Marvel Studios superhero team-up/crossover picture, The Avengers, has been getting an obscene amount of press ever since it was first announced; from dribs and drabs of information involving which superheroes would be making an appearance, to informed guess about the plot, casting announcements (the public sacking of American History X star Edward Norton, and subsequent hiring of Shutter Island’s Mark Ruffalo, was extremely widely covered), and information on the director; and now it appears there’s some more news to whet the appetite of fans, as The Avengers has finally been given an official start date.
The film; which will see Captain America (Chris Evans, The Fantastic Four), Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson, Pulp Fiction), Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr, Sherlock Holmes), Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner, The Hurt Locker), Thor (Chris Hemsworth, Star Trek), Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson, Iron Man 2), War Machine (Don Cheadle, Ocean’s 11), and The Incredible hulk (Ruffalo), join forces to face an enemy too powerful for any of them to defeat on their own; is being directed by Joss Whedon (Buffy the Vampire Slayer), and will follow the release of both Thor, and Captain America: The First Avenger, which are both still filming, and due to be released next year.
The Avengers however, has only just had its initial teaser trailer released, and isn’t due to begin filming until February 2011; giving it a couple of months to complete filming, and then around a year of post-production (which is essential to making these heavily effects laden features look not only nice and shiny, but simply passable), ahead of it’s release on May 4th 2012 (two months before Christopher Nolan’s third Batman movie is scheduled for release).
