The Avengers

How many cities in America would be willing to lock down a major thoroughfare for weeks, reroute thousands of commuters and ignite multiple explosions in the heart of downtown?

It only took one.

Cleveland embraced the filming of "Marvel’s The Avengers" last summer with celebratory glee, contributing hundreds of crew members, extras and onlookers. When the $220 million action movie opens nationwide Friday, we’ll finally see what the fuss was all about. In 3-D.

Shutting down a chunk of East Ninth Street and other parts of town for fierce fights featuring Thor and Captain America was just part of the film’s massive Cleveland invasion.

"It was absolutely extraordinary for us, the amount of cooperation and enthusiasm in Cleveland," said writer-director Joss Whedon. "We had a wonderful time, enjoyed extraordinarily good locations and some really good restaurants. Everybody welcomed us so much, and said, ’Come to our fair city, and blow it up.’ "

Whedon and company shot the film’s biggest action scenes here. "We ate at Lola a bunch. That was great," he said. "And we rocked out at the Velvet Dog." They also poked around Little Italy and the museums in University Circle. Sometimes the locations were ridiculously convenient. After shooting a lengthy Stuttgart, Germany, sequence on Public Square, the actors were mere steps from the Renaissance Cleveland Hotel.

"That was wonderful," said Whedon. "People could finish up the night shoot, and then their room was right there. They were literally standing outside their own hotel, even though it had a German name slapped on it." Whedon stayed at the Ritz-Carlton.

The movie stars Robert Downey Jr., Scarlett Johansson, Samuel L. Jackson, Chris Hemsworth, Chris Evans, Jeremy Renner and Mark Ruffalo, and features an all-star gathering of Marvel characters: Iron Man, Black Widow, Nick Fury, Thor, Captain America, Hawkeye and the Hulk. The superheroes reluctantly join forces to save the world from the evil Loki, played by Tom Hiddleston.

Other Ohio locations included Wilmington and NASA’s Plum Brook Station test facility near Sandusky. "We shot over at NASA, which was just so epic and gorgeous," said Whedon. "It gave the movie a huge amount of scope."

Filming started on April 24, 2011, in Albuquerque, N.M., before moving to Cleveland in August. The crew also worked in Worthington, Pa., and spent a final week shooting exteriors in September in New York, where the film is primarily set.

East Ninth Street was dressed up to resemble New York’s 42nd Street, with the Big Apple’s skyline digitally inserted in postproduction. It’s Cleveland, and it features a big battle, but the quick-cut editing doesn’t allow for many spot-your-city moments. Cleveland’s most recognizable close-up occurs when Loki forces a large crowd to bow before him. The Renaissance Cleveland Hotel, Terminal Tower, Tower City Center and 200 Public Square (the former BP Building) are clearly visible. NASA’s test facility also receives several minutes of screen time, looking suitably scientific and secretive.

Among Clevelanders briefly glimpsed and heard are WKYC Channel 3’s Robin Swoboda and Andrea Vecchio, playing TV reporters. Vecchio stood on East Ninth with dust rubbed into her hair and face. Her direction for her movie debut was simple. "They said, ’It’s like 9/11, and there are aliens flying all around, so you’re really freaked out.’ "

The original Avengers, including Ant-Man and Wasp, debuted in Marvel Comics in 1963, the brainchild of Stan Lee and Jack Kirby. Following decades of comic books, cartoons, TV shows and other spinoffs, the latest Avengers rebooting took off with the huge success of "Iron Man" in 2008.

Downey, who plays Tony Stark/Iron Man, and director Jon Favreau injected a more sly, tongue-in-cheek sense of humor to the smashing and crashing and scored more than $585 million at the worldwide box office. Its sequel, "Iron Man 2" in 2010, earned nearly $624 million worldwide. Marvel’s other characters have generated box-office billions, with behemoth franchises such as Spider-Man and the X-Men. Upcoming sequels to "Iron Man," "Captain America" and "Thor" are scheduled for 2013 and 2014. And, of course, there is already talk of a second "Avengers."

Disney, which acquired Marvel Studios for $4.2 billion in 2009, has launched a massive marketing campaign that includes about $100 million in tie-ins with several companies, including Visa, Acura, Hershey, Harley-Davidson, Dr Pepper and Wyndham Hotels. The corporate tie-ins, according to Variety, are expected to last through the DVD/Blu-ray release in September.

Challenges facing a director

All of which means added pressure for the 47-year-old Whedon.

"I did have one moment very early on where I went, ’Oh-ohhh-my-goodness,’ " he said in mock-trembling voice. "Then my wife said, ’It’s just the next story.’ And I also realized very early on in filming that all the money in the world doesn’t change the problems. You’re asking the same questions. Am I getting the camera-move that I want? Is that going to be ready in time? Is it any good?"

Whedon became a third-generation TV writer when he went to work on "Roseanne" in the late 1980s. His grandfather, John, wrote for "The Dick Van Dyke Show"; his dad, Tom, for "Alice" and "The Golden Girls." Whedon rose to fame with supernatural and sci-fi stories, creating the TV series "Buffy the Vampire Slayer," "Angel" and "Firefly." He segued into movies as a co-writer of "Toy Story," "Titan A.E." and "Alien: Resurrection," and later directed the space adventure "Serenity." He also wrote the smart-scary "The Cabin in the Woods," now in theaters.

Bringing a vast array of characters together is always challenging for a writer-director, and "all-star cast" movies are often clunky enterprises. Whedon agreed. "And," he joked, "Ernest Borgnine as the president!" So how do you avoid those pratfalls?

"You have to make a structure that has room for everybody, where everybody matters, and write it so that people walking in who don’t know all their stories can have as good a time as the people who have read the comic books forever."

On-screen, the egos of the superheroes clash when they are told to work together, but that was not the case with the actors playing them. "I didn’t have ego problems on the set," he said. "Everybody’s got their own process, but none of that is about vanity."

Whedon’s next film is far from the Marvel universe, an adaptation of Shakespeare’s "Much Ado About Nothing," but he won’t say if he has signed on yet for an "Avengers" sequel. "I’m not thinking that far ahead."

Buzz may bring more films to Ohio

One subplot running alongside this enormously expensive production is the future of filmmaking in Ohio. The only reason the movie came here was because of shrinking tax credits in Michigan, its original Midwest location. Their loss was Ohio’s gain. To try to lure more movie projects, State Sen. Tom Patton, a Republican from Strongsville, and State Rep. Mike Dovilla, a Republican from Berea, recently introduced bills to raise the annual Ohio Motion Picture Tax Credit cap to $20 million annually (up from the current $10 million limit).

A study by Cleveland State University’s Center for Economic Development estimated that "Marvel’s The Avengers" spent more than $25 million in the state and hired more than 3,800 residents.

The buzz generated by the movie may help drive future producers to Northeast Ohio.

"I would recommend it in a heartbeat to other filmmakers," said Whedon. "The level of cooperation and the ease with which we were able to do what we did was, for me, unprecedented. Cleveland is really lovely."