Pre-production[edit]
By April 2010, Joss Whedon was close to completing a deal to direct the film and to rework Penn's script,[61] and was officially announced in July 2010.[62] When Whedon received Penn's draft, he told Feige he felt the studio did not "have anything" and they should "pretend this draft never happened". Whedon went on to write a five page treatment of his plan for the film, and created the tagline "Avengers: Some Assembly Required", riffing on the "Avengers Assemble" slogan from the comic books. Marvel quickly began working to sign Whedon to write and direct, only stipulating that he include the Avengers against Loki, a battle among the heroes in the middle, a battle against the villains at the end, and he get the movie done for its May 2012 release.[63] On the hiring, 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".[64] Feige added, "I've known Joss for many years. We were looking for the right thing and he came in and met on it... we want[ed] to find a director that’s on the verge of doing something great, as we think Joss is."[65] Whedon stated at the 2010 San Diego Comic-Con International, that what drew him to the film 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".[66]
The casting process continued into much of 2010, with the additions of Jeremy Renner,[25]Mark Ruffalo,[12] and Clark Gregg.[30] Ruffalo replaced Edward Norton, who Marvel declined to have back.[67] "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."[68] 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".[69]
In August 2010, it was reported that Paramount Pictures and Marvel Studios were planning to start shooting in February.[70] Simultaneously, it was declared that the film would be shot in 3D,[71] although Mark Ruffalo later tweeted that this was not the case.[72] In October 2010, Grumman Studios inBethpage, New York[73] and the Steiner Studios in Brooklyn, New York City, were announced as filming locations,[74] with set construction slated to begin in November,[73] 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."[4]Also that October, The Walt Disney Studios agreed to pay Paramount at least $115 million for the worldwide distribution rights to Iron Man 3 and The Avengers.[75] The deal also allowed Paramount to continue to collect the 8 percent box office fee it would have earned for distributing the film and a marquee credit—placement of the company's production logo on marketing materials and the film's opening titles. As a result, the onscreen production credit reads "Marvel Studios presents in association with Paramount Pictures" though the film is solely owned, distributed, financed, and marketed by Disney. Paramount's Epix retained pay TV rights.[76]
In December 2010, Governor of New Mexico Bill Richardson and Marvel Studios Co-president Louis D'Esposito announcedThe 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,[77] but a plan to film in Detroit ended after Governor Rick Snyder issued a budget proposal that would eliminate a film tax incentive.[78] Three months later in March, Governor of Ohio John Kasich announced before Mayor Frank G. Jackson's State of the City address that The Avengerswould film in Cleveland.[79]
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 2as 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.[80] The Science & Entertainment Exchange also provided science consultation for the film.[81]
Casting reached its final stages the following year. In February 2011, Cobie Smulders acquired the role of Maria Hill,[35]after participating in screen tests conducted by Marvel for the role of a key S.H.I.E.L.D. member, who Samuel L. Jackson described as Nick Fury's sidekick.[34] Over the successive months, the film's cast expanded to include Stellan Skarsgård,[38]Paul Bettany,[82] and Gwyneth Paltrow.[83] Paltrow was cast at Downey's insistence; prior to this, Whedon had not intended the film to include supporting characters from the heroes' individual films, commenting, "You need to separate the characters from their support systems in order to create the isolation you need for a team."[84]
Filming[edit]
Principal photography began on April 25, 2011, in Albuquerque, New Mexico.[85] In June 2011, 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.[86] The following month, secondary filming took place about an hour outside Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in the Butler area.[87] 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.[88]
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.[89] Army Reserve soldiers assigned to the Columbus, Ohio-based 391st Military Police Battalion provided background action during the battle scenes in Cleveland. Staff Sergeant Michael T. Landis stated the use of real soldiers made the scenes more realistic and helped portray the military 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".[90] Filming also took place in the large vacuum chamber at the NASA Plum Brook Station near Sandusky, Ohio.[91] The station's Space Power Facility was used to portray a S.H.I.E.L.D. research facility.[92] A series of explosions were filmed at the Chevrolet powertrain plant in Parma, Ohio as part of the battle sequence that began in Cleveland.[93] Scenes from the film were also shot on Public Square and the Detroit–Superior Bridge.[94] Public Square's southwest quadrant was turned into Stuttgart, Germany, for filming.[95]
Principal photography concluded in New York City, where filming occurred over two days.[96] Filming locations in New York City included Park Avenue and Central Park.[97][98] 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".[99] "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."[99]
Cinematographer Seamus McGarvey stated that he composed the frame with a 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."[100] The film was McGarvey's first venture shooting with a digital camera, the Arri Alexa.[100] The Canon EOS 5D Mark II and Canon EOS 7D digital SLR cameras were used for some shots,[101][102] and high-speed shots were captured on 35 mm film with the Arriflex 435.[100] 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."[100]
Post-production[edit]
In December 2011, Disney announced that the film would be converted to 3D.[103] Said Whedon, "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".[104] In January 2012, it was reported that the film would be digitally remastered for IMAX 3D and open in IMAX theaters on May 4, 2012, the same day it opens in regular theaters. The film's IMAX release follows Marvel's IMAX releases of Iron Man 2 and Thor.[105]
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!'"[106] An additional coda involving the Avengers eatingshawarma was shot on April 12, 2012, a day after the world premiere.[107] Shawarma sales in Los Angeles, St. Louis, and Boston reportedly skyrocketed in the days following the film's release.[108][109][110]
The film contains more than 2,200 visual effects shots completed by 14 companies:Industrial Light & Magic (ILM), 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 was the lead vendor and shared responsibility for creating many of the film's key effects, including theHelicarrier, 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.[112] 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."[113]
ILM digitally recreated the vast majority of the New York cityscape used in the film. In total, ILM artists rendered an area of about ten city blocks by about four city blocks. To do this, ILM sent out a team of four photographers to take pictures of the area in a shoot that lasted 8 weeks.[112] Disney and Sony Pictures agreed for OsCorp Tower from The Amazing Spider-Manto be included in the film, but the idea was dropped because much of the skyline had already been completed.[114]
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."[113] Williams said the most difficult part was re-creating Iron Man's reflective metal surfaces.[112]
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.[112] Evil Eye Pictures composited digital backgrounds into shots filmed against a greenscreen for scenes taking place inside the Helicarrier.[112] 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.[112] Luma Pictures worked on shots featuring the Helicarrier's bridge and incorporated the graphic monitor displays that were developed by Cantina Creative.[112] Fuel VFX completed shots taking place in and around Tony Stark's penthouse at Stark Tower.[112] Digital Domain created the asteroid environment, where Loki encounters The Other.[112] Method Design in Los Angeles created the film's closing credits. 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."[113]
Music[edit]
Main article: The Avengers (soundtrack)
In November 2011, Marvel announced that Alan Silvestri, who scored Captain America: The First Avenger, would write and compose the score for The Avengers. Silvestri said, "I've worked on films where there have been a number of stars and certainly worked on films where there have been characters of equal weight in terms of their level of importance and profile in the film, but this one is somewhat extreme in that regard because each of these characters has their own world and it's a very different situation. It's very challenging to look for a way to give everyone the weight and consideration they need, but at the same time the film is really about the coming together of these characters, which implies that there is this entity called the Avengers which really has to be representative of all of them together."[115] Silvestri developed the score with theLondon Symphony Orchestra at Abbey Road Studios in London, England.[116] Whedon said, "The score is very old-fashioned, which is why [Silvestri] was letter-perfect for this movie because he can give you the heightened emotion, the [Hans Zimmer] school of 'I'm just feeling a lot right now!' but he can also be extraordinarily cue and character specific, which I love."[116]
In March 2012, American alternative rock band Soundgarden announced through its Facebook page that its song "Live to Rise" would be included on the film's soundtrack.[117] Additionally, the Indian rock band Agnee released a music video for its single "Hello Andheron", which serves as the theme song for the film's Indian release.[118] The following day, Marvel revealed details for the soundtrack, which was released May 1, 2012, the same day as the score.[119]
Release[edit]
In February 2012, Disney announced that the film's title would be changed in the United Kingdom to avoid confusion with the British TV series of the same name, as well as its 1998 film adaptation. This led to confusion over the film's actual title.Empire magazine reported that the film would be titled Marvel Avengers Assemble[120] while The Hollywood Reporter said that it would be called simplyAvengers Assemble.[121] Marvel's UK website refers to the film as Marvel's Avengers Assemble,[122] although David Cox of The Guardian, in arguing that it was one of the worst film titles ever, considered this to be an error in the production notes, albeit grammatically clearer.[123] According to the British Board of Film Classification and the Irish Film Classification Office, the title is Marvel Avengers Assemble.[1][5] Frank Lovece in FilmFestivalTraveler.com addressed the discrepancy, writing, "The Avengers — formally titled Marvel's The Avengers onscreen, though no apostrophe-s appears on the posters..."[4] Producer Kevin Feige said there are only two words in the UK title, one more than in the U.S. title, and stated that "decisions like that aren't made lightly and there are lots of marketing research, lawyers and things that get into the mix on it".[124]
The film's world premiere was April 11, 2012, at Hollywood's El Capitan Theatre.[125] The Avengers closed the 11th AnnualTribeca Film Festival with a screening on April 28, 2012.[126] The film received an expanded one-week theatrical push for the 2012 U.S. Labor Day weekend, increasing the number of theaters from 123 to 1,700.[127]
