The Avengers!

[Hebrew Hammer]

This is gonna be tight...

http://trailers.apple.com/trailers/marvel/avengers/

[GeneChing]

Follow the link for the "Iron Man workout"

Robert Downey Jr.'s Iron Man Workout
The workout routine that helped this Hollywood star gain 25 pounds of pure muscle.
MF Editors
Photography by: Sam Jones

It’s been four years since Robert Downey Jr. first suited up as Iron Man. In this summer’s The Avengers, Downey Jr. reprises the role alongside Chris Evans (Captain America) and Chris Hemsworth (Thor).

Even for a veteran Hollywood superstar like Downey Jr., you’d think it’d be a little intimidating to perform opposite men that are younger, more athletic, and physically primed to take on the roles of super-soldier and Norse God. Think again.

“I’m not particularly tall, strong, fast, or aggressive,” Downey Jr. told us, “But I’m not faking it.”

Far from it.

Since 2003, he has trained using the Wing Chun technique made famous by Bruce Lee, a discipline that’s become a part of his daily routine—and his dedication to perfecting the art is evident in his performances.

He is also a beast in the gym (see Downey Jr.’s plan below) but knows his limits: “I’m not a kid,” he told us, “And I’m not a professional athlete.”

Getting in Iron Man shape, however, forced Downey Jr. back into the gym in conjunction with his Wing Chun training. “We cut way back on cardio and really increased the weight he was lifting,” says Brad Bose, Downey Jr.’s trainer. After months of hard work and consuming 5,000 calories a day, Downey Jr. had packed on 25 pounds of muscle and forged a physique truly worthy of Iron Man.

Related threads:
Iron Man
Thor
Captain America
Hulk
Did I miss any?

Five fact about The Avengers
April 25, 2012

The Avengers hits Australian screens today. Here are some things you probably didn't know about the action flick and the making of it.

Them's fighting words

Tom Hiddleston, who plays the Norse god Loki, had to learn the most fight sequences of any cast member for his battles with The Avengers. He did training in Wushu, a Chinese martial art, as well as boxing, stick and staff work, knife work and hand-to-hand combat.

He wasn't the only one put through the wringer though.

Mark Ruffalo lost 21 pounds to play Hulk, while shooting had to be rescheduled when Jeremy Renner tore a muscle from his back to his shoulder filming stunts for Hawkeye.

Scarlett Johansson also trained extensively in Wushu and weapons handling alongside fight choreographer Jonathan Eusebio and her stunt double, Heidi Moneymaker.

It ain's easy being green

Mark Ruffalo, who replaced Edward Norton as The Hulk, says it's not a role he would usually take on, but Robert Downey Jnr and the Iron Man movies were what convinced him.

He says unlike previous incarnations of The Hulk, he doesn't change size in The Avengers and is always "about eight and a half feet tall" regardless of how angry he is.

The Avengers is the first time, in film, TV and in the comics, that Bruce Banner and The Hulk have had physical similarities. Instead of just CGI, director Joss Whedon used motion capture technology (used to create characters like Gollum from Lord of the Rings) so you can see Ruffalo's facial characteristics in The Hulk.

The Scarlett letter

The usually blonde Scarlett Johansson was not Iron Man 2 director Jon Favreau's first choice to play Natasha Romanoff, aka Black Widow, who in the comics is a tall Russian redhead. But when he met with her, she had dyed her hair red so he would know she was serious about the part.

The Avengers director Whedon made it clear from the beginning that a strong female character was absolutely essential and an all-male Avengers team was unacceptable.

Samuel 'Leeaky' Jackson

The Avengers is the first time Samuel L Jackson's SHIELD agent Nick Fury has stepped into a main role, instead of just cameos. But during filming, his printer was hacked and the movie script for The Avengers leaked online. Marvel sent a team of investigators to Canada to track down the person that put it up for sale online.

Nick Fury's own spin-off movie is now in the works, with Jackson predicting fellow agent Black Widow (Johansson) will also be in it.

Spying the spies during the shoot

The first day of the 92-day shoot was on April 24, 2011, and involved a scene where Nick Fury confronts Steve Rogers in an old boxing gym with a new mission.

It wasn't until day 11 that the entire lead cast of The Avengers assembled for the first time, for a scene where they find out why Nick has rounded them up.

Movies aren't generally shot chronologically, but the last scene of the movie was also shot on the last day of production, with the film wrapping on September 5, 2011.

It was shot in Central Park in New York with the entire lead cast, but because it was a long weekend in the US, thousands of onlookers gathered to see the Avengers in costume, including Thor and Loki decked out in their Asgardian gear.

The Avengers releases in Australian cinemas today.

Scarlett's stunt double is named Heidi Moneymaker? So what, she's a Bond girl?

[Hebrew Hammer]

Iron Man's workout link must be secret, the link doesn't work. For me Iron Man and the incredibly hot Scarlett Johannsen are going to make this for me. Iron Man cause the Robert Downy Jr plays an incredible character and the visual effects are right on. Black Widow in tights...enough said.

My biggest disappointment is Thor and Captain America...just very cartoonie...not impressive in the least...maybe its just my expectations of the characters was so much more from my comic book days as a kid. Thor and Capn A were two of my favorite marvel characters. It's like they're the 'B' team to the rest of them.

[brothernumber9]

I'm just hoping that they will actually have Hulk talk, instead of just growl and roar. The big metal dragon thing in the commercials looks like a take on the midgard serpent or Fin Fang Foom.

[doug maverick]

the skrull is the alien army they face.

[sanjuro_ronin]

Originally Posted by Hebrew Hammer

Iron Man's workout link must be secret, the link doesn't work. For me Iron Man and the incredibly hot Scarlett Johannsen are going to make this for me. Iron Man cause the Robert Downy Jr plays an incredible character and the visual effects are right on. Black Widow in tights...enough said.

My biggest disappointment is Thor and Captain America...just very cartoonie...not impressive in the least...maybe its just my expectations of the characters was so much more from my comic book days as a kid. Thor and Capn A were two of my favorite marvel characters. It's like they're the 'B' team to the rest of them.

What I don't get is you have Thor, who else do you need? LOL !
We are talking about the God of thunder, right?

Never been a CA fan myself, but liked the movie and how well it was done.

[Lucas]

ya but thor is in time out for disobeying his father, so he doesnt necessarily have the support of asgard. at least he gets mjolnir and some nifty powers...and he can outdrink anyone. probably his coolest power.

[sanjuro_ronin]

Originally Posted by Lucas

ya but thor is in time out for disobeying his father, so he doesnt necessarily have the support of asgard. at least he gets mjolnir and some nifty powers...and he can outdrink anyone. probably his coolest power.

Ah, so is that the Thor storyline in the avengers movie?

[Lucas]

pretty much ya. its the marvel thor schtick. he disobeys his father to help the realm of men when odin has forsaken them. so odin gets all mad and is like 'ur cut off boy!'

then thor gets really drunk

[Lucas]

thor has this rad ability to bust out asgardian mead

[Lucas]

whats funny is that stan lee mixes hercules in with thor in the comics. hercules actually fights the hulk to a stand still.

[sanjuro_ronin]

I think that Thor's hammer is really just a flask, a heavy one, but still just a flask !
LOL !

[GeneChing]

Originally Posted by Hebrew Hammer

Iron Man's workout link must be secret, the link doesn't work.

Sorry, my bad. I fixed that.

Originally Posted by Hebrew Hammer

...just very cartoonie...

Wait, these are based on comics, right? Better than on board games, I suppose.

[GeneChing]

Superhero stunts in ‘The Avengers’ demand deep comic knowledge, a blend of fighting styles

Disney, Zade Rosenthal/Associated Press - In this film image released by Disney, Scarlett Johansson portraying Black Widow, left, and Jeremy Renner, portraying Hawkeye, are shown during the filming of Marvel’s “The Avengers.”
By Associated Press, Updated: Tuesday, May 1, 7:51 AM

LOS ANGELES — The werewolf and vampire battles of “Twilight,” Jason Bourne’s super-agent skirmishes and the sword swinging of “Conan the Barbarian” were all just warm-ups for stunt master Jonathan Eusebio, who choreographed the superhero fight scenes in “The Avengers” with the passion of a lifelong comic book fan.

“I grew up as a fanboy,” said Eusebio, 38. “I grew up reading comics, collecting comics, so for me it’s a dream job. And to be part of something new, something that’s never been done before like this, it is really exciting. It’s almost like the highlight of my career.”

Eusebio spent countless childhood hours absorbing tales of the Hulk’s immense size and strength, Black Widow’s quick and deadly moves, Hawkeye’s precision archery, Thor and Loki’s otherworldly powers, and Captain America’s unflinching readiness. Add in a big Marvel budget and the high stakes of saving humanity, and it’s a comic-fan turned fight-coordinator’s perfect gig.

Eusebio taught Jeremy Renner how to wield Hawkeye’s bow and showed Scarlett Johansson the Black Widow’s wicked martial arts. In short, he helped give the stars and their stunt doubles their superpowers.

The actors spent months preparing for the physical demands of their roles and learning the techniques that make them lethal on screen, if not on the street.

They began with basic training to learn the body mechanics of various martial arts, then Eusebio built fight sequences based on each character’s attributes and actor’s strengths. He had a distinct advantage here: As a fight coordinator, he’d worked with many of the actors before, and as a fanboy, he knew the characters well.

“It becomes a part of you as you’re growing up,” he said.

He choreographs the fighting moves into a camera-ready routine, which the stars and their stunt doubles each master. Johansson, Renner and Chris Evans, who plays Captain America, compared the training process to learning a dance.

“It’s choreographed steps that are all put together in order for you to pack a punch and in order to make it safe and not as painful as it could be,” Johansson said. “You learn to kind of seamlessly become one with your double and with Jeremy (Renner)’s double and be able to fight one another interchangeably.

Renner said he spent more time preparing than in front of the camera.

“I only shot about 18 days, and when I wasn’t shooting I was in that stunt gym,” he said. “It was mostly (learning) that hand-to-hand stuff that you can’t (simulate by computer), and you can’t fake it.”

Evans compared the stunt preparation to superhero summer camp.

“(Captain America) doesn’t really have any training in any one particular style of fighting, so it wasn’t like I had to learn some certain type of martial arts,” he said. “You just have to learn the choreography like you would a dance, you know, punch here, step here. It’s just a lot of stunt training. It’s kind of fun. It’s kind of like summer camp.”

Eusebio trained the actors in various fighting styles, including Wushu, Kung Fu and medieval techniques. Hawkeye’s bow became a double-edged staff, Loki used knives and a scepter, and Black Widow wielded her own wild weaponry.

“One of the biggest challenges was learning the Wushu style of fighting, which is really intense and complicated and painful,” Johansson said. “You do all your rehearsals with a broom handle, and suddenly you have a 30-lb. alien gun in your hand.”

The S.H.I.E.L.D. agents — Samuel L. Jackson’s Nick Fury, Clark Gregg’s Phil Coulson and Cobie Smulders’ Maria Hill — also apply some serious firepower. Jackson said he didn’t need too much preparation.

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“All I had to do was learn how to grab the rifles and hold onto them and let the stunt guys do all the stuff and make it look like I was doing it to them,” he said.

For Smulders, “The Avengers” is her first action film, so the star of TV’s “How I Met Your Mother” did some extra training on the side: She hired a guy who trains SWAT teams.

“I was also very scared of guns coming into this,” Smulders said. “So I had him bring a bunch of his guns — unloaded — to my house and had him just break it down. ... All these things that I just wanted to have in my body and wanted to be really comfortable with.”

Eusebio said he makes sure to remind the actors he works with that even though the stunt training instills confidence, the fighting skills they learn on set don’t really translate to the street.

“In screen fighting you want to look like you’re hurting them without hurting them. In self-defense on the street, you’re there to maim or hurt someone,” he said.

But screen or street, it’s still clear to the fight coordinator who would win if the Marvel superheroes were to really go at it.

“I’m going strictly by the comics,” Eusebio said. “Of course Hulk is the strongest, but overall Captain America is supposed to be the best fighter.”

But Chris Hemsworth, who plays Thor, isn’t convinced.

“I’ve got to say, I think Scarlett’s fight scenes are some of the most impressive,” he said. “All of us, we had wires and magical weapons and other advantages that she doesn’t, but she holds her own in the film. She’d probably beat the hell out of all of us.”

We'll have something exclusive for KFM on opening day this Friday.

[sanjuro_ronin]

It's already made over 200 million.