We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again: It’s no secret that one of the most highly anticipated comic book movies of all time is Marvel’s upcoming The Avengers. Directed by Joss Whedon and featuring an all-star cast, the movie’s geek pedigree could not be better.

It has all your favorite characters including Iron Man, Captain America, Nick Fury, Thor and Scarlett Johansson in skintight leather. Come one, what more could you want from a comic book movie?

Recently, we shared some cool pics from the upcoming film. Today, we’ve got something even better: the first trailer.

In it we get our first real look at the film, the characters and what’s going to be the biggest movie of 2012. And man, does it look good.

Check it out after the break. The Avengers, which stars Robert Downey Jr, Chris Evans, Chris Hemsworth, Scarlett Johansson, and Samuel L. Jackson, arrives in theaters on May 4, 2012.

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It’s no secret that one of the most highly anticipated comic book movies of all time is Marvel’s upcoming The Avengers. Directed by Joss Whedon, the movie’s geek pedigree could not be better.

It features all your favorite characters including Iron Man, Captain America, Nick Fury, Thor and Scarlett Johansson in skintight leather. Come one, what more could you want from a comic book movie?

Marvel has released a few new pics from The Avengers to get you even more psyched to see it. Not that you probably needed it. Like us, we’re sure you’ll be in line on day one for what promises to be the greatest Marvel movie of al time.

Check out the pics after the break. The Avengers, which stars Robert Downey Jr, Chris Evans, Chris Hemsworth, Scarlett Johansson, and Samuel L. Jackson, arrives in theaters on May 4, 2012.

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With Comic-Con set to start tomorrow, Marvel has taken this opportunity to release the barebones first teaser poster for their upcoming Avengers film. With not much to go on except a giant “A’ the poster is minimalism at its best.

Of course, the “A” stands for Avengers and we also have the obligatory tagline (or tag word as the case may be) “Assemble.” If you’re not a fan of this poster and were expecting a lot more, don’t worry – you’ll get more soon enough.

Until then, you can always hit the Marvel booth for the signings by Joss Whedon, Chris Evans and Clark Gregg. That is, if you happen to be at Comic-Con this week.

Either way, you can expect a lot of new marketing stuff to come out soon enough. Count on it.

The Avengers, which opens May 4, 2012, also stars Robert Downey Jr., Chris Hemsworth, Jeremy Renner, Mark Ruffalo, Scarlett Johansson and Samuel L. Jackson. Check out the full sized poster after the jump.

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With anticipation for the start of Comic-Con 2011 at a fever pitch (It’s tomorrow!) one of the things we’re really looking forward to is some Avengers news and appearances by some of the cast and director. To help us, and those of you attending the Con, Marvel has released it’s signing schedule for the upcoming film.

Keep in mind that each signing is a ticketed event, which means that attendees will have to make their way to the Marvel booth as soon as the convention opens on Thursday to secure their free (but limited) tickets. So, in other words, if you want to get something signed by one of these guys, get their early and be ready to wait in line.

Here’s the schedule:

Thursday, 10:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m.
Chris Evans (Captain America)

Saturday, 4:30 p.m. to 5:30 a.m.
Clark Gregg (Agent Coulson)

Saturday, 6 p.m. to 7 p.m.
Joss Whedon, writer/director

The Avengers, which opens May 4, 2012, also stars Robert Downey Jr., Chris Hemsworth, Jeremy Renner, Mark Ruffalo, Scarlett Johansson and Samuel L. Jackson. Obviously, they were too busy to come to San Diego from New Mexico for the Con. Sad, but true.

Robert Downey Jr. has had a pretty amazing resurgence in his career in the past few years. Mostly due to Favreau’s excellent use of him in both Iron Man and Iron Man 2, but an unrelated film is what put Downey at the top of people’s tongues for time after that. That film starred the once Hollywood bad boy as the world’s first detective, Sherlock Holmes.

The film blew up across the globe, pulling in over $500 million worldwide, and warranting a brand new sequel, that we’re now getting the first look at. Titled “A Game of Shadows, the film looks to give us a pretty awesome rivalry between Sherlock and Moriarty, the shadowy villain from the first film. Here’s the official premise.

Sherlock Holmes has always been the smartest man in the room…until now. There is a new criminal mastermind at large–Professor Moriarty (Jared Harris)–and not only is he Holmes’ intellectual equal, but his capacity for evil, coupled with a complete lack of conscience, may actually give him an advantage over the renowned detective.

Check out the first full trailer for the film (which will likely be attached to prints of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 this weekend) and be sure to catch Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows in theaters on December 15th.

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As we rapidly approach the release of Captain America: The First Avenger, which is the final Marvel film leading up to next year’s The Avengers, we expect to be getting a lot more coverage and peeks at images and stills from the new film while it shoots in New Mexico and Ohio.

While we haven’t gotten there just yet, a correspondent over at ESQ. magazine managed to snap a shot of the brand new promo poster that Marvel is using to sell the film at the recent International Licensing Expo in Las Vegas.

Definitely digitally rendered, it’s not an exact depiction as to what we’re going to get from the film itself, but it gives a good idea at what we can look forward to when Joss Whedon brings everyone together for what will likely be an epic film.

The film stars Robert Downey Jr., Chris Hemsworth, Chris Evans, Jeremy Renner, Mark Ruffalo, Scarlett Johansson, Clark Gregg, Samuel L. Jackson, Cobie Smulders, Tom Hiddleston, and Stellan Skarsgård and hits theaters May 4, 2012.

Check out the first poster after the jump and let us know what you think!

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Unless you live under a rock you probably know Joss Whedon is directing The Avengers. You also may know filming on the movie started today.

What you may not know is Joss himself posted a message for fans over at Whedonesque to commemorate the event. So, without further comment, here’s Joss’s message. Enjoy.

Film Greatness. On the Eve of Our Endeavor, I celebrate an american classic — or possibly all of them.

Hi Pumpkins, joss here.

Tomorrow we start shooting (I THINK I’m legally permitted to say that). Day one. That’s right. We’ll be shooting the pivotal death/betrayal/product placement/setting up the sequel/coming out scene, at the following address:

[Marvel Lawyers rush in, take Joss's keyboard, blowtorch a picture of his family like in "Stormy Monday", drink his milkshake, leave the seat up, fluff his pillows, violently unfluff his pillows, leave]

Went too far. My bad. Anyhoo, it should be a fun day, followed by the eighty thousand other fun days it will take to finish this. I’ll be checking in from time to time, if there’s news or I crave attention (i.e. am awake) . None of it will be Avengers news — I have some very denty pillows to remind of that — but I may have tidbits. (They’re not about Firefly. I should say that up front, if only to protect Sis Mo from the HATORZ.)

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We’ve had rumors, of course, as we always do. First it was Jon Favreau who was going to come back for Iron Man 3. Then, he officially stepped away. After that, other directors were supposedly in the running.

But now, it seems, the decision has been made and the man in charge of Iron Man 3 is writer/director Shane Black. According to reports, Black is currently in those “final negotiations” but, of course, everyone in and around Marvel is not letting anything out just yet.

I know what you might be thinking: why Shane Black? The writer of Lethal Weapon 1 and 2? What does he know about comic book action movies? However, Black directing Iron Man 3 isn’t as crazy an idea as it might seem to some.

He’s had a long relationship with Robert Downey, Jr. after working with him in the underrated Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang which, among other things, helped to revitalized Downey, Jr.’s career. He’s also been around and worked with many of the biggest action directions of all time such as Richard Donner, Renny Harlin and Tony Scott, so some of that has got to rub off.

Besides, what did Favreau really know about big budget comic book action movies when he took on the original Iron Man? Not that much but it seemed to turn out pretty well. I, for one, am going to give Shane Black a chance. Maybe you should too.

Those who remember the original Rocky and Bullwinkle show remember two sister franchises fondly. Those being Dudley Do-Right about a bumbling Canadian protagonist and his wins against the evil Snidley Whiplash, and then there was Peabody and Sherman. The latter was about a super-genius talking dog and his teen boy sidekick who would hop in the WABAC time machine and learn about various triumphs and follies in history.

Do-Right got his 15 minutes of Hollywood fame in the form of a Brandan Frazer adaptation, and now it’s Peabody and Sherman’s turn. It looks like Dreamworks is moving ahead with their completely CG adaptation, and have now cast Robert Downey Jr. in the lead role. From EW.

The project was just announced internally to the DreamWorks staff, with Robert Downey Jr. signed to voice the super-smart, bespectacled canine.

The new animated feature, planned for 2014, aims to bring the duo back to the pop culture mainstream. “Certainly for Boomers, they’re in the sweet spot of our childhood animation memories, but beyond there it gets a little bit, well, not quite as familiar,” says director Rob Minkoff (The Lion King).

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While many people consider Jon Favreau to Marvel much like Chris Nolan is to Warner Bros and DC Entertainment, not everyone knows that there were plenty of problems between Favreau and the studio when they wanted him to return for Iron Man 2.

Of course, Favreau finished the film, and made a mint doing so (as did the studio) but it looks like the tension may be happening again between the director and his films’ home. MTV News got first hint at there being a problem with with Marvel and the Swingers director when Favreau expressed concerns about future Marvel properties.

“In theory, Iron Man 3 is going to be a sequel or continuation of Thor, Hulk, Captain America and Avengers. That whole world … I have no idea what it is. I don’t think they do either, from conversations I’ve had with those guys.”

It was later tweeted out by Favreau that he’s officially going to work on Magical Kingdom for Disney and step down as the director of Iron Man 3. The irony here being that Disney owns Marvel, so it’s basically like leaving one room of a big house to go into another.

So this begs the question: who will take over for Favreau? With Marvel wanting Iron Man 3 to continue the Avengers storyline, could this mean that Avengers director and fanboy extraordinaire Joss Whedon will take on the challenge?

Marvel has yet to release a statement, but you can believe they have a shortlist ready for just the press release.

Welcome to this week’s On the Radar where we delve into all corners of the entertainment, tech and geek Internets for news, views and whatnot that may have escaped our regular coverage this week. Let is know if we missed something interesting. Otherwise, on to the links!

• A comprehensive breakdown of what Republicans and Democrats watch has hit the web. Wait, democrats watch 30 Rock and Republicans watch Dancing With The Stars? Who Knew?!

• In case you missed it, and aren’t a big fan of sleep, here’s the Planters commercial starring Robert Downey Jr.

• Arnold Schwarzenegger in Phantom Menace? According to this list of bootleg DVD box art, that’s just the least amazing of the bunch.

• Love The Walking Dead? Then you’ll definitely love this new weekly recap show all about the show.

• Thanksgiving may be just around the corner, but it’s time to start picking out some great gifts, with a little help from the coolest gadget holiday gift guide we’ve seen yet.

• If you’re one of the few that weren’t blown away by Cameron’s Avatar, maybe you should try it drunk. Here’s an Avatar drinking game to help you get there.

• Why not some tunes for your weekly list fix? Here’s a list of 10 kick-ass cover songs. Sadly, Foo Fighter’s “Darling Nikki” didn’t make it on the list.

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By Erin Tuttle

Due Date is a film that aspires towards being a feel good comedy about two men who go on a quest and through one another ultimately learn about who they are. Todd Phillips’ follow-up to the wildly successful film, The Hangover, however, ends up being no more than a lackluster retelling of better films with a smattering of decent jokes and a deficiency of chemistry between the leads throughout. Its protagonist is Peter Highman, (Robert Downey, Jr.) a businessman on a deadline. He is attempting to reach his wife in Los Angeles before the birth of their first child.

I assume that everything that we need to know about him can be summed up from the fact that he wears a Bluetooth. Obviously, he is one of those guys. Initially traveling home appears to be a simplistic task until he is introduced to Ethan Tremblay (Zach Galifianakas), an aspiring actor with a heart of gold and a brain equally as dense.

Once these two make eye contact, it becomes apparent that Ethan is ultimately Peter’s nemesis and the promise of comedy is made. The promise is made, however, not necessarily kept.

Through a series of coincidental events both Peter and Ethan find themselves on the “No Fly” list and if this wasn’t challenging enough, Peter‘s wallet is not in his possession. Due to this fact, Peter reluctantly teams with Ethan to drive across the country and the premise of the film is in place.

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