposefully
misleading" and an "inappropriate attempt to paint our client in a
negative light".
In August 2010, it was reported that Paramount Pictures and
Marvel Studios were planning to start shooting in February. Simultaneously, it
was declared that the film would be shot in 3D, although Mark Ruffalo later
tweeted that this was not the case. In October 2010, the Grumman Studios in
Bethpage, New York and the Steiner Studios in Brooklyn, New York City, were
announced as filming locations, but as Whedon later explained, "Originally
we were supposed to be in Los Angeles, then for a short period we were supposed
to be in New York, and then somehow we ended up in Albuquerque." Also that
October, The Walt Disney Company agreed to pay Paramount at least $115 million
for the worldwide distribution rights to Iron Man 3 and The Avengers.] The deal
also allowed Paramount to continue to collect the 8 percent box office fee it
would have earned for distributing the film and placement of the company's logo
on marketing materials. As a result, the onscreen production credit reads
"Marvel Studios in association with Paramount Pictures" though the
film is owned, distributed and marketed by Disney. Paramount's Epix retained
pay TV rights. Set construction was began in November.
In December 2010, New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson and
Marvel Studios Co-president Louis D'Esposito announced The Avengers would film
primarily in Albuquerque, New Mexico, with principal photography scheduled for
April through September 2011. Parts of the film were also scheduled to be shot
in Michigan, but a plan to film in Detroit ended after Governor Rick Snyder
issued a budget proposal that would eliminate a film tax incentive. Three
months later in March, Ohio Governor John Kasich announced before Mayor Frank
G. Jackson's State of the City address that The Avengers would film in
Cleveland. Concept illustrator and designer of Iron Man's Mark VII armor Phil
Saunders stated that "Joss Whedon was looking for something that had the
'cool' factor of the suitcase suit [from Iron Man 2], while still being a fully
armored, heavy duty suit that could take on an army in the final battle."
To that end, Saunders borrowed ideas that had been proposed in Iron Man 2 as
well as some ideas that had been abandoned in Iron Man and merged them together
in a modular suit that has big ammo packets on the arms and a backpack. The
Science & Entertainment Exchange also provided science consultation for the
film.
Casting reached its final stages the following year. In
February 2011, Cobie Smulders acquired the role of Maria Hill, after participating in screen tests conducted
by Marvel for the role of a key member of S.H.I.E.L.D., who Samuel L. Jackson
described as Nick Fury's sidekick. Over the successive months, The Avengers
cast expanded to include Stellan Skarsgård, Paul Bettany, and Gwyneth Paltrow.
Filming
Principal photography began on April 25, 2011, in
Albuquerque, New Mexico. In June, stuntman Jeremy Fitzgerald injured his head
while attempting a stunt involving a 30-foot fall from a building after getting
hit by an arrow. A Marvel spokesperson later told TMZ.com that despite the
injury, Fitzgerald recovered and continued working on set. The following month,
secondary filming took place about an hour outside Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in
the Butler area. A chase sequence was also shot in Worthington, Pennsylvania at
Creekside Mushroom Farms, the world's largest single-site mushroom farm, which
provided 150 miles of abandoned limestone tunnels 300 feet below the ground for
filming.
Production relocated to Cleveland, Ohio in August 2011,
where filming transpired over a period of four weeks. The city's East 9th
Street was chosen as a double for New York City's 42nd Street to be used in
climactic battle scenes. Army Reserve soldiers assigned to the Columbus,
Ohio-based 391st Military Police Battalion provided background action during
the battle scenes in Cleveland. Staff Sgt. Michael T. Landis stated the use of
real soldiers made the scenes more realistic and helped portray the Army in a
more positive light, explaining that, "It's easy for us to make
on-the-spot corrections to tactics and uniforms, the director actually took our
recommendation on one scene and let us all engage the enemy as opposed to only
the gunners in the trucks engaging". Filming also took place in the large
vacuum chamber at the NASA Plum Brook Station near Sandusky, Ohio. The
station's Space Power Facility was used to portray a S.H.I.E.L.D. research
facility. A series of explosions were filmed at the Chevrolet powertrain plant
in Parma, Ohio as part of the battle sequence that began in Cleveland. Scenes
from the film were also shot on Public Square and the Detroit–Superior Bridge.
The southwest quadrant of Public Square was turned into Stuttgart, Germany, for
filming.
Principal photography concluded in New York City, where
filming occurred over two days. Filming locations in New York City included
Park Avenue and Central Park. For scenes taking place in Manhattan, visual
effects supervisor Jake Morrison shot aerial footage for over three days to use
as background plates, elaborating that his main objective was to "get as
much aerial work in as possible for the audience to see the big expanses, the
wide establishing shots, while also making sure that the effects work doesn't
look too computer generated"; "We're getting much better at making
entirely computer-generated environments," Morrison explained, "but
there is no substitute for starting with a real image and adding what you
need."
Cinematographer Seamus McGarvey stated that he composed the
frame with an 1.85:1 aspect ratio to cope with the varying heights of the main
characters, explaining that "shooting 1.85:1 is kind of unusual for an
epic film like this, but we needed the height in the screen to be able to frame
in all the characters like Hulk, Captain America and Black Widow, who is much
smaller. We had to give them all precedence and width within the frame. Also,
Joss [Whedon] knew the final battle sequence was going to be this extravaganza
in Manhattan, so the height and vertical scale of the buildings was going to be
really important." The film was McGarvey's first venture shooting with a
digital camera; the Arri Alexa. The Canon EOS 5D Mark II and Canon 7D digital
SLR camera was used for some shots, and high-speed shots were captured on 35 mm
film with the Arriflex 435. About his visual approach, McGarvey remarked
"Joss and I were keen on having a very visceral and naturalistic quality
to the image. We wanted this to feel immersive and did not want a 'comic book
look' that might distance an audience with the engagement of the film. We moved
the camera a lot on Steadicam, cranes and on dollies to create kinetic images;
and we chose angles that were dramatic, like low angles for heroic
imagery."
Post-production
In December 2011, Disney announced that the film would be
converted to 3D. About the 3D conversion Whedon stated, "Yeah, it's fun!.
. . I'm not a big fan of extreme long lens, talky movies - I like to see the
space I'm in and relate to it, so 3D kinda fits my aesthetic anyway. And the
technology has advanced so far in the past couple years." Whedon also said
that "there definitely are movies that shouldn't be in 3D" but
"The Avengers isn't obnoxiously 3D. There's no, 'Oh look, we're going to
spend 20 minutes going through this tunnel because it's in 3D!' And no one is
pointing at the screen the entire time. But it's an action movie. Things tend
to hurtle toward the screen anyway". In January 2012, it was reported that
The Avengers would be digitally remastered for IMAX 3D and set to open in IMAX
theaters on May 4, 2012, the same day it opens in regular theaters. The IMAX
release of The Avengers follows Marvel's release of Iron Man 2 and Thor on IMAX
screens.
In a May 2012 interview, Whedon said that it was his
decision to include Thanos in a post-credits scene, although the character is
not identified in the film. "He for me is the most powerful and
fascinating Marvel villain. He's the great grand daddy of the badasses and he's
in love with Death and I just think that's so cute. For me, the greatest
Avengers [comic book] was Avengers Annual #7 (1977) that Jim Starlin did
followed by Marvel Two-in-One Annual #2 (1977) that contained the death of Adam
Warlock. Those were some of the most important texts and I think underrated
milestones in Marvel history and Thanos is all over that, so somebody had to be
in control and had to be behind Loki's work and I was like 'It's got to be
Thanos.' And they said 'Okay' and I'm like 'Oh my God!'" An additional
coda involving the Avengers eating shawarma was shot on April 12, 2012, a day
after the world premiere. (Sales of shawarma in Los Angeles, St. Louis, and
Boston reportedly skyrocketed in the days following the film's release.)
The Avengers contains more than 2,200 visual effects shots
completed by 14 companies: Industrial Light & Magic, Weta Digital, Scanline
VFX, Hydraulx, Fuel VFX, Evil Eye Pictures, Luma Pictures, Cantina Creative,
Trixter, Modus FX, Whiskytree, Digital Domain, The Third Floor and Method
Design. ILM, who previously worked on Ang Lee's Hulk, was the lead vendor and
shared responsibility for creating many of the film's key effects, including
the Helicarrier, the New York cityscape, digital body doubles, Iron Man and the
Hulk. To create the on-screen Hulk, Ruffalo performed in a motion-capture suit
on set with the other actors while four motion-capture HD cameras (two full
body, two focused on his face) captured his face and body movements. Jeff White,
ILM's visual effects supervisor, said, "We really wanted to utilize
everything we've developed the last 10 years and make it a pretty spectacular
Hulk. One of the great design decisions was to incorporate Mark Ruffalo into
the look of him. So, much of Hulk is based on Ruffalo and his performance, not
only in motion capture and on set, but down to his eyes, his teeth, and his
tongue."
Weta Digital took over duties for animating Iron Man during
the forest duel from ILM. Guy Williams, Weta's visual effects supervisor, said,
"We shared assets back and forth with ILM, but our pipelines are unique
and it's hard for other assets to plug into it. But in this case, we got their
models and we had to redo the texture spaces because the way we texture maps is
different." Williams said the most difficult part was re-creating Iron
Man's reflective metal surfaces.
Scanline VFX completed the reveal shots of the Helicarrier,
from the moment Black Widow and Captain America arrive on the carrier deck to
the point where it lifts off. Evil Eye Pictures composited digital backgrounds
into shots filmed against a greenscreen for scenes taking place inside the
Helicarrier. Colin Strause of Hydraulx said, "We did the opening ten
minutes of the movie, other than the opening set-up in space" including
Loki's arrival on Earth and subsequent escape from the S.H.I.E.L.D. base. Luma
Pictures worked on shots featuring the Helicarrier's bridge and incorporated
the graphic monitor displays that were developed by Cantina Creative. Fuel VFX
completed shots taking place in and around Tony Stark's penthouse at Stark
Tower. Digital Domain created the asteroid environment, where Loki encounters
The Other. Method Design in Los Angeles created the closing credits for The
Avengers. Steve Viola, creative director at Method Design, said, "This
piece was a two-minute, self-contained main on end sequence created entirely in
CG. For each of the shots in the sequence, we designed, modeled, textured, and
lit all of the environments and many of the foreground objects. We received
assets from Marvel to include in the piece, then heavily re-modeled and
re-surfaced them to create a post-battle macro sequence. We also designed a
custom typeface for the Main Title of The Avengers as well as 30 credits set
in-scene."
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