Superhero movie fans were pretty puzzled a few weeks ago when it was announced that Drew Pearce would be penning the script for “Iron Man 3.” Nothing against Pearce (who’s seen success with the U.K. superhero comedy series “No Heroics“), but when Marvel Studios appointed Shane Black as director of the upcoming threequel, most people assumed he’d also be writing the script as well.
Black was the screenwriter responsible for a string of ‘80s and ‘90s action films including “Lethal Weapon,” “The Last Boy Scout” and “The Long Kiss Goodnight” and only got into the directors chair more recently with the underrated comedy-noir “Kiss Kiss Bang Bang.” His sharp dialogue in that film gave Robert Downey Jr. the first taste of a career comeback that would be fulfilled by the first “Iron Man” film a few years later so the thought of reuniting the two on this franchise seemed like a good fit.
Well the fanboy outrage can reportedly now be quelled because according to CinemaBlend, Black will be co-writing the screenplay with Pearce after all.
As big fans of “Kiss Kiss Bang Bang” and less big fans of “Iron Man 2” we’re excited for a creative shakeup behind the director’s chair and about what Black might be able to bring to the franchise. Sources inside Disney say that Pearce may have been brought in to tone down some of Black’s edge (almost all of his screenplays are pretty firmly R-rated) but others say that’s not the case, so who knows. Either way it’s to Marvel’s benefit to have Black appear as the creative force behind this film, but our guess is Pearce will be doing most of the heavy lifting. Since nobody was really happy with the second “Iron Man” film, apparently Marvel included, the new film will reportedly tone down some of the theatrics and be more along the lines of a Tom Clancy-thriller, with Iron Man fighting real-world villains. That sounds quite fine to us, but Marvel actually listens to their fanboys and they generally demand to see some big name supervillains. The fact that “Iron Man” doesn’t really have that many well-known villain figures, at least not to the general populace, is another story.
“Iron Man 3” will hit on May 3, 2013.
