Jon Favreau not signed yet to direct Iron Man 2

It sure didn’t take long for the success of Iron Man to wear off and the dark side of Hollywood to rear its ugly head. Which is just so sad to me because of the amount of money this film made. You’d think these studio executives would be dancing naked in the streets tossing Benjamins over their heads.

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]