Of all of the Marvel superhero movies that will fuse into each other on May 4, 2012 when The Avengers is released, Jon Favreau’s Iron Man (and soon to be Iron Man 2) is probably the universal favorite. The director’s careful handling of the character and wonderful job of adding a sense of realism for us all to relate to made him the unanimous choice of fans worldwide to take up the reigns and direct The Avengers, and it was one of the big questions in recent times. Favreau recently spoke to MTV about the whole thing, and confirmed that he would unfortunately not be directing the ultimate superhero movie, and also about the task of bringing all of these larger-than-life characters together in one movie.
While in Bora Bora for a Couples Retreat junket, Favreau made it quite clear that he would not be directing Avengers because he will not be available to do it. No word on exactly what he’s doing that will be taking up his time in 2012 (though that end of the world thing may take up some schedules), but one has to imagine that as a director, he doesn’t want to get stuck in one genre forever.
Favreau also went on to talk about the difficulty in taking all of these comic characters with their own big movies, and putting them into one giant movie. He seemed particularly concerned with his Iron Man efforts being handled by someone else.
Click over to see what Jon Favreau had to say.
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.”
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, 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.
Though I will say Favreau was the favorite for the project, this isn’t the worst news in the world. There was always the real worry that Iron Man would get most of the focus due to his emotional attachment, and the Avengers director will really have to be able to love and care for all of the elements of the film. On the other hand, it would be even more difficult for them to go out and get a director that hasn’t had anything to do with any of these Marvel movies.
Another name rumored for the job is the Clash of the Titans remake and The Incredible Hulk director Louis Leterrier, who absolutely could be a fair choice. Who do you think has the total skills to take the Hulk, Iron Man, Thor, Captain America, and others and direct them all in one movie?
Hows about Brian Singer? He did a good job on the first X-men movie and also a good job on the superman returns movie.