Joss Whedon’s The Avengers has got to be one of the top five most hotly anticipated films of 2012. It boasts an unparalleled matchup of the best of the Marvel pantheon of superheroes, including Iron Man, Thor, Captain America, The Hulk, Hawkeye and Black Widow, all played by so many big names that I get a headache just imagining the wrangling that took place with agents and reps and studio honchos in terms of billing. (My guess, they settled for alphabetical. Robert Downey, Jr. probably would have won anyway.)  The movie doesn’t open until May but we’re getting some New Year’s treats apparently. We have a new version of the trailer that’s just been posted to MSN’s Russian site. (Thanks to Comingsoon).

It’s dubbed (again with the dubbing!) but you won’t be watching this for the dialogue anyway. There is a lot of new footage and it seems to hint at the actual plot of the film a bit more. Oh, and can I say I’m digging the flip in Loki’s hair? (after Thor, Midnight in Paris, The Deep Blue Sea and War Horse, I’m a Tom Hiddleston fan.)

Enjoy the trailer!

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Last week we showed you the new poster for Joss Whedon and Drew Goddard’s horror movie called The Cabin in the Woods, said to be a "twisted and unusual take on the familiar cabin in the woods formula."  Goddard (Cloverfield) directed and Whedon produced the film with an eclectic cast of PYTs  including Jesse Williams and Chris Hemsworth. Now, since this movie has been languishing on a shelf since 2009, that was pre-“Grey's Anatomy” Williams and pre-Thor Hemsworth, but we’ve talked about all of this before. Now we finally have a trailer. Take  a look.

The synopsis: Five friends go to a remote cabin in the woods. Bad things happen. If you think you know this story, think again. From fan favorites Joss Whedon and Drew Goddard comes The Cabin in the Woods, a mind blowing horror film that turns the genre inside out.

Well, it definitely doesn’t LOOK like your standard slasher flick and would seem to at least attempt to make good on the “twisted and unusual take” boast. What do you think? Aliens? Government conspiracy? Both?

Cabin in the Woods stars Kristen Connolly, Hemsworth, Anna Hutchison, Fran Kranz, Williams, Richard Jenkins and Bradley Whitford. The film (probably) will finally be released April 13, 2012.

Once upon a time, Joss Whedon (of "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" "Angel","Firefly", Serenity and Thor fame) and his friend and collaborator Drew Goddard, wrote a little horror movie called The Cabin in the Woods, said to be a "twisted and unusual take on the familiar cabin in the woods formula." Then they actually got it made, with Goddard directing and Whedon producing.  They assembled an eclectic cast including a pre-“Grey's Anatomy” Jesse Williams and a pre-Thor (and therefore pre-ripped and shredded) Chris Hemsworth.

Well, since then the finished product has languished on someone's shelf or maybe in Whedon's garage, since 2009 when MGM got into trouble, and looking for a distributor. Enter Lionsgate. They've purchased the film and originally announced (back in April 2010) it had plans to release it in the fall of 2011. The first official poster, which came out in July 2011, has "October 2011" on it in big bold letters. So what happened? Who knows at this point. Lionsgate claimed its fall slate was so packed it had to hand off Machine Gun Preacher’s domestic distribution to Relativity. We all know how that turned out, but was Cabin in the Woods supposedly part of that packed slate? Curiouser and curiouser.

The synopsis: Five friends go to a remote cabin in the woods. Bad things happen. If you think you know this story, think again. From fan favorites Joss Whedon and Drew Goddard comes The Cabin in the Woods, a mind blowing horror film that turns the genre inside out.

The film stars Kristen Connolly, Hemsworth, Anna Hutchison, Fran Kranz, Williams, Richard Jenkins and Bradley Whitford.

It's been quite some time since I purposefully saw a teen slasher flick. I think this one has a leg up simply by virtue of the fact that they're acknowledging  the formula, both with the official "synopsis" and the poster itself. You go a long way to diffusing the critical snark if you're the one labeling the stereotypical characters. Given the film's pedigree, The Cabin in the Woods might be worth a look. I think the "Whedies" who've been clamoring for its release for close to three years would agree. The film (probably) will finally be released April 13, 2012.

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Joss Whedon, currently in the midst of filming big budget action adventure comic book movie, The Avengers, is also quietly putting the finishing touches on an apparent passion project, an updated version of Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing.  The cast he's assembled includes a lot of Whedon "regulars", including Alexis Denisof and Amy Acker from "Angel", Fran Kanz and Ashley Johnson from "Dollhouse", Clark Gregg from the Whedon penned Thor, and Sean Maher and Nathan Fillion from "Firefly".

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Kathryn Bigelow beat out ex-husband James Cameron at the Producers Guild Awards last night by winning best film for her movie The Hurt Locker.  Word is, she’s expected to win at next week’s Directors Guld Awards and some are saying last night’s win puts her to the front of the line insofar as Oscar buzz is concerned.

In television, producer of the year for comedy went to 30 Rock (of course) with Mad Men getting the win for drama.

Pictures after the break

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The gorgeous Dollhouse star and producer, Eliza Dushku looks ravishing as she attends PaleyFest.  Despite Dollhouse being in a crappy timeslot (Friday night), her costar and ardent supporter, Joss Whedon explains why he took the role, despite his misgivings with Fox (from seven years before on ‘Firefly’):

“The reason I went back was because of Eliza. And I don’t care. She’s worth it,” Whedon said, according to The TV Addict. “There are different people that I’m dealing with [at Fox] and I think they’re pretty decent, honest people. Some of them have left recently, but some of them are still there. The relationship has always been equitable.”

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Photos:  WENN.com