Joss Whedon

The Avengers landing at Grumman

Long Island has never had a shortage of heroes. It’s about to get its share - maybe a little more than that - of super heroes as well.

Disney’s Marvel Studios is gearing up to begin building sets and shooting “The Avengers” at Grumman Studios in Bethpage.

Grumman Studios President Parviz Farahzad said the production is expected to use the facility for months.

“The Avengers is a huge movie,” said Farahzad, who has transformed massive buildings into Long Island’s largest movie studio. “They’re taking all seven stages.”

“The Avengers,” being directed by Joss Whedon, creator of “Buffy the Vampire Slayer,” isn’t just a big movie; it’s slated to star some of Hollywood’s biggest names.

And the decision to shoot the movie there marks both a major win for the studio and for efforts to position Long Island as a place where large as well as smaller movies can be made.

Robert Downey, Jr. will reprise his role as Iron Man, Mark Ruffalo is slated to portray The Hulk and Samuel L. Jackson signed on to play Nick Fury as part of a cast for what has been described as a “super group” movie.

Set construction is slated to begin next month in the former Grumman buildings that have gone from manufacturing to movies in one of the area’s more innovative rebirths of real estate.

This is the second big production to use the 30-acre complex, including a 37,000-square-foot mammoth movie studio with no columns, following Salt, starring Angelina Jolie.

“It was a start for us,” Farahzad said of Salt. “It put us on the map.”

In addition to projects like Salt, Grumman Studios already been used to shoot high-profile commercials, including a recent SONY advertisement starring Peyton Manning and Justin Timberlake.