Jon Favreau may have decided against sitting in the Iron Man 3 directors chair to work on a Magic Kingdom movie for Disney, but that doesn’t mean he’s left the franchise behind entirely.
While at the Hero Complex Film Festival over the weekend both Favreau and Robert Downey Jr. took part in a Q & A session where they discussed the Iron Man films, and Favreau said he hopes to help out new director Shane Black with the third film.
Transcribed by /Film:
I love the franchise and I’m a big fan of Shane’s as well so hopefully I can be helpful because I want to see this thing grow and transform. And actually, when it finally landed on Shane, it was like, ‘All right, that’s gonna be something interesting.’ Especially because it’s gonna be so difficult for whoever does that one because although it’s Iron Man 3, the whole Avengers thing…I guess in comics you can say that it’s an individual storyline and you can break it off into a group. But in movies, it’s hard not to take into consideration what just happened. What are you gonna say? ‘They all just lost their cell phones and you can’t get help?’ So it’s going to take a lot of ingenuity to make it make sense to a mainstream film audience as well as a comic book audience.
Favreau and Downey Jr. also joked about the actor/director returning to play Tony Stark’s bodyguard, friend and chauffeur, Happy Hogan.
Downey Jr: Here’s the first thing I want to say. The most difficult part of making Iron Man 3 is going to be negotiating Jon Favreau’s acting deal.
Favreau: If The Freak isn’t in it, I’m not doing it. If Happy Hogan doesn’t turn into The Freak, I’m not doing it. Here’s what happens to Happy Hogan, he marries Pepper Potts…
Downey Jr: Wait a minute, you want both?
Favreau: I want a love scene with Pepper Potts with my shirt on and I want to transform into The Freak.
Shane Black, who directed Robert Downey Jr. in Kiss Kiss Bang Bang in 2005 and was behind the scripts for Lethal Weapon and The Last Boy Scout, recently said Iron Man 3 will be more like a Tom Clancy-thriller, with Iron Man fighting real world villains, and will not feature any other heroes from the Marvel Universe.
Marvel and Disney have set a May 3rd 2013 release date for the third film, which means Robert Downey Jr. will be suiting up for the fourth time sometime in 2012. The actor is currently filming The Avengers.
