As Marvel’s Avengers Assemble continues to smash box office records – having earned $1.3 billion at the box office as I write – the film’s writer/producer/director Joss Whedon can sit back and enjoy that with the one-two punch of that and this week’s release The Cabin in the Woods, he is having a somewhat remarkable year.

Whedon’s success lies in penchant for complex, intelligent and gripping storylines and his ear for exceptional dialogue- Paula Fleri Soler

Although he has amassed a devoted and diverse fan following, Whedon can’t really be described as being a household name.

He is considered one of Hollywood’s top players for a while, and although he may not have the clout or fame of, say, a Steven Spielberg, he has certainly been one of the industry’s secret weapons. Among his credits are contributions to high profile-films like Speed, Alien Resurrection and Toy Story, for which he earned an Oscar nomination for Best Screenplay

The 47-year-old New Yorker has writing in his blood – both his father and grandfather were successful television writers – and his career began in 1989 when he was hired as a staff writer on hit sitcom Roseanne.

Whedon later moved to the series Parenthood, serving as both writer and co-producer.

Whedon made his name with cult TV show Buffy the Vampire Slayer which ran for seven seasons from 1997 to 2003.

The show began life as a 1992 movie, which Whedon wrote, but the end result was not quite what he’d hoped for so he jumped at the chance to develop the character and the concept further for television. The rest is history.

Buffy was considered ground-breaking and Whedon went on to create other TV shows – Angel, a spin-off from Buffy; the awesome but short-lived Western-in-space Firefly; and the high concept Dollhouse, all earning him more fans and continual critical acclaim.

Whedon’s success lies in his ability to create realistic, three-dimensional characters within large ensembles; his penchant for complex, intelligent and gripping storylines and his ear for exceptional dialogue.

He has a unique relationship with his fans, often flying in the face of their expectations with startling plot twists or by putting beloved characters through the wringer. Yet his following remains strong because he consistently delivers the goods in terms of genius storytelling and quality entertainment.

Whedon has also written a short series for the internet, the appealingly titled Dr Horrible’s Sing-along Blog, and he has written for several comic book series including The Astonishing X-Men and Runaways for Marvel comics; and of course Buffy the Vampire Slayer for Dark Horse comics.

In 2005, Whedon made his directorial debut with Serenity based on the show Firefly. With just the one feature under his belt it may have come as a surprise for some that he was chosen to helm the big-budget Avengers.

He was, however, the perfect choice not simply for his track record but also because of his unadulterated love of the genre.

“My visual style as a director comes from comic books,” he says. “My understanding of visual storytelling comes from panel art, which I was reading more voraciously than I was watching movies for most of my childhood.”

Before the phenomenal success of the Avengers, however, came a little horror movie earlier this year which Whedon co-wrote and produced. The Cabin in the Woods has already cemented itself in movie cultdom and has completely won over the critics.

Cabin marks the first time Whedon has really worked on a full-blown horror film; and as he has been an outspoken critic of the levels certain so called ‘torture-porn’ movies have sunk to, he is at pains to explain the thinking behind the film.

“I love horror,” he says. “But the plots are becoming more and more predictable. The killings are more and more disgusting. The kids are becoming more and more expendable. And more love is put into the instruments of torture and no love at all is put into the dialogue polish. The ritual of it is getting cheapened.”

He goes on to admit that he’s fascinated by the reasons people love horror, and he wanted The Cabin in the Woods to examine that.

“There’s some part of us, some deep, dark, primitive part of us that wants to sacrifice these people onscreen. I wanted to make a movie that explained why.

“And so it’s been a strange experience because on the one hand, we do straight up horror. We definitely love the genre and the tropes of the genre but at the same time we have a lot of questions about why and where it’s going.”

Whedon is currently working on his next project, an original script he wrote called In Your Eyes, while he also recently completed a micro-budget adaptation of Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing.

We can also expect a sequel to the Avengers... so maybe Whedon may not be such a secret after all.