"The Avengers" to close Tribeca film festival

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Superhero blockbuster "Marvel's The Avengers" featuring Robert Downey Jr. and Scarlett Johansson has been chosen as Tribeca Film Festival's closing night film, festival organizers said on Wednesday.

The big budget Hollywood film that is based on the Marvel comic book series, "The Avengers," first published in 1963, tells the story of the recruitment effort of Marvel Comics super heroes Iron Man, The Incredible Hulk, Thor, Captain America, Hawkeye and Black Widow to save the world.

Besides Downey Jr. returning in his popular "Iron Man" role, the ensemble cast includes Chris Evans, Mark Ruffalo, Chris Hemsworth, Jeremy Renner, Tom Hiddleston and Samuel L. Jackson.

The action adventure movie, one of the year's box office hopes, will close the Tribeca festival on April 28, and the festival has invited "everyday heroes" including police, fire department and military members to attend, Tribeca organizers said in a statement. It will open in U.S. cinemas on May 4.

Besides the festival's opening night film, the romantic comedy "The Five-Year Engagement" by the team behind "Forgetting Sarah Marshall," "The Avengers" is one of the few bigger budget films showing at Tribeca, which highlights independent cinema.

Tribeca, one of the largest film festivals in the United States, and co-founded by actor Robert De Niro as a way to revive downtown Manhattan after the September 11 attacks , runs from April 18 to April 29.

This year's selection sees a greater emphasis on foreign films with more than half of its lineup of 12 fictional films in competition listed as international productions.

(Reporting By Christine Kearney)