CLEVELAND, Ohio -- The Avengers need some help making their movie. Every one is invited.

The May, 2012 film about Marvel's premier superhero team is being filmed in the Cleveland area through the summer and Marvel Studios has announced an open casting call for paid extras.

Casting for "The Avengers" will be from noon to 4 p.m. Friday and 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday, at the Holiday Inn Independence, 6001 Rockside Road, off Interstate 77.

As many as 2,000 people are needed to fill crowd scenes and numerous other roles alongside the stars like Robert Downey Jr. (Iron Man), Chris Hemsworth (Thor), Scarlett Johansson (Black Widow), Chris Evans (Captain America), Samuel L. Jackson (Nick Fury), Jeremy Renner (Hawkeye) and Mark Ruffalo (The Hulk.)

Interested people should dress in their "best business executive outfit" and be well-groomed.

The studio said all prospective extras must be at least 18 years old and should bring a pen to fill out an application.

Photos will be taken at the casting.

Principal filming on "The Avengers" is expected to begin in August and run through September.

The movie is slated to open May 4.

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Avengers online: Everything Avengers, all on cleveland.com

Marvel Studios has released five movies featuring members of the Avengers leading up to next year's big film. Some were done in association with Disney. The fifth "prequel" in the series is "Captain America: The First Avenger" which opens July 22.

Cap is the fourth member of the Avengers to have gotten his own movie, following films featuring the other founding members of Marvel Comics premiere superhero team: Thor, Iron Man (two films) and The Hulk (two films).

Evans, who starred as the Human Torch in two "Fantastic Four" movies, takes on the role of Captain America, the super soldier.

The movie sticks close to the comic book origins of Cap. He was Steve Rogers, a skinny Brooklyn man who was repeatedly rejected from the U.S. Army during World War II. He was so desperate that he agreed to submit to a dangerous "Super Soldier" experiment that would turn men into powerhouses.

It worked. Rogers grew a foot, added a mass of muscle and the strength and abilities of an Olympic athlete. But before the process could be used on anyone else, a Nazi spy murdered the only scientist who knew the method.

The character was created for Marvel Comics in 1940.

A few years after the end of World War II, Captain America comics were cancelled along with all of Marvel's entire superhero line. After a weak revival in the mid-1950s, Captain America was put on ice. Literally.

The character was brought back in 1963 when the new group, The Avengers, found him floating in a cake of ice in the North Sea. When released from the ice, he revived thanks to the Super Soldier serum in his body.

He went on to lead the Avengers and has been a cornerstone in the Marvel Universe.