Marvel Studios presents Avengers: Age of Ultron, the epic follow-up to the biggest superhero movie of all time. When Tony Stark tries to jumpstart a dormant peacekeeping program, things go awry and Earth's mightiest heroes, including Iron Man, Captain America, Thor, The Incredible Hulk, Black Widow and Hawkeye, are put to the ultimate test as the fate of the planet hangs in the balance.
As the villainous Ultron emerges, it is Hollywood Gossip up to The Avengers to stop him from enacting his terrible plans, and soon uneasy alliances and unexpected action pave the way for an epic and unique global adventure.
Marvel's Avengers: Age of Ultron stars Robert Downey Jr., who returns as Iron Man, along with Chris Hemsworth as Thor, Mark Ruffalo as Hulk and Chris Evans as Captain America. Together with Scarlett Johansson as Black Widow and Jeremy Renner as Hawkeye, and with the additional support of Don Cheadle as James Rhodes/War Machine, Cobie Smulders as Agent Maria Hill, Stellan Skarsgard as Erik Selvig and Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury, the team must reassemble to defeat James Spader as Ultron, a terrifying technological villain hell-bent on human extinction.
Along the way, they confront two mysterious and powerful newcomers, Pietro Maximoff, played by Aaron Taylor-Johnson, and Wanda Maximoff, played by Elizabeth Olsen and meet an old friend in a new form when Paul Bettany becomes Vision. Written and directed by Joss Whedon and produced by Kevin Feige, Marvel's Avengers: Age of Ultron is based on the ever-popular Marvel comic book series The Avengers, first published in 1963. Louis D'Esposito, Alan Fine, Victoria Alonso, Jeremy Latcham, Patricia Whitcher, Stan Lee and Jon Favreau serve as executive producers.
Q: Was there any specific way you wanted to take Tony Stark in this film?
A: With the first film, The Avengers, Tony was becoming a team player and with Iron Man 3, it was him transcending his dependency on the tech that's keeping him alive. So I thought, "OK, now what?" But there's all this unfinished business. There's the matter of a certain wormhole that opened over New York and the imminent threat that still implies, so Tony has turned his attentions more toward a bit of a post-Reagan-era, Star-Wars-type notion and he likes to call it Ultron.
Q: Tony Stark always seems to be the driving force behind the villain in these films. Is that true for this one?
A: I don't know, but maybe it's convenient because he's the guy who's presumably technologically responsible. He can take a bit more risk with defects of character, so as it happens I think he's a good guy to have around to do dumb and or bad things.
Q: How do you balance giving the audience what they want but also surprising them?
A: The big idea is that all of us, to a man and woman, tend to think like the audience: "All right, we've seen that before. How do you put a new spin on it?" While there's certain aspects of familiarity that can comfort me as just someone who goes to movies and loves movies and loves franchises and sequels and all that stuff, it's a different era, so what would have worked 5 or 10 years ago is completely obsolete now. I guess it's always that trying to just stay a couple of inches ahead of the cresting wave but a lot of that is just intuitive. Joss Whedon really brought it to another level by writing a very fun, deeper and wider story.
Q: What does shooting all over the world add to the film?
A: Two things: one is that the market and the audience and the fans have become so much more spread out and it's really a global property. It was the responsible thing to do to branch out. There's also something much more authentic about when it's not just a felt sense of somewhere but "OK, they're there." I'm certainly glad it happened and it seems like it's really adding to the overall scope of the movie.
Q: What has been your favorite thing in this new script?
A: To me it's further developing the complexities of the relationship between all the main folks. I like that Thor has a beef with me and then eventually has to say I'm right. It's just interesting and the way it all wraps up to me is super exciting but strangely my favorite part about Avengers: Age of Ultron is what's brought into potential at the end.
Q: Tony Stark likes to be in charge but things have shifted to Captain America being more in charge. What is Tony's take on that?
A: There are really only two relationships in Tony's life in which he's been willing to assume a lower status and one's with Pepper obviously, equal footing, and the other is with Cap. It's always whoever does the job best should probably do that job and Tony's bringing a lot to the table and Cap has the most experience. It's also nice to feel like there's someone under whose tutelage you become better at what you have to do and no one's more battle-seasoned than Cap.
Q: How did you like the Stark Tower set this time around?
A: I walked on the stages and I said, "Wow, this is really impressive." The fact is that they are like a futuristic ice rink and the floors look so beautiful. They're so slippery, though, that it also added an unforeseen amount of excitement and danger to like walk three steps.
Q: What do you enjoy the most about working with director Joss Whedon?
A: Joss is just really smart and he thinks stuff through. I remember sometimes that the joy was creating things as we went along or within the context of the story. We were really figuring out, "What frequency should this scene be?" and Joss tends to already be a couple of steps along in that process, which occasionally can make you feel like, "What am I bringing?" But there are always other steps that can go, so it makes it easier to get to the best version of something because he's practically there already most of the time.
Q: What are you looking forward to seeing in this film when it's all said and done?
A: Hawkeye's arc and his importance in the movie and where he brings us and what happens there and what it means.
Q: How does it help that there have been several movies for all the characters now and you've all gotten to know each other much better?
A: There's just a closeness and I guess we're getting into that realm and territory that folks have on the Potters or the Bonds or whatever. When you've been at something for some time, there is a sense of extended family that happens in the cast. Everything seems more balanced. Everyone's definitely carrying more of their weight and it makes space for new talent because at the end of the day that's the whole thing is that you always just want to leave things strong enough and well enough to be able to support the weight of new talent.
Q: What does the future hold for Tony Stark?
A: It's hard to say. I've been talking with Kevin Feige and some of the creatives and there are really good ideas. It's been this thing where some part of it was just smart luck and then the rest of it has been this kind of thing that's gently unfolded and at the right pace for the right amount of time to keep working. So whatever the future holds for Tony I want it to be a future that works for the highest good for the whole magilla and I just want it to keep feeling like there's more to do and more to say.
Q: What is it about Marvel that attracts such incredible talent?
A: It's just the ultimate stage for a big fun movie and it's one thing to be able to have success here and there but this is really unprecedented—that whole ancillary and tributary thing. It's like any way the river has gone it's wound up finding people who wanted to drink from it. I guess the big idea also is that there's something that makes everything feel connected.
Q: What do you hope audiences will get out of this film?
A: Honestly, this time I just hope people say "Wow." I hope that they feel as good about this as they did when they came and saw the third Iron Man, or as they did when they saw the most recent Captain America and Thor and that there's still more to say and more to do and it's fun. This movie is incredibly fun and thoughtful and has great themes and there's a whole bunch of new people so that's my seal of approval.
Q: In this movie you get to learn much more about the characters.
A: You have to. I came up in the '80s and '90s when franchises got progressively less interested in what made them work as they went along, so fortunately there's enough blood in the water that we have learned from that and we know we have to go deeper and wider because audiences want to feel more emotionally satisfied and more mentally entertained.
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