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Avengers update: Evolution of Hulk, female superheroes, massive FX count and just how big is the Hulkbuster?

October 20th, 2014 by Irwin Fletcher Comments

We have bunch of new stories on Avengers: Age Of Ultron that will hopefully prevent your inner anger from manifesting itself into a no-holds-barred walking ticker of destruction.

First up, what is thought to be a recent promo from Hot Toys reveals The Avengers figurines line-up and their respective heights. A couple of things to think about here; how will the 8’5” Hulk deal with the 11’ Hulkbuster? Guess we will have to wait for Avengers: Age of Ultron to find out, however, you can check out the leak for yourselves for a proper swatch:

Hopefully the omission of Vision, Hulkbuster and Ultron – will prevent any Hulk Smashes – as it is pretty goddam irritating, but again, like we mentioned – the image seems to originate from the Hot Toys/Sideshow Collectibles. Some plus points from the leak: We get a decent look at the costumes work by Earth’s Almightiest Heroes who will be creating plenty of destruction in Avengers: Age of Ultron; and we get to look at how all of our beloved heroes match up in terms of size.

The image originates from Comicbookmovie, and we have to offer a big thank you to @galliettd for the heads up. You can sound off below in the comments section and let us know what you think.

Next up, ILM bring their productions to the UK joining the likes of Disney and other studios. Furthermore, the talk here focuses on the evolution of The Hulk.

With Disney and many other studios bringing their productions to the UK, it was only a matter of time before ILM joined the other studios. President Lynwen Brennan talks in detail about the technology they’re using to continue The Hulk’s evolution. At a press event this weekend to promote the launch of the opening of Industrial Light & Magic’s new London Studio in Soho, President Kathleen Kennedy and ILM President Lynwen Brennan managed to have a chat with IGN to talk about one of their most hotly anticipated projects Avengers: Age of Ultron. When asked how they were developing their work incredible work on The Hulk in The Avengers, Brennan described the character as being a “really big creative challenge for us.”

“Getting that personality is very important to Joss [Whedon], and it’s very important that it’s driven by Mark [Ruffalo]’s performance. We’ve developed a new capture system, which we call Muse, which really captures the actor’s performance – it allows us to combine different takes as well. We’re using it on Warcraft, and we furthered the development on Avengers.”

Finally, we knew Avengers: Age of Ultron was going big in terms of Visual Effects, but just how big? It turns out it’s going to feature over 3,000 VFX shots.

Giving the studio’s tendency to push the bar with each of their subsequent releases, Victoria Alonso – Marvel Studios executive producer – confirmed during a recent speech for the Visual Effects Society that next summer’s Joss Whedon-helmed Avengers: Age of Ultron will feature over 3,000 VFX shots. To put that into perspective for you, that is roughly 500 more than this year’s Captain America: The Winter Soldier and 250 more than Guardians of the Galaxy.

With this kind of scope in regards to visual effects, this will involve a build up and involvement of artists all over the world calling for the utilization of seven to twelve different VFX vendors. The Hollywood reporter has related Alonso’s belief in making the extended creative team of Marvel’s films as international as possible, allowing ideas to come from as many sources as possible.

Alonso – who serves as Marvel’s VP of visual effects and post production – also announced that she would like to see more gender-neutrality within the creative industry:  “You’ve got to get the girls in here, boys. I have been with you beautiful, handsome, talented, creative men in dark rooms for two decades and I can tell you those rooms are better when there are a few of us in them. So as you take this with you, please remember that it’s okay to allow the ladies in. They’re smart; they’re talented. They bring a balance that you need.”

Variety asked if the same gender-neutrality would extend to Marvel’s upcoming cinematic plans reminding her that prominent competition (DC) – who just announced in their recent schedule that the planned for a Wonder woman release date in 2017? “If it were up to me,” Alonso said of Marvel’s long expected announcement of a female-led superhero film, “It would be today.”

Having famously teased the Agent Carter television series with Haley Atwell during a 2013 Comic-Con presentation. Alonso has long been a vocal champion of equal rights in the Marvel Cinematic Universe for a while now.

Avengers: Age of Ultron hits the big screen May 1, 2015.

I'm an LA journalist who really lives for his profession. I have also published work as Jane Doe in various mags and newspapers across the globe. I normally write articles that can cause trouble but now I write for FTN because Nerds are never angry, so I feel safe.