Greed is a nasty thing, especially when it spits in someone’s face. Unfortunately all indications point towards greed running rampant over at Marvel Studios where Iron Man 2 has a fixed 2010 release date and not much else.
There was great jubilation amongst movie fans when Marvel announced Iron Man 2 and Thor were coming in 2010, with The Avengers and Captain America in 2011. That’s a lot of superhero in a two-year span and a lot has to go into making it happen.
Apparently Iron Man director John Favreau and star Robert Downey Jr were not consulted regarding this aggressive time frame. In fact, Favreau has sounded off in the MySpace forums to express his concerns.
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.
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. 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.
Sounds a lot like us that Marvel is having delusions of grandeur, forgetting who was responsible for the wads of cash Iron Man continues to bring in and will bring in right through the Blu-ray Disc and DVD release.
The “one call in five weeks” bit is also a bit disconcerting. The guys over at IESB.net have some great insight into this and the news isn’t good.
So according to our source at Marvel, Jon was expecting a moderate bump in his fee for the sequel but apparently Marvel has other plans.
Our source continues that Maisel believes Iron Man 2 will be a success regardless of Favreau’s involvement and feels the studio does not need to pay Jon a higher fee for his services.
This is the most disappointing news that I have heard coming out of Hollywood in years, is Marvel out of their Vulcan mind?
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.
Seriously, has Marvel been smelling the cash from Iron Man for too long? Pay Favreau what he has rightfully earned and deserves, and get the sequel moving ahead ASAP if there’s any hope to avoid a rushed crap-tastic mess.
And here we thought Marvel were supposed to be the “good guys.”
