Iron Man 3/Marvel U Movies (Favreau's Fucked Off)

[Tiny Poster]

Aw fuck - Favreau's pulled out of directing Iron Man 3:

According to Vulture, "insiders" are saying that Jon Favreau has told Marvel Studios that he will not be directing Iron Man 3. At this point, neither Favreau nor Marvel has confirmed the story, so it still exists technically as a rumor. Nevertheless, Vulture reports that Marvel has already begun the process of finding a new director to replace him, and they're usually pretty accurate about these things.
As to the reasons why, there are many theories—not least of which is the fact that Favreau is much more in-demand these days, and his standard paycheck is such that both Marvel and Disney preemptively balked at meeting what would surely be a significant raise. Interestingly, there's even one hypothesis that has the studio deliberately trying to sell Favreau on a "confusing and packed" version of what Iron Man 3 would be so as to spur Favreau to give up first. If that's true, it definitely seemed to be working: Favreau told MTV News recently that he was very unclear on what form the film would take, saying, "In theory, Iron Man 3 is going to be a sequel or continuation of Thor,Hulk, Captain America and Avengers. This whole world ... I have no idea what it is. I don't think they do either, from conversations I've had with those guys."
So if not quibbles over money, that confusion and frustration with Disney and Marvel trying to turn his particular Iron Man world into just another episodic adventure—one populated by characters he'd had no part in shaping—may have led Favreau to just declare "creative differences" and walk away. And while it seems as though the studios are confident they can move on without him, and are still pushing ahead with the plan to have Iron Man 3 in theaters by May 3, 2013, what's not clear at this point is whether star Robert Downey Jr.—who has final say on director in his Iron Man contract—will cooperate or join Favreau in exiting out of loyalty, or even fear that Favreau's style is crucial to Iron Man's success. Anyway, you can probably expect to hear more about this soon.
UPDATED: Deadline's Nikki Finke just posted a bitchy little confirmation that Favreau has indeed exited the project, saying, "The website Vulture got there first but isn't very reliable so I waited to confirm and elaborate." Diplomatic!

Iron Man unexepectedly turned out to be a great film about a character that's never had the status of a Batman or an X-Man, which can be attributed as much to Favreau's witty direction (and knack for action) as it is to Downey Jr's performance. Iron Man 2 had big pacing/overplotting problems, all to do with tying the franchise into the overarching Avengers thing. Now, with him bowing out of the third one, I've had to lower my expectations, and with that bolded comment above, lose (almost) any hope I had in The Avengers being any good. Sure, Whedon's writing and directing that, but how is he going to tie FOUR leads from other movies - all with their own very different tones - together, along with their various supporting casts, new additions like Hawkeye, and Samuel L. bleeding Jackson?

[SavageHedgehog]

I think he's smart for bailing out now. They seem to be focusing on making a large number of lackluster movies that all lead into one another rather than making one really entertaining movie at a time. Iron Man 2 already suffered from this, so I don't know how later movies are going to fare.

[lipsink]

You'd think they'd learnt their lesson with the too many plots/baddies of Spiderman 3 . The Dark Knight I loved but just barely managed to juggle all the storylines (I wish they'd left Two Face for the sequel). Iron Man 2 was all over the fucking place and Mickey Rourke's character suffered the worst as a result (

Spoiler alert

all that build-up to the end and he's beaten in a few seconds

[close]

). Plus, we never found out what was with the fucking bird he kept going on about! Johansson basically sat waiting around for her big fight scene. Perhaps it would've been better to leave the Avengers stuff for the next one (but did Favreau have a say).

[Famous Mortimer]

Marvel are determined to make their film franchises as boring and continuity-heavy as their comics, it would seem.

Favreau is a smart guy for getting out when he did, and the bolded comment from above is absolutely right.

[Icehaven]

I hope RDJ does walk away too, as I have to watch everything he's in, and although 1 was OK, I didn't really like 2, so I won't have to bother watching 3 if he's not in it.