“Iron Man 2” junkets took place this week and many outlets were able to attend press conferences and round table junkets speaking to folks like Marvel’s Production head Kevin Feige, insouciant stars Robert Downey Jr., the non-catsuit averse Scarlett Johansson and other members of the cast.
However certain comments from ‘IM2’ director Jon Favreau were pretty interesting. Recent reports (paraphrasing taken out of context) suggested to some that “Iron Man 3” would be shooting this fall. We didn’t really buy that at all, but some did.
Thankfully, that speculation has finally been put to rest. Not only is ‘IM3’ not shooting this year, it might not shoot for several years and probably can’t come out any sooner than early 2013 as it has to wait to see where the storylines of “The Avengers” net out (and that doesn’t land until the summer of 2012).
” ‘Iron Man 3’ is years down the road,” Favreau told ComingSoon this weekend. “And that [film] has to reflect the reality of what’s been established not just in ‘Iron Man 1 and 2,’ but in movie time, between this film and that film, is ‘The Incredible Hulk,’ ‘Thor,’ ‘Captain America,’ and ‘The Avengers.’ “
Will he actually direct “Iron Man 3″? Favreau seems like he’s taking a wait and see approach.”I haven’t had to inherit anybody else’s backstory yet — it’s just simply what we chose to use or not use from the comic books — so I’m feeling like I’m passing the baton and after all those movies are done, [it will be] time to sit down and discuss if there’s something I can bring to it, if it’s something we want to do together, but that’s way down the road.”
Favreau also noted that he was asked to serve as an executive producer on “The Avengers,” but that’s not in any way a hand’s on gig. The actor/director also said that he jumped onboard the forthcoming “Cowboys & Aliens” because of the screenplay, which was not coincidentally co-written by Mark Fergus and Hawk Ostby who helped write the original “Iron Man” (though Damon Lindelof, Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci are also all credited on the ‘C&W’ script in some form).
“The property isn’t what was appealing to me as much as the concept and the script,” he said. “I read a great script and I loved the idea of mashing up those two genres and juxtaposing a very intense alien movie up against a very sincerely played Western. We draw inspiration tonally from movies like ‘Close Encounters’ and ‘Alien’ and ‘Predator’ for the alien side and for the Western side we’re looking at John Ford, [Sergio] Leone, and even a little bit of ‘Butch Cassidy & The Sundance Kid.’ “
