It’s not really official yet, but Nikki Finke is reporting on her blog that a deal has been reached between Jon Favreau and Marvel Studios to make him the director of Iron Man 2.

Responsible for the massive success of Iron Man this summer, Favreau took his battle to the internet when he didn’t immediately get an offer from Marvel to stay on for the sequel.

Now, I don’t know the interior workings at Marvel, or what was going on in Favreau’s mind, but Nikki Finke called Jon an “asshole” because of the way he voiced his discontent publicly.

I was following all this closely, and if you base it off the news that we had out there, I really don’t see how Favreau acted that badly. Sure, maybe he could have kept it to himself, but honestly, in this business, would that have even happened had he stayed quiet? Someone would have been talking about it regardless.

It seems to me that Marvel should have locked this guy up on the opening weekend of Iron Man, and here we are months later and finally getting the news.

What do you guys think? Was Favreau an a-hole? Or was Marvel?

That’s not the case apparently. The first half of this story starts with Jon Favreau.

As we told you guys awhile ago, right on the heels of the success of the first Iron Man movie, the sequel was already given a release date of April 2010. That seemed kind of quick to me, but Favreau feels even more hesitant about it. This quote comes from his message board:

“I am concerned, however, about the announced release date of April 2010,” Favreau wrote. “Neither [star Robert Downey Jr.] nor I were consulted about this and we are both concerned about how realistic the date is in light of the fact that we have no script, story or even writers hired yet.”

Hilarious! No script, story or writers. I loved that line.

Favreau said he’d rather follow the release schedules of other comic-book sequels, like The Dark Knight and X-Men 2: Three years break in between.

“This genre of movie is best when it is done thoughtfully and with plenty of preparation,” he wrote. “It is difficult because there are no Marvel ’09 releases and they need product, but I also think we owe it to the fans to have a great version of [Iron Man 2] and, at this point, we would have less time to make it than the first one.”

I agree with Favreau, but it apparently may not even matter. Half of these problems are stemming from the fact that he’s not even SIGNED ON as the director for Iron Man 2.

That’s the second part of the story going on here.

IESB has the ridiculous scoop (some profanity below):

About a week ago, the IESB was tipped off by a junior source at Marvel Studios that there had been some delays with Jon’s negotiations regarding the sequel. When asked why I was told that Marvel and Favreau hadn’t been able to come to terms regarding money.

At first I thought my source was full of shit and I dismissed it as a rumor. This last Friday I was contacted by another source at Marvel and this one, let’s just say, is much higher up on the food chain, and told me that the chairman of Marvel Studios David Maisel who has been in charge of negotiating new terms with Favreau is being cheap and not willing to pay a fair directors’ fee.

The author goes on to explain how inexpensive Favreau was for Marvel to begin with, and the fee increase he’s asking for is only a moderate one, especially considering the first Iron Man is estimated to bring in $750-800 million after running in theaters and DVD sales.

IESB continues with their rant, which I totally agree with:

So bottom line, Jon Favreau has not been locked in to direct Iron Man 2 for the simple reason that Marvel is being cheap – this is 100% accurate folks, no bullshit.

This is completely disheartening. Iron Man was the first real Marvel production on their own two feet and Favreau came through like a champ. He gave credibility to the studio, hell, I’d even say he MADE the studio.

If that movie had bombed and he hadn’t done his job right Marvel wouldn’t be making the plans for the future like they are now. They would be going back to making films with other studio partners like they always have.

They finished the article by stating what Favreau said on his forum:

It’s been five weeks since the one and only phone call my reps have gotten from Marvel. I know their hands are full with the Hulk and I’m sure they will get into it shortly, as they tell me they intend to. I ran into the Marvel guys at the Hulk premiere and everyone sounded eager to get to work on IM2.

It’s absolutely amazing to me how the Hollywood industry works sometimes. Here’s a guy in Favreau who comes fairly cheap as a director, he makes you a MONSTER blockbuster, and they are taking FIVE WEEKS to talk to the guy? They didn’t lock him up on the weekend Iron Man hit theaters?

I’ve been so astounded and impressed by how Marvel had been creating this universe, from the brilliance of Iron Man, to the cameo appearances, to all their movies planned for the next three years.

Yet this just brings it all back to reality. They are still out to make money like everyone else and seem willing to do it no matter how disloyal it makes them.

(read the IESB article if you want to know more, and you can also send emails to the author who will pass them on to Marvel Studios)

[Sci Fi] [Wired] [IESB]

Disney’s live-action adaptation of the popular action adventure video game series follows an adventurous prince Dastan (Gyllenhaal) who must join forces with Tamina (Arterton), a feisty and exotic princess, to prevent a villainous nobleman from possessing the Sands of Time, a gift from the gods that can reverse time. Molina will play Sheik Amar, a mentor to the prince. Kingsley is rumored to be playing Vizier, the main villain of the film.

The casting of two notable and respected “actors” ratchets up the prestige factor of the film a notch or two. I personally think this trend of casting “up” for summer blockbusters is a very welcomed change of pace. In the past there wasn’t a lot of thought put into trying to get the best actors for a summer tentpole pic as much as there was trying to get bankable actors.

Batman Begins probably began the latest trend by having a cast list that reads more like an Oscar nomination list than a list of the actors in a summer superhero action film: Christian Bale, Morgan Freeman, Michael Caine, Liam Neeson, Gary Oldman, Tom Wilkinson, Ken Watanabe. And that film was directed by Christopher Nolan who was first recognized as a good filmmaker and not as an action filmmaker.

Other films have followed suit including the smash hit, Iron Man, which cast the actor’s actor, Robert Downey, Jr. in the title role and brought in Jon Favreau, not really known for action films, to direct this very action-oriented movie. We all know how well that worked out. The Incredible Hulk and The Dark Knight will follow the same pattern later this summer. Many think Heath Ledger has a real chance at a posthumous Oscar nomination for his role as The Joker in The Dark Knight.

I’m not saying Prince Of Persia is exactly reaching these lofty goals just yet, but adding Ben Kingsley and Alfred Molina will go a long way in that direction. Bringing in Mike Newell as director was a smart move as well. Sure, he directed Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, but he also directed Four Weddings and a Funeral, Donnie Brasco, Mona Lisa Smile, and Love in the Time of Cholera – not the typical action director’s resume.

I’m not exactly a Jake Gyllenhaal fan, but I find that I’m starting to look forward to seeing what they do with this movie. Video game adaptations haven’t fared well in the past, but I’m thinking this film could be the one to break the curse.

Perhaps this year just feels better than most lately. The titles that we get this summer are just disgusting: The Dark Knight, Indiana Jones, X-Files 2, Prince Caspian, The Incredible Hulk, Hancock and of course, Iron Man.

And if the rest are as good as Iron Man was, then we’re in for a treat.

(As of this writing, it’s already estimated to have made $101 million this weekend)

First off, I just want to give some props to Jon Favreau for directing this film. He’s come a long way from Swingers, my favorite movie of all-time, and to helm a film with a budget estimated around $150 million, that’s a far cry from Swinger‘s $200,000.

I think some may have even been worried about him taking on such a huge project, but no one is thinking that now. He has a smash hit on his hands, one of the best superhero movies ever. I still like Batman Begins and Spiderman 2 as my two favorite superhero movies, but Iron Man is right up there.

It’s no understatement in saying that Robert Downey Jr. is the reason this movie is successful. He IS Iron Man. His particular humor and wit are perfect in playing Tony Stark, a bazillionaire weapons manufacturer.

There are scenes during the creation of Iron Man’s “suit” where Downey is alone, talking to his robot helpers, and it would be hard seeing anyone else in that role without the same ability to entertain the audience all on his own.

I heard one reviewer say that this movie might not appeal as much to kids because of the slower development of Iron Man and the illegal weapons trading subplot. And I can see that, because it did take a good while for Iron Man to finally make his full-fledged appearance.

In fact, you really only get a few scenes with Iron Man in action. Not as much as you got perhaps in Batman Begins, or Spiderman 2, but it works here.

I loved seeing the way in which Iron Man comes about. Stark is captured by some terrorists who want him to build them a Jericho missle, but in turn he makes a very crude looking iron exoskeleton to help blast his way out.

Seeing his weapons being used by the same terrorists he thinks he’s helping fight, Stark has a change of heart once he gets back home. He decides to take the idea of his iron suit, use it to battle these enemies on his own and destroy his weapons.

One thing I was blown away by in this movie was the special effects. Top-notch. Ultra awesome. When Stark is making his Iron Man suit in his shop, the computers he uses are insane. Holograms that you can insert your arm inside and move around. Robots that help him out. Multi-monitors that connect to flat-table screens that in turn project upwards in 3D.

It was sick.

The supporting cast was also superb. Gwyneth Paltrow was great in her role as Pepper Potts, Stark’s assistant. They have some great scenes together, there affection for each other evident.

Jeff Bridges plays the bad guy, and with a huge beard and shaved head, he fit the part to a T. Terrance Howard, although in a somewhat small role, did an admirable job.

In fact, I really have no quibbles with the film other than the end. It’s not really a spoiler to give away that Iron Man will be involved in a bit fight before the end. Pretty much every superhero movie ends this way.

But this one just left me wishing there had been a bit more. I’ll let you decide if it was missing anything.

Still, the very, very end of the film, right before the credits roll, totally capture the man who is Tony Stark and how different he is from other superheroes we’ve seen lately. And I loved it.

Oh yeah, and as Jason wrote a few days ago, do not miss the ending credits to Iron Man. You have to wait a bit, but STICK AROUND. I saw so many people leaving the theater early on Friday, and I wanted to yell at them all to sit in their seats so they could see the end.

That little treat makes me pumped for a potential sequel, which after $101 million opening box office weekend, is definitely going to happen.

Mike’s Rating: 9 out of 10

And as word grows that it might be a huge addition to the superhero genre, the more talk escapes from Jon Favreau’s lips about the possibility of an Iron Man trilogy.

And from what it sounds like, he isn’t just planning two more movies. He has big ideas to make it work more as an overall story arch.

Here are some exceprts from an IGN story about his thoughts of sequel (Potential spoilers below!):

“I thought about it,” he says. “I have one, two, and three in my head, because if you don’t then it seems like you’re just re-treading the same ground. No, the way the Mandarin fits in, the way War Machine fits in, whether or not Obadiah [Stane] pops up again… There’s a lot. The relationship of Pepper. So we’re really thinking and I’m watching the horizon as I do these movies so that it all makes sense as you watch them altogether. I mean, look at how well Lord of the Rings works. It builds to a climax, compared to movies where it just feels like you’re redoing the same thing over and over again to diminishing returns.”

“There is no second one yet,” says the helmer. “Part of what they do when they do an actor’s deal is they sign you on for many because it can get very expensive. For director they don’t see the need because they can make the movie with or without you. I would love to do a sequel to it and I think that depending on the success of the film… You know, we made over a hundred million dollars on Daredevil and were getting fairly good reviews. And I thought we were off to the races but then quickly I was told, ‘No, it wasn’t successful and it didn’t make enough money and the fans don’t think it’s that good of a movie.’ So I don’t take anything for granted now after having been through that experience.”

“If there’s no hold-up on my end, I would love to do it,” he says. “But they’ve got to look at how well the movie does and how they approach the second one. And … Marvel is a new company. At this point with Sony, with the first Spider-Man, they were already working on a script, so I don’t know what they’re thinking at Marvel. I think they’ve got their hands full with the Hulk, to be honest. They’ve got another big movie coming out that’s going to really speak to their bottom line and they’re very hands-on and it’s a small team. I know I speak to people at Marvel everyday and they’re very excited about this. They think it’s going to do well, and I know that they really want to make another one, so hopefully we’ll be talking again here about number two in a couple of years.”

I must admit that it’s an impressive trailer. I thought the first trailer was actually pretty good. This one actually brings into the mix the supporting players and continues the slightly humorous one liners. Since the supporting cast is so impressive I think it was a good call to make sure to at least show them in the trailer.

Jeff Bridges also proves that once a man reaches a certain age he should immediately shave his head and grow a beard…if he wants to look really, really cool.

Iron Man is directed by Jon Favreau and stars Robert Downey Jr., Terrence Howard, Gwyneth Paltrow and Jeff Bridges.

Iron Man opens in theaters on May 2.

Iron Man is directed by Jon Favreau and stars Robert Downey Jr., Terrence Howard, Gwyneth Paltrow and Jeff Bridges.

Iron Man opens in theaters on May 2.

Rumors of the cross cameo have been rampant for quite some time now. It now seems likely that the ultimate goal is, in fact, to tie the “Iron Man” and “The Incredible Hulk” movies together and, more than likely, make an Avengers movie that would feature both characters (and likely Nick Fury who is played by Samuel L. Jackson in “The Incredible Hulk”). Jon Favreau, director of “Iron Man” has reportedly already called “dibs” on the Avengers movie.

Now, I’m no comic book expert so I don’t know all the ins and outs of the story line. I do know the basics of the Avengers as well as (Ultimate) Nick Fury’s role in the whole thing. If Edward Norton and Robert Downey, Jr. do as well in these movies as everyone expects they will, I think an Avengers movie could definitely be pretty cool. And the idea of crossing the characters over into the other movies is perfect and exactly how it should be for movies based on comic books.

“Iron Man” is set for release on May 2, 2008.
“The Incredible Hulk” is set for release on June 13, 2008.