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st nidan 's is built mainly from red gritstone rubble dressed with sandstone with buttresses at the corners the roof which is made from slate has stone copings with a cross at the east end the church is built in a cross @@ shape in early english style there is a tower at the west end which has battlements at the top along with a clock on the east and west sides a belfry in the middle and an entrance porch with an arched doorway at the bottom there are two transepts leading from the nave one to the north and one to the south and a chancel at the east end there are four equal and bold arches at the crossing where nave transepts and chancel meet the quadrant @@ shaped organ room and vestry are built into the eastern external angles of the chancel and transepts one on each side of the church
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the gallery at the west end of the nave supported by octagonal columns is reached from the entrance porch it has its pews set at an angle a step leads up from the nave into the chancel with a further two steps up from the chancel into the sanctuary the floor of the chancel and the sanctuary are made from encaustic tiles the internal walls have been plastered the nave has two bays each lit with a lancet window the transepts have groups of three large <unk> windows as does the east end of the building the chancel window depicts faith hope and charity by heaton butler and bayne ( 1877 ) it is dedicated to the 5th lord boston who died in 1897 one transept set of windows by shrigley and hunt depicts the ascension in memory of anna maria evans ( died 1929 wife of the vicar richard evans )
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a sandstone chest with a glass front was moved here from the old church local tradition maintains that it holds the relics of st nidan it was discovered under the altar of the old church and may date from the 16th century the church also has pews made of pine and a semi @@ octagonal pulpit with decorated panels
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a survey by the royal commission on ancient and historical monuments in wales and monmouthshire in 1937 noted which of the church 's contents had come from the old church the report listed the font which has carved decoration and dates from the early 13th century two bells one from the first half of the 14th century ( inscribed + e d a n ) and another from the latter part of the 15th century ( inscribed <unk> ap <unk> ) and a carved oak chair from the time of charles ii
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in 1906 a survey of church plate within the bangor diocese recorded that st nidan 's had a silver chalice and alms dish these were donated probably in 1701 and remade in 1871 72 it also had a silver paten and two <unk> with silver handles all marked with the date 1871 72 records from the 19th century indicated that two tankards ( one silver one pewter ) and a silver chalice had been lost
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the churchyard contains the grave of sir ellis ellis @@ griffith 1st baronet who was mp for anglesey for 25 years the grave by the church 's north wall has a bust of the politician wearing a wing collar other people buried here include the presbyterian minister and theologian j e hughes who died in 1959 there are four commonwealth war graves of a british army soldier of world war i and three soldiers of world war ii
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= = assessment = =
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the church has national recognition and statutory protection from alteration as it has been designated as a grade ii listed building the lowest of the three grades of listing designating buildings of special interest which warrant every effort being made to preserve them it was given this status on 30 january 1968 and has been listed as a small early 19th @@ century church cadw ( the welsh assembly government body responsible for the built heritage of wales and the inclusion of welsh buildings on the statutory lists ) describes the church as a distinctive example of pre @@ archaeological gothic revival work
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writing in 1846 the clergyman and antiquarian harry longueville jones condemned the treatment of the old church which he said was one of the largest and most important in the island of anglesey given its architecture contents and traditions he said that the new church had been built in a debased barbarous style showing neither architectural science nor taste and without any example or analogy amongst the ecclesiastical edifices of any age except the present he also described it in 1863 as that hideous pile a painfully impressive example of architectural bad taste he said that the font was one of the most interesting as a work of art ( not later than the thirteenth century ) extent in anglesey and although he did not consider that its design or execution matched that of the font at st ceinwen 's church llangeinwen it was a highly valuable specimen of medieval taste the reliquary he added was unique so far as wales is concerned
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the 19th @@ century writer samuel lewis said that the new church was apparently of substantial construction but is much inferior in style to the old building the historian and clergyman edmund tyrrell green writing a survey of anglesey church architecture and contents in 1929 described the church as hideous although he said that the font was remarkable for its very graceful patterns in relief showing influence of greek classical design
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a 2006 guide to the churches of anglesey says that it is of fairly unusual appearance not at all typical of anglesey churches in its stonework or the shape of the <unk> tower it comments that the organ and vestry were in unusually @@ shaped rooms and notes the ornate stained glass of the ascension a 2009 guide to the buildings of the region says that the church is bolder than john welch 's similarly designed church at llandudno it describes the tower as top @@ heavy with battlements like a water tower and adds that the seating is crowded
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= the avengers ( 2012 film ) =
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marvel 's the avengers ( classified under the name marvel avengers assemble in the united kingdom and ireland ) or simply the avengers is a 2012 american superhero film based on the marvel comics superhero team of the same name produced by marvel studios and distributed by walt disney studios motion pictures1 it is the sixth film in the marvel cinematic universe the film was written and directed by joss whedon and features an ensemble cast that includes robert downey jr chris evans mark ruffalo chris hemsworth scarlett johansson jeremy renner tom hiddleston clark gregg cobie smulders stellan skarsgård and samuel l jackson in the film nick fury director of the peacekeeping organization shield recruits iron man captain america the hulk and thor to form a team that must stop thor 's brother loki from subjugating earth
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the film 's development began when marvel studios received a loan from merrill lynch in april 2005 after the success of the film iron man in may 2008 marvel announced that the avengers would be released in july 2011 with the signing of johansson in march 2009 the film was pushed back for a 2012 release whedon was brought on board in april 2010 and rewrote the original screenplay by zak penn production began in april 2011 in albuquerque new mexico before moving to cleveland ohio in august and new york city in september the film was converted to 3d in post @@ production
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the avengers premiered on april 11 2012 at hollywood 's el capitan theatre and was released theatrically in the united states on may 4 2012 the film garnered numerous critical awards and nominations including academy award and bafta nominations for achievements in visual effects and has set or tied numerous box office records including the biggest opening weekend in north america the avengers grossed over $ 1 @@ 5 billion worldwide and became the third @@ highest @@ grossing film during its theatrical run as well as the first marvel production to generate $ 1 billion in ticket sales the film was released on blu @@ ray disc and dvd on september 25 2012 a sequel titled avengers age of ultron was released on may 1 2015 while a two @@ part sequel titled avengers infinity war is currently in development with part 1 scheduled for a may 4 2018 release date and part 2 scheduled to be released on may 3 2019
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= = plot = =
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the asgardian loki encounters the other the leader of an extraterrestrial race known as the chitauri in exchange for retrieving the tesseract 2 a powerful energy source of unknown potential the other promises loki an army with which he can subjugate earth nick fury director of the espionage agency shield and his lieutenant agent maria hill arrive at a remote research facility during an evacuation where physicist dr erik selvig is leading a research team experimenting on the tesseract agent phil coulson explains that the object has begun radiating an unusual form of energy the tesseract suddenly activates and opens a wormhole allowing loki to reach earth loki takes the tesseract and uses his scepter to enslave selvig and a couple of agents including clint barton to aid him in his getaway
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in response to the attack fury reactivates the avengers initiative agent natasha romanoff is sent to calcutta to recruit dr bruce banner to trace the tesseract through its gamma radiation emissions coulson visits tony stark to have him review selvig 's research and fury approaches steve rogers with an assignment to retrieve the tesseract
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in stuttgart barton steals iridium needed to stabilize the tesseract 's power while loki causes a distraction leading to a confrontation with rogers stark and romanoff that ends with loki 's surrender while loki is being escorted to shield thor his adoptive brother arrives and frees him hoping to convince him to abandon his plan and return to asgard after a confrontation with stark and rogers thor agrees to take loki to shield ' s flying aircraft carrier the helicarrier there loki is imprisoned while banner and stark attempt to locate the tesseract
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the avengers become divided both over how to approach loki and the revelation that shield plans to harness the tesseract to develop weapons as a deterrent against hostile extraterrestrials as the group argues barton and loki 's other possessed agents attack the helicarrier disabling its engines in flight and causing banner to transform into the hulk stark and rogers try to restart the damaged engine and thor attempts to stop the hulk 's rampage romanoff fights barton and knocks him unconscious breaking loki 's mind control loki escapes after killing coulson and ejecting thor from the airship while the hulk falls to the ground after attacking a shield fighter jet fury uses coulson 's death to motivate the avengers into working as a team stark and rogers realize that for loki simply defeating them will not be enough he needs to overpower them publicly to validate himself as ruler of earth loki uses the tesseract in conjunction with a device selvig built to open a wormhole above stark tower to the chitauri fleet in space launching his invasion
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the avengers rally in defense of new york city the wormhole 's location but quickly realize they will be overwhelmed as wave after wave of chitauri descend upon earth banner arrives and transforms into the hulk and together he rogers stark thor barton and romanoff battle the chitauri while evacuating civilians the hulk finds loki and beats him into submission romanoff makes her way to the wormhole generator where selvig freed of loki 's control reveals that loki 's scepter can be used to shut down the generator meanwhile fury 's superiors attempt to end the invasion by launching a nuclear missile at midtown manhattan stark intercepts the missile and takes it through the wormhole toward the chitauri fleet the missile detonates destroying the chitauri mothership and disabling their forces on earth stark 's suit runs out of power and he falls back through the wormhole just as romanoff closes it stark goes into freefall but the hulk saves him from crashing to the ground in the aftermath thor returns loki and the tesseract to asgard while fury expresses confidence that the avengers will return if and when they are needed
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in a mid @@ credits scene the other confers with his <unk> about the failed attack on earth in a post @@ credits scene the avengers eat in silence at a shawarma restaurant
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= = cast = =
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robert downey jr as tony stark / iron man
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a self @@ described genius billionaire playboy and philanthropist with an electromechanical suit of armor of his own invention downey was cast as part of his four @@ picture deal with marvel studios which includes iron man 2 and the avengers downey said that he initially pushed whedon to make stark the lead well i said ' i need to be in the opening sequence i don 't know what you 're thinking but tony needs to drive this thing ' he was like ' okay let 's try that ' we tried it and it didn 't work because this is a different sort of thing the story and the idea and the theme is the theme and everybody is just an arm of the octopus about the character 's evolution from previous films downey said in iron man which was an origin story he was his own epiphany and redemption of sorts iron man 2 is all about not being an island dealing with legacy issues and making space for others in the avengers he 's throwing it down with the others
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chris evans as steve rogers / captain america
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a world war ii veteran who was enhanced to the peak of human physicality by an experimental serum and frozen in suspended animation before waking up in the modern world evans was cast as part of a deal to star in three marvel films in addition to the avengers evans said that steve rogers is much darker in the avengers it 's just about him trying to come to terms with the modern world you 've got to imagine it 's enough of a shock to accept the fact that you 're in a completely different time but everybody you know is dead everybody you cared about he was a soldier obviously everybody he went to battle with all of his brothers in arms they 're all dead he 's just lonely i think in the beginning it 's a fish @@ out @@ of @@ water scene and it 's tough it 's a tough pill for him to swallow then comes trying to find a balance with the modern world regarding the dynamic between rogers and tony stark evans said i think there 's certainly a dichotomy this kind of friction between myself and tony stark they 're polar opposites one guy is flash and spotlight and smooth and the other guy is selfless and in the shadows and kind of quiet and they have to get along they explore that and it 's pretty fun
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mark ruffalo as bruce banner / hulk
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a genius scientist who because of exposure to gamma radiation transforms into a monster when enraged or agitated ruffalo who was considered to play banner in the incredible hulk before edward norton took the role was cast after negotiations between marvel and norton broke down about replacing norton ruffalo said i 'm a friend of ed 's and yeah that wasn 't a great way for all that to go down but the way i see it is that ed has bequeathed this part to me i look at it as my generation 's hamlet about the character he said he 's a guy struggling with two sides of himself the dark and the light and everything he does in his life is filtered through issues of control i grew up on the bill bixby tv series which i thought was a really nuanced and real human way to look at the hulk i like that the part has those qualities regarding the hulk 's place on the team ruffalo said he 's like the teammate none of them are sure they want on their team he 's a loose cannon it 's like ' just throw a grenade in the middle of the group and let 's hope it turns out well this is the first production in which the actor playing banner also plays the hulk ruffalo told new york magazine i 'm really excited no one 's ever played the hulk exactly they 've always done cgi they 're going to do the avatar stop @@ action stop @@ motion capture so i 'll actually play the hulk that 'll be fun the 3d model used to create the hulk 's body was modeled after long island bodybuilder and male stripper steve romm while the hulk 's face was modeled after ruffalo to create the hulk 's voice ruffalo 's voice was blended with those of lou ferrigno and others however the hulk 's only speaking line ( <unk> god ) was provided solely by ruffalo
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chris hemsworth as thor
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the crown prince of asgard based on the norse mythological deity of the same name hemsworth was cast as part of a multiple movie deal he had previously worked with joss whedon on the cabin in the woods hemsworth said that he was able to maintain the strength he built up for thor by increasing his food intake consisting of chicken breasts fish steak and eggs every day when asked exactly how much hemsworth said my body weight in protein pretty much he remarked that thor 's motivation is much more of a personal one in the sense that it 's his brother that is stirring things up whereas everyone else it 's some bad guy who they 've gotta take down it 's a different approach for me or for thor he 's constantly having to battle the greater good and what he should do vs it 's his little brother there i 've been frustrated with my brothers at times or family but i 'm the only one who is allowed to be angry at them there 's a bit of that
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scarlett johansson as natasha romanoff / black widow
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a highly trained spy working for shield about the character and her relationship with hawkeye johansson said our characters have a long history they 've fought together for a long time in a lot of battles in many different countries we 're the two members of this avenging group who are skilled warriors we have no superpowers black widow is definitely one of the team though she 's not in the cast simply to be a romantic foil or eye candy she 's there to fight so i never felt like i was the only girl we all have our various skills and it feels equal regarding her training johansson said even though iron man 2 was ' one @@ for @@ them ' i 'd never done anything like that before i 'd never been physically driven in something or a part of something so big for the avengers i 've spent so many months training with our stunt team and fighting all the other actors it 's crazy i do nothing but fight all the time
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jeremy renner as clint barton / hawkeye
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a master archer working as an agent for shield renner said it was a very physical role and that he trained physically and practiced archery as much as possible in preparation about the role renner said when i saw iron man i thought that was a really kick @@ ass approach to superheroes then they told me about this hawkeye character and i liked how he wasn 't really a superhero he 's just a guy with a high skill set i could connect to that regarding hawkeye 's sniper mentality renner said it 's a lonely game he 's an outcast his only connection is to scarlett 's character natasha it 's like a left hand / right hand thing they coexist and you need them both especially when it comes to a physical mission renner said hawkeye is not insecure about his humanity quite the opposite he 's the only one who can really take down the hulk with his [ tranquilizer @@ tipped ] arrows he knows his limitations but when it comes down to it there has to be a sense of confidence in any superhero
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tom hiddleston as loki
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thor 's adoptive brother and nemesis based on the norse mythological deity of the same name about his character 's evolution from the film thor hiddleston said i think the loki we see in the avengers is further advanced you have to ask yourself the question how pleasant an experience is it disappearing into a wormhole that has been created by some kind of super nuclear explosion of his own making so i think by the time loki shows up in the avengers he 's seen a few things about loki 's motivations hiddleston said at the beginning of the avengers he comes to earth to subjugate it and his idea is to rule the human race as their king and like all the delusional <unk> of human history he thinks this is a great idea because if everyone is busy worshipping him there will be no wars so he will create some kind of world peace by ruling them as a tyrant but he is also kind of deluded in the fact that he thinks unlimited power will give him self @@ respect so i haven 't let go of the fact that he is still motivated by this terrible jealousy and kind of spiritual desolation
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clark gregg as phil coulson
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an agent with shield who oversees many of the division 's field operations gregg was cast as part of a multi @@ picture deal with marvel gregg said his role was expanded in the avengers [ what ] agent coulson had become in terms of the import of this particular story and how important his job is in bringing the avengers together it kind of felt a little surreal like somebody was playing a prank and that wasn 't the real script but it wasn 't it was the real thing i got to show up and do that stuff and it felt like such an amazing payoff to what the journey had been and the fact i had been doing it for five years gregg said whedon provided insight into his character 's backstory particularly about coulson being a fan of captain america
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cobie smulders as maria hill
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a high @@ ranking agent with shield who works closely with jackson 's nick fury smulders whom joss whedon once considered for his unproduced live @@ action wonder woman film was selected from a short list of potential actresses including morena baccarin smulders ' deal would integrate her into nine films regarding her preparation smulders said i hired this amazing black @@ ops trainer to teach me how to hold a gun take me to a shooting range how to hit how to hold myself how to walk and basically how to look i don 't do a ton of fighting in the movie which is why i wasn 't offered a trainer but i wanted to look like i had the ability to on relating to the character smulders said i can relate to her being a mom and being a businesswoman and trying to work full @@ time and raising a family and having a career we 're asked to do a lot of things these days i feel she is just all about her job and keeping things going
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stellan skarsgård as erik selvig
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an astrophysicist and a friend of thor under loki 's control who is studying the tesseract 's power regarding loki 's control over selvig skarsgård said well with the scene we did in thor it was like loki one way or the other entered erik 's mind and in avengers you will see more clarity in how loki is using erik 's mind about his role he said [ my character ] is of importance but the size of the role is not big
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samuel l jackson as nick fury
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the director of shield who was revealed in previous films to be coordinating the avengers initiative jackson was brought to the project with a deal containing an option to play the character in up to nine marvel films jackson said he does more in the avengers than in any of the previous films you don 't have to wait until the end of the movie to see me about the role jackson said it 's always good to play somebody [ who ] is a positive in society as opposed to somebody who is a negative i tried to make him as honest to the story and as honest to what real @@ life would seem jackson compared the character to <unk> in jackie brown calling him a nice guy to hang out with you just don 't want to cross him
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gwyneth paltrow and maximiliano hernández reprise their roles from previous films as pepper potts and jasper sitwell respectively paul bettany returns to voice jarvis frequent whedon collaborator alexis denisof portrays the other and damion poitier portrays his master thanos ( unnamed in the film ) in a post @@ credit scene powers boothe and jenny agutter appear as members of the world security council avengers co @@ creator stan lee has a cameo appearance in a news report harry dean stanton cameos as a security guard and polish film director jerzy skolimowski appears as georgi <unk> romanoff 's interrogator enver gjokaj who later went on to play agent daniel sousa in the series agent carter appears as a police officer
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= = production = =
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= = = development = = =
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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 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
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casting began in october 2008 with downey 's signing though don cheadle was also reported to be reprising his iron man 2 role of war machine for the avengers he later stated that he did not think the character would appear in the film at the same time two major prospects occurred for marvel jon favreau was brought in as an executive producer for the film and the company signed a long @@ term lease with raleigh studios to produce three other big @@ budget films 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 nick fury in iron man 2 and other films in september 2009 edward norton who played bruce banner in the incredible hulk stated that he was open to returning in the film 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 the female superhero wasp was included in an earlier draft of the script written before johansson 's involvement the following day marvel announced that the film 's release date had been pushed back to may 4 2012 almost a full year later chris hemsworth and tom hiddleston joined the film 's cast in june returning as thor and loki respectively
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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
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in january 2010 marvel studios chief kevin feige was asked if it would 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 captain america in three films including the avengers
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= = = pre @@ production = = =
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by april 2010 joss whedon was close to completing a deal to direct the film and to rework penn 's script and was officially announced in july 2010 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 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 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 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
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the casting process continued into much of 2010 with the additions of jeremy renner mark ruffalo and clark gregg ruffalo replaced edward norton who marvel declined to have back we have made the decision to not bring ed norton back to portray the title role of bruce banner in the avengers stated feige 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 <unk> decried feige 's statement calling it purposefully misleading and an inappropriate attempt to paint our client in a negative light in october 2014 norton claimed it was his own decision never to play hulk again because he wanted more diversity with his career and did not want to be associated with only one character
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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 grumman studios in bethpage new york and the steiner studios in brooklyn new york city were announced as filming locations with set construction slated to begin in november 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 walt disney studios 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 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
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in december 2010 governor of new mexico 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 governor of ohio john kasich announced before mayor frank g jackson 's state of the city address that the avengers would film in cleveland
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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
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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 shield member who samuel l jackson described as nick fury 's sidekick over the successive months the film 's cast expanded to include stellan skarsgård paul bettany and gwyneth paltrow 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
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= = = filming = = =
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principal photography began on april 25 2011 in albuquerque new mexico 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 tmzcom 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
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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 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 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 shield 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 public square 's southwest quadrant was turned into stuttgart germany for filming
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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
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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 the film was mcgarvey 's first venture shooting with a digital camera the arri alexa the canon eos 5d mark ii and canon eos 7d digital slr cameras were 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
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= = = post @@ production = = =
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in december 2011 disney announced that the film would be converted to 3d 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 <unk> toward the screen anyway 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
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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 <unk> 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 shawarma sales in los angeles st louis and boston reportedly skyrocketed in the days following the film 's release
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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 <unk> 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 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
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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 disney and sony pictures agreed for oscorp tower from the amazing spider @@ man to be included in the film but the idea was dropped because much of the skyline had already been completed
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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
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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 shield 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 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
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= = music = =
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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 silvestri developed the score with the london symphony orchestra at abbey road studios in london england 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
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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 additionally the indian rock band <unk> released a music video for its single hello <unk> which serves as the theme song for the film 's indian release hollywood records released the soundtrack concept album inspired by the film avengers assemble on may 1 2012 the same day as the score
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= = release = =
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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 while the hollywood reporter said that it would be called simply avengers assemble marvel 's uk website refers to the film as marvel 's avengers assemble 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 according to the british board of film classification and the irish film classification office the title is marvel avengers assemble frank lovece in <unk> addressed the discrepancy writing the avengers formally titled marvel 's the avengers onscreen though no apostrophe @@ s appears on the posters producer kevin feige said there are only two words in the uk title one more than in the us 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
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