Yesterday word leaked that Iron Man 2 was set to start filming in March of 2009. A few weeks ago, Marvel officially announced April of 2010 as the movie’s release date. Now Jon Favreau is chiming in with a big huh?
Favs popped onto his myspace message board tonight to answer questions from fans. A lot of them, as you’d expect, had a lot to do with the recently announced Iron Man 2. Unfortunately, Favreau seems to indicate Marvel studios hasn’t even really talked to him about it. He says, “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.” You’d think they’d at least make a phone call, you know, before they announced the release date of the movie that everyone sort of expects him to direct.
Worse, assuming he ever does get a phone call, Favreau doesn’t seem to think any of the dates they threw out are reasonable. On the start of filming he says, “March seems unrealistic.” He also volunteered this on the announced start date: “I am concerned, however, about the announced release date of April 2010. Neither Robert 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.” That is sort of a good point. Shouldn’t they, you know, actually talk to the people who will make the movie before they start planning to release it? Favs continues, “This genre of movie is best when it is done thoughtfully and with plenty of preparation. It might be better to follow the BB/DK, X/X2 three year release pattern than to scramble for a date. 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 IM2 and, at this point, we would have less time to make it than the first one.” And that fans, is why Favreau is the only guy you want directing Iron Man 2.
For that matter, it’d be nice if he could direct even more Marvel movies. Not long ago he expressed some serious interest in being able to direct the team-up Avengers movie Marvel is planning as well. The film will take all of their characters who have gotten solo movies and drop them in the same film. Unfortunately, that pesky release schedule Marvel announced so prematurely is going to screw things. Favreau says, “I was really bummed when I saw that there was only a year between the two whe Marvel announced the release dates. It would be impossible to direct both.” Note to Marvel: Getting Jon Favreau to direct your movie is much more important than filling some pre-arranged release date quota.
