Oct
15
Jon Favreau has put the record straight with his rumoured involvement in Marvel’s The Avengers movie by saying he is not going to be directing the superhero feature. Speaking to MTV, the Iron Man director said the following:
“They’ll have to [find a different director], because I’m not going to be available. It’s something I’m being the executive producer on, so I’ll definitely have input and a say.”
After this, he divulged a little more on this ensemble picture:
“It’s going to be hard, because I was so involved in creating the world of Iron Man and Iron Man is very much a tech-based hero,” he says. “And then with Avengers you’re going to be introducing some supernatural aspects because of Thor. How you mix the two of those works very well in the comic books, but it’s going to take a lot of thoughtfulness to make that all work and not blow the reality that we’ve created.”
At the moment the upcoming Marvel slate looks a little like this: Favreau is putting the finishing touches to Iron Man 2, which is scheduled for release on 07 May 2010; Kenneth Branagh is busy working on Thor for a 20 May 2011 release date; and leader of the pack Captain America is dawdling behind, having not been put into production yet. The Incredible Hulk has been and gone on screens to lukewarm effect, and furthermore, Favreau has shot down claims that Edward Norton will make an appearance in Iron Man 2. With the exception of Norton, all players in the aforementioned movies are locked in to appear as their respective characters in future Marvel projects. But with Captain America still frozen in development hell, and The Hulk wandering around in the wilderness, The Avengers is starting to feel like even more of a distant prospect than ever before.
SciFiNow will bring you more developments on The Avengers in the near future.
Our 
provides all the latest Sci-Fi news, reviews, previews, interviews and spoilers, while our 
fan page is the best place to communicate with other fans of the SciFiNow magazine.
provides all the latest Sci-Fi news, reviews, previews, interviews and spoilers, while our fan page is the best place to communicate with other fans of the SciFiNow magazine.
The last sentence of this piece sums up how I feel about ANY Marvel or DC Comics/Warner Bros super team movie. I just don’t seem them succeeding with a movie jam packed with actors like Robert Downey Jr., Edward Norton (you know what I mean)and a Tobey Maguire, if you get my drift.
The approach Marvel Studios take towards their own properties is, I feel, counterproductive. By this, I mean that hiring an actor with some credibility like Gary Oldman or an Edward Norton rather than a Freddie Prinze Jr. works against the pulp origins of the subject material as the studios attempt to LEGITIMISE their comic book properties (See Ang Lee directing Hulk – not many oscars there, eh, Mr. Arad?)with the likes of Nick Nolte, Willem Dafoe and Jeff Bridges playing villains when in fact the average cinemagoer doesn’t give two flying ones who plays what so films that should be as fun, entertaining and as enduring as flicks like Robocop, The Incredibles, Aliens, etc, end up looking like big budget TV movies with so-called A-list stars slumming it for a big paycheck knowing there won’t be a sequel!
Hollywood doesn’t understand how to handle comic book properties so if it does appear, Avengers on the big screen will an absolute mess…
Sorry but it’s true.
Not yet it isn’t.
You’re right, Lovlid, but I think I’m kind of correct, sadly. Sadly, because my inner nine year old is dying to see an Avengers flick but my grown up self, says, Nah – Ain’t gonna happen in MY lifetime.
Jon Favreau couldn’t direct traffic. Iron Man 2 is going to be pants. A director like Favreau doesn’t understand that you have to choreograph EMOTIONS as well as fight scenes, set pieces, etc. Digitally dependant movies like Iron Man sell because the advertising budgets are almost identical to the actual film budgets and of course, Iron Man, is a cool character.
An Avengers movie will never be made until Marvel Studios realise that they need to go back to casting relative unknowns in the hero roles and big names as the villains and stop treating these comic book films as the poor cousins to Action movies like Aliens, Transporter, Crank and Taken, etc. Never going to happen, never going to be any Avengers movies.
Boo hoo.
How difficult could it possibly be to make a movie when the main, and even secondary, character/s already exist? Why should a movie about Captain America be stuck in development hell? Unless the studio are planning on totally changing the character origin what is the problem? I think I may have answered my own question.
As for an Avengers movie, I think the mistake made is that the timeline Marvel has set down is over too long a period. Look at the success of Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter etc. Fans knew that in 12 months or so, the next film would appear. But Iron Man and the Hulk were last year, Thor is 2011, Captain America some time after that, then the Avengers. What are they thinking? Film trends come and go. You could make a strong argument that comic book movies are declining in popularity. The big guns like Batman and Spiderman may continue to succeed, but many of the less generally known titles have performed poorly recently; Hellboy, Punisher, Watchmen, even Wolverine. Although each had reasons for not drawing huge numbers, the fact that they couldn’t drum up much interest says something about general moviegoers willingness to watch any ‘comic book movie’.