Talks revealed last week have turned to final negotiations as Marvel has found their replacement for Jon Favreau for “Iron Man 3.”
Deadline reports that Shane Black is in final negotiations to take on the directing gig for the lucrative franchise. Black is a solid choice for the director’s chair, a genre veteran behind a string of ’80s and ’90s action films including “Lethal Weapon,” “The Last Boy Scout” and “The Long Kiss Goodnight.” More recently, he made a splash by writing and directing “Kiss Kiss Bang Bang” (which served as a comeback vehicle for Iron Man himself, Robert Downey Jr.).
We’re definitely excited by this choice but for us, the make or break of this thing not just being a mess of Marvel Easter Eggs for “The Avengers 3” (or whatever) will be if Black is able to write the script. “That’s not figured out,” a source told Deadline but we certainly hope it’s in the cards. While both ‘Iron Man’ films were box office hits, Marvel could learn something from the diminished returns of the second one by not trying to link every gestating comic book film to “Iron Man 3” and just letting Tony Stark do his thing.
No word yet if Black will squeeze in one of the other projects he’s been recently attached to — a live action adaptation of the manga “Death Note” and an adaptation of radio serial “Doc Savage” — before he gets crackin’ on “Iron Man 3,” but he does have some time. The film isn’t set to hit theaters until May 3, 2013.
