First image of Lizzy Caplan in Marvel's The Avengers short film, Item 47, brings the big guns

First image of Lizzy Caplan in Marvel’s The Avengers short film, Item 47, brings the big guns

July 3rd 2012, 11:18am

Last Updated on August 5, 2021

In anticipation of the release for Marvel’s THE AVENGERS on blu-ray and DVD, the studio has prepped yet another Marvel short to accompany it. Called ITEM 47, the short features stars Lizzy Caplan (CLOVERFIELD) as Claire and Jesse Bradford (BRING IT ON) as Benny, a “down-on-their-luck couple who find one of the discarded alien guns from the finale to The Avengers — and proceed to make some incredibly bad decisions.”

“The world is topsy-turvy now. There’s been an alien invasion, and things are crazy,” explains Marvel Studios co-president Louis D’Esposito, who directed the film himself. “So when this gun literally fell into their lap, this is a sign: We’re going to rob a few banks, we’re going to buy a boat, we’re going to the Caribbean, and all our problems will be solved.”

Sounds like a plan:

“Anything that expands the world and shows you the more human elements of it, that just makes the world more colorful and fun for the average viewer,” says Eric Pearson, who wrote the screenplay for ITEM 47, as well as the shorts for CAPTAIN AMERICA: THE FIRST AVENGER and THOR.

The goal is to have a short accompany the home-video for each feature film, and they’re currently devising scripts for companion pieces to IRON MAN 3, CAPTAIN AMERICA 2, and THOR 2. So, does this mean there could be introductions of some of Marvel’s lesser-known (or big name) characters?

“There’s always a potential to introduce a character. We have 8,000 of them, and they can’t all be at the same level. So maybe there are some that are not so popular, and we introduce them [with a short] – and they take off. I could see that happening,” says D’Esposito.

However, he cautions against introducing the bigger characters, saying, “Let’s say we wanted to introduce Ant-Man [in a short], and that would mean we have to cast him prior to having a filmmaker. That’s difficult and something we wouldn’t want to do.”

Sounds pretty interesting to me. I’m curious to see how far Marvel will go in introducing new characters and am hoping they’ll push the limits. I kind of hate back-up stories in the comics, because they rarely add anything but page count, so hopefully these new shorts will be a bit more elaborate. ITEM 47 sounds promising.

THE AVENGERS blu-ray and DVD will be released on September 25, 2012.