With Joss Whedon‘s The Avengers hitting Blu-ray and DVD this week (click here to buy in on Amazon), I recently got to visit ILM in San Francisco to talk with some of the visual effect supervisors. While many movies have amazing effects, it’s only when you combine them with a great story and interesting characters that you get something special, like The Avengers.

During my interview with Animation Director Marc Chu, we talked about what it was like to work on The Avengers, creating the Hulk transformation, Davy Jones in Pirates of the Caribbean, what Hulk effects they will be able to do in The Avengers sequel that they couldn’t accomplish in the first film, the length of time he spends on a project, deleted scenes, and more.  Hit the jump to watch.

With Joss Whedon‘s The Avengers hitting Blu-ray and DVD this week (click here to buy in on Amazon), I recently got to visit ILM in San Francisco to talk with some of the visual effect supervisors.  While many movies have amazing effects, it’s only when you combine them with a great story and interesting characters that you get something special, like The Avengers.

During my interview with Visual Effects Supervisor Jeff White, we talked about how they brought this version of the Hulk to life, whether they spent any extra time on the Hulk/Loki or Hulk/Thor scenes, how much the project and effects changed during production, what Hulk effects they will be able to do in The Avengers sequel that they couldn’t accomplish in the first film, and more.  Hit the jump to watch.

You would think that saying “yes” to returning to direct The Avengers 2 would have come easily to Joss Whedon and you wouldn’t be wrong.  But the fan-favorite director of the year’s biggest film did have to mull over the decision a bit before finally accepting.  Not that it was a difficult task to turn down gazillions of dollars.  But Whedon still seems to carry a chip on his shoulder about past failures that fell by the wayside through no fault of his own.   The success of The Avengers was a huge step in giving Whedon creative freedom going forward and it appears as if he’s ready to put his signature mark on the franchise with The Avengers 2.  Hit the jump to read comments from Whedon himself on accepting the director’s chair again. 

Considering the 2012 election cycle is currently in full swing, I feel compelled to lend my endorsement to a truly worthy candidate: The Campaign. As someone who unashamedly enjoys a majority of Will Ferrell‘s manchild cinematic escapades, I expected to like the pic. That said, I’m now putting The Campaign just behind Anchorman, Step Brothers, and Elf in my personal “Ferrell Top 4″: something I didn’t expect to be writing the day after seeing it. Sure, the film borrows a ton from Talladega Nights and Ferrell’s take on President Bush. It also manages to combine relevance, irreverence, and humor in a way many mainstream comedies can only promise and ultimately fail to deliver on.

Political endorsements aside, this week’s Top 5 contains a considerable share of The Bourne Legacy coverage, Joss Whedon returning to write/direct The Avengers 2, The Campaign interviews with Will Ferrell, Zach Galifianakis, and more, the first trailer and new poster for the Red Dawn remake, and the news that some of Bane’s backstory was left on The Dark Knight Rises‘ cutting room floor. A brief recap and link to each awaits after the jump.

With Joss Whedon’s Firefly reunion panel being one of the most well-received Comic-Con events in recent memory, some of the director’s other works may have been overshadowed for a moment.  It takes quite a bit to drown out The Avengers, so a perfect question for Whedon would be to ask about the status of The Avengers 2 and whether or not he’ll be back for the sequel.  More on that after the jump.

Another visionary director in the person of Neill Blomkamp (District 9) was on hand at Comic-Con today to showcase his current project, Elysium.  While we’ll have more on the Matt Damon-starrer in a bit, Blomkamp did comment on his upcoming projects, including a sequel to District 9.  Hit the jump to read more about what’s next from Whedon and Blomkamp and be sure to stay up to date with our continuing Comic-Con coverage here.

S.H.I.E.L.D. agent Maria Hill was surrounded by superpowered characters in this weekend’s blockbuster, The Avengers, but she managed to hold her own.  Cobie Smulders was likewise surrounded by some of Hollywood’s heaviest hitters, but the How I Met Your Mother star was equal to the task.  As one of only three women in the picture dominated by heroes and villains alike, Smulders managed to make her character stand out, if only for a short while.  Of course, this is due in part to the masterful work of writer/director Joss Whedon making each and every character memorable and identifiable in their own way.  That’s not to say that Smulders didn’t bring it; quite the contrary.  In a recent interview, Smulders talked about her character’s presence on screen, the amount of training and stunt work she was expected to do and her enthusiasm for returning in the inevitable sequel(s).  Hit the jump to see what she had to say.

With The Avengers now playing, Marvel/Disney recently held a massive press junket in Los Angeles and I was able to interview most of the cast, director Joss Whedon, and Kevin Feige (Marvel Studios President).  If you missed the interviews I’ve been posting all week, here’s Mark Ruffalo (Bruce Banner/Hulk), Tom Hiddleston (Loki), Chris Hemsworth with Chris Evans (Thor/Captain America) Samuel L. Jackson (Nick Fury), Scarlett Johansson with Jeremy Renner (Black Widow/Hawkeye), and Clark Gregg with Cobie Smulders (Agent Coulson/Maria Hill).  And the final interview from the junket, I’ve got Whedon.

During the quick interview, Whedon revealed The Avengers Blu-ray/DVD will have 30 minutes of deleted scenes and that his first cut was three hours!  We also talked about what was cut and whether he’d be back for the sequel.  Hit the jump to watch.

With Marvel and Disney’s The Avengers opening around the world in the coming weeks, last night was the world premiere in Hollywood and it was also the first time members of the press were shown the film.  As you may have already read on my Twitter feed, I loved it and think Joss Whedon delivered a movie that both fans and casual moviegoers are going to love.  Also, it’s really funny and it has the best action of any Marvel movie thus far.

Anyway, just an hour ago I got to sit down with Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige.  Since I already posted an in depth conversation with him when I visited the set of The Avengers last year, I decided to use my limited time to discuss Marvel’s future projects like Iron Man 3, Thor 2, Captain America 2, the Avengers sequel and whether Joss Whedon is signed to come back, what movies are coming in 2014 and 2015, Ant-Man, Dr. Strange, if Marvel is making an animated movie, another Hulk movie, and so much more.  Hit the jump for more.