Shane Black Says Chinese Cut of ‘Iron Man 3′ Will Have an “Interesting Surprise”; Hopes To Make ‘Doc Savage’ His Next Film

Earlier this spring it was revealed that China would get a special cut of Disney‘s “Iron Man 3,” with additional footage from the Beijing shoot and a special cameo appearance by Chinese superstar Fan Bingbing. This isn’t unheard of (a similar situation happened with last year’s “Looper“) but it is sort of amazing for a movie of this size and scale to be readjusted for an international audience (even one as vast and powerful as China). As Slashfilm points out, co-writer and director Shane Black recently acknowledged that there might be a little something extra in that version. He also commented on what his next, post-“Iron Man 3” project will be (hint: he’s been attached to it for roughly one billion years).

At the press conference for the film, Black remarked, “The Chinese version will have an interesting surprise. We do know that there’s additional footage that will be available in that version, which I’m sure will filter back here.” Co-screenwriter Drew Pearce, seemingly worried that Black was on the verge of spilling the beans, jumped in, saying, “I think Marvel would like to keep an element of surprise by that, so when the inevitable versions of it feed back to us, you’ll see exactly what it involved, but for the moment I don’t think we’re allowed to talk about it.”

Black went on to explain that while he knows what you will be able to see in the Chinese version, he wasn’t terribly involved. “There was the idea of a Chinese version where it would entail additional footage that I was asked to look at and approve. I was busy doing the American version while we were simultaneously obtaining footage for the Chinese version, so I got a sense of what was going on,” Black explained. “I was asked to look at and had a chance later to approve the footage, so now you’ve got these two versions.”

Meanwhile, over at Collider, Black confirms that he’s back on board “Doc Savage,” Sony‘s adaptation of the ’40s pulp hero created by author Lester Dent for publisher Henry W. Ralston, who was a kind of scientist superman adventurer. “I mean we’ve got to try to set a deal now to go back into that, so as ‘Iron Man’ wound down I sort of reconnected with Sony who have been gracious to say, ‘We’ll wait a year and sit on these rights until you’re finished with this other picture that we don’t control.’ So they were really cool about it, they were really nice,” Black told the site. “So yeah I’m back on it.”

While it seems like “Doc Savage” is going to be Black’s next directorial debut, he also recently told Bleeding Cool that his adaptation of “Death Note,” the popular Japanese manga, is also still in play at Warner Bros. “It’s very tense and really cool,” he told the site. Black notes that both projects are being worked on with Anthony Baggarozzi and Chuck Mondry, his writing partners. So who knows what will get to cinemas first (if either make it that far).