After shattering box office records and debuting with the highest opening weekend gross ($207 million in the U.S. alone), The Avengers has been given the “go” for a sequel. This, according to Disney CEO, Bob Iger.

It’s probably a no-brainer, but a sequel to The Avengers was made official Tuesday by Disney CEO Bob Iger, who made the announcement during a conference call with analysts to discuss quarterly earnings.

Repeating previous announcements made by Marvel Studios, Iger said a third Iron Man and a second Thor are scheduled for 2013 and a sequel to Captain America: The First Avenger is in the works for 2014. He gave no timeline for an Avengers sequel.

Iger boasted that Avengers “shattered domestic box-office records with a $207.1 million opening weekend for a global performance of more than $702 million to date.”

The CEO also said that there are Avengers-based attractions in the works for some of Disney’s theme parks.

SOURCE

Collider recently spoke to Marvel Studios President, Kevin Feige, who enlightened fans with the fact that Iron Man 3 will be a “full-on Tony Stark-centric movie.” There’s a lot of information about Marvel movies at the source – including some brief information on The Avengers and Thor 2 – so head to the source to check out more.

How happy are you with Shane Black and Drew Pierce’s script for Iron Man 3?
Feige: Well I’m very pleased, and on any Iron Man movie the way the script is right now and the way the movie will be then are two different things, but we’ve been working with Shane for a year already, which is astounding to me and to him. Let’s put it this way: all of these movies and the way we make these movies and the way we lay out these movies comes from a gut instinct. A gut instinct for the way we should introduce Thor to the world, a gut instinct that we’ve gotta go period with Captain America, a gut instinct of “let’s make all these movies first then do Avengers.” The gut instinct on the next phase and phase two is to not have Iron Man 3 be a pseudo-Avengers 2 just like we didn’t want Avengers 1 to be a pseudo-Iron Man 3 and now that you’ve seen it it’s not at all that. That’s feeling like the right choice.

Iron Man 3 is a full-on Tony Stark-centric movie—and I’ll tell you because you’re a good guy—is very much inspired by the first half of Iron Man 1. Metaphorically, we’re not going back to the cave there’s nothing like that, but we’ve always said let’s get Tony back to the cave, which is he’s stripped of everything, he’s backed up against a wall, and he’s gotta use his intelligence to get out of it. He can’t call Thor, he can’t call Cap, he can’t call Nick Fury, and he can’t look for the Helicarrier in the sky.

Warner Bros and Team Downey have set Bill Dubuque to write a new draft of The Judge, a dramedy that’s planned as a star vehicle for Robert Downey Jr., with David Dobkin directing. The drama centers on a big-city lawyer who returns home after the death of his mother to learn that his estranged father, a judge, is suspected of murder. He sets out to discover the truth and along the way reconnects with the family he walked away from years before. Downey Jr. and Susan Downey are producing with Dobkin. The script was written first by Nick Schenk.

SOURCE

A new, fully fleshed out trailer for The Avengers was released earlier today! Even if you haven’t been excited about the upcoming superhero film, I feel like this would have to change your mind. It’s action-packed and crisp, with highlights for nearly all of the assembled Avengers crew. Watch for the very last scene featuring Iron Man whirling around a corner — truly exciting! The Avengers comes out May 4th in the US, although be sure to check when it’ll hit theaters for your country as many are getting it before the States.

Additionally, ET had a special feature on the movie just yesterday. You can check out some behind the scenes footage (and some comments from Robert and Mark Ruffalo) in the featurette right here.

Another new poster for The Avengers was released yesterday, showcasing each of the Marvel superheroes in one action-packed still. It seems like Iron Man is a bit of a focus, no? Entertainment Weekly also published a new article in which Robert talks about returning to Tony and working as part of a large team. Read an excerpt below, and then head over to the source to read what his Avengers co-stars had to say about their characters:

“I’m still trying to, without moving backwards, remember the character that [Iron Man and Iron Man 2 director] Jon Favreau and I created, and be true to that,” Downey tells EW.

It’s also important to be true to the original Marvel Comics history, but Downey acknowledges that they’ve had to streamline their vision over the years as the possibility of this movie loomed.

“Avengers has always been this kind of hovering [thing]. Is it really possible? I just think that it was an incredibly ambitious notion, and looking back at Marvel and their fledgling years, they always had a vision of this … although not entirely accurately.”

Downey laughs: “In one teaser I say, ‘I’m putting a team together,’ and in the other one I’m like, ‘What do you mean I can’t join the team?’ But aside from that, it kind of really tracks through.”

Screenwriter Marc Guggenheim (Green Lantern, “Law & Order”) has been offered to pen the script for Team Downey’s upcoming reboot, Perry Mason; he is currently in negotiations. Robert Downey Jr and wife Susan will produce the film for Warner Brothers. Courtesy of Hollywood Reporter, he’s a summary of what to expect with the new film:

Mason is a defense attorney character at the center of a series of books by Erle Stanley Gardner that were first adapted as films and radio plays in the 1930s. The books were hugely popular but the character’s appeal reached new heights with the TV series that starred Raymond Burr and ran from 1957 to 1966.

Guggenheim is writing a script based off an original story by Downey and Team Downey president David Gambino, bringing the character back to Los Angeles of the 1930s.