They faced Loki and an alien armada in** Avengers Assemble**. Now, for the sequel, Earth’s Mightiest Heroes’ great nemesis will be fire. Because according to Screen Daily, the Avengers will be made out of pinewood. Wait... Studios. Pinewood-Shepperton studios. That makes more sense.
Yes, in move that makes our chests swell with more patriotic pride than endlessly singing 'God Save The Queen' could manage, it appears Marvel Studios has found a happy home – not to mention tax breaks – in the UK, as it has already shot Thor: The Dark World in Blighty and Guardians Of The Galaxy will be kicking off soon.
So it looks like noted Anglophile Joss Whedon will be able to sip a proper cuppa as he commands Robert Downey Jr., Chris Evans, Chris Hemsworth, Mark Ruffalo and the rest to do his benevolent, dictatorial bidding from behind the monitor in early 2014. Pre-production is scheduled to kick off later this year. The film itself is expected in spring 2015.
As for what will happen in the Avengers sequel, or whether it’ll be called Avengers Re-Assemble over here? That remains to be seen. Right now, only Whedon and his Marvel collaborators know the details, but we’d expect titbits to start leaking out within the next few months. You know how this works. Given the new digs, we firmly expect a climactic showdown in the town centre of Nag End On Sea, seaside jewel of Little Shitley.
In related Location News, it appears that Michael Bay and his Transformers 4 team won’t simply be shooting in Chicago and Detroit, oh no. They’re also off to China as part of a cooperation agreement signed by Paramount, China Movie Channel and Jiaflix Enterprises.
“I’m proud and honoured by how Transformers has been embraced by Chinese audiences,” said Michael Bay. “I look forward to working with China Movie Channel and Jiaflix Enterprises to help reach more people here and deepen their passion for this ongoing story and its characters.” Presumably adding, “and I get to blow more stuff up in awesome ways” in his head.
China and the rest of the global box office have become increasingly important to big movies, so we can expect to see more of this. After all, if it’s good enough for Tony Stark and** Iron Man 3**, Michael Bay needs a slice of that action. David Fincher, meanwhile, is apparently floating 20,000 Leagues Under The Se****a to Australia. You can read more about that here.