Finally: Jon Favreau Will Direct ‘Iron Man 2’; Is The Director A Master Media Manipulator?

All’s well that end’s well, right? Jon Favreau will direct “Iron Man 2.” Well, kinda sorta.

It’s not like we adored “Iron Man” more than life itself (it is a great comic book film, but it didn’t even make our ‘Best Films of the year’ so far list), but it’s the principal of the matter.

It looked at one point, like the seemingly ungrateful fucks at Marvel Studios weren’t going to bring Jon Favreau back to direct the “Iron Man” sequel because the filmmaker was asking for a modest bump in salary. This seemed outrageous to many considering the comic book character was untested and Favreau put Marvel firmly in the game with their first self-funded movie project. The studio apparently wasn’t returning his calls, they weren’t communicating with him– at least according to Favreau who basically said he was left in the dark concerning the sequel plans.

It wasn’t a good PR look for Marvel at all and even the thought infuriated the fans. But they’ve come correct according to Deadline Hollywood. Nikki Finke who says it’s not official yet, but claims Marvel and Favreau have reached on an agreement for the project due in 2010 (despite coy remarks that suggested he didn’t necessarily have to be in the sequel, Finke says Robert Downey Jr. has a “Iron Man 2” obligations in his contract).

She also says there was a lot more then meets the eye to the original story. Finke claims the rumors that Marvel was lowballing Favreau in their offers was something he made up to stir the pot on the Internet in his favor and she said a sequel offer was always coming, but it didn’t come quick enough for the director and she calls him “an asshole,” for his media manipulation. Interesting twist on the whole story.

Nice timing too, as we just asked about the status of this yesterday. PS. IESB.net’s “rebuttal” to Finke’s piece is moronic and gives more credence to the bloggers-are-fanboy-idiot tropes. They link to an interview that’s two weeks old as if nothing could ever have transpired since then. Apparently these guys can’t argue their way out of a paper bag. Maybe we’d be more clear to them if we explained it to them like this: “At no point in your rambling, incoherent response were you even close to anything that could be considered a rational thought.”