Jon Favreau is pretty much the King of Hollywood this week, but instead of running around town with a stripper on each arm and smoking $100 bills, he’s giving funny, heartfelt interviews to Entertainment Weekly with a few details about what we can expect from the Iron Man sequels to come. He can’t talk too much, obviously, but the sheer amount of excitement that shows through in this interview is enough to get anyone pumped about what he’ll do next.
After discussing how he’s feeling and when he realized he had a giant hit on his hands, Favreau gets down to talking, very vaguely, about Iron Man 2. “We've been speaking informally about it, and in concept we would all love to work together again. There’s no telling who “we” means, but presumably it would be Favreau, screenwriters Hawk Ostby and Mark Fergus, and, of course, Robert Downey, Jr. Favreau confirms what we all know, that Downey is under contract for a second film. Presumably that means the rest of the cast is under contract to return as well, especially since Favreau tells EW, “There's definitely a level of enthusiasm from myself and the cast to tell more stories.”
He also talks about the gamesmanship behind keeping the Samuel L. Jackson cameo under wraps, and how he managed to create concern that the scene had been cut even when fanboys got word of it during filming. “I think that was a very, very clever way to keep the dialogue going with the fans, because if you don't have any tricks up your sleeve, they feel like they've already seen the whole movie before they did.” And the tie-in with The Avengers wasn’t just to please the fans. “I think [The Avengers] would be a very smart third film in the Iron Man series. It's very difficult to keep these franchises from running out of gas after two [movies]. The high point seems to be the second one, judging by history.”
The beautiful thing about Favreau’s work on Iron Man is that it was his daring decisions, like casting Downey, that made the film the pleasure it is. The fact that he’s thinking ahead to #3, and recognizing the challenges of making a trilogy that have plagued so many other series that started off strong, further indicates that he’s a smart guy committed to making a smart superhero movie . He makes no promises about returning to direct Iron Man 2, but it’s virtually guaranteed that he and Downey will be working together with the suit again. Now, thanks to this interview, there’s even more reason to believe that’s nothing but a good thing.
http://www.cinemablend.com/new/Jon-Favreau-Talks-Iron-Man-2-And-3-8751.html
