‘Avengers’ Star Cobie Smulders Gets Female Lead in ‘Starbuck’

If you're a fan of Cobie Smulders from her stint in 'The Avengers' or even her longstanding role on CBS-TV's 'How I Met Your Mother,' you're in luck: the actress is in talks for a high-profile lead in an upcoming comedy.

The movie is a remake of a French-Canadian film called 'Starbuck,' in which a middle-aged man learns that he's the father of 533 children through a sperm donation program, several hundred of whom now want to meet their biological dad. According to Variety, Vince Vaughn is signed to play the lead, while Smulders is in talks to play his pregnant girlfriend.

Writer and director Ken Scott, who did the original, is coming back to perform the same duties on the remake (which, by the way, is not officially titled 'Starbuck' like the original yet -- it's just easier to write that, frankly).

The Canadian-born Smulders is about to start her eighth season as Robin Scherbatsky on 'How I Met Your Mother,' but her big screen profile took a large leap upward this year with her role as S.H.I.E.L.D. agent Maria Hill, the right hand person of Samuel L. Jackson's Nick Fury, in 'The Avengers.'

While on hiatus from 'Mother,' she's also filmed 'Safe Haven' for director Lasse Hallstrom and 'They Came Together' for director David Wain, and we certainly hope Joss Whedon writes her into 'The Avengers 2' as well. And in the meantime, if all goes well, she'll be sharing the screen with Vaughn...almost as much of a challenge as saving the world from Loki and the Chitauri, if you ask us.