Jeremy here...
This headline is not a joke. Deadline just posted an interview with Robert Downey Jr., and Marvel's Tony Stark had this to say:
DEADLINE: Marvel badly wants Iron Man 4 and you’ve said you aren’t doing it. How about the idea you’ll do that movie if Mel directs it?
DOWNEY: Correct.
DEADLINE: Is that our headline?
DOWNEY: Why not? That movie would be bananas.
Downey's 100% serious about this. He's been friends with Gibson for years, and knows a thing or two about being given second chances. And third chances. And fourth chances. Elsewhere in the Deadline interview, he says that Gibson has "fundamentally changed" (while later saying that "he's still Mel", but I get the idea). I'm a huge fan of Gibson as an actor and a filmmaker, and would love to see him given a shot to get back in the saddle on a major studio production; I know people who have worked with him, and they'd all take a gig on his next movie if offered. Yes, he's a man with raging personal demons, but, as Downey points out in the interview, no one's more aware of this than Gibson.
So I say listen to Downey on this one, Marvel. A Gibson-directed IRON MAN 4 would be just the thing to get me excited about the series again (which I thought was wrapped up nicely with IRON MAN 3).
