I reiterate: please keep Favreau, if at all possible.

Hell, if people really hated America, we wouldn't have half the 3rd World immigrating here every year.

Not RETARDED!!

Just KIDDING!!1!

But you know what? The movie really isn't bad. If Singer had directed it, it would have been probably lauded. I say that because I did NOT care for the first movie when I saw it- it was just "okay".

I mean... I teach English to Chinese 12 year olds... so I'm used to deceiphering awful sentences, but Harry mate.... you are not Chinese! Your grammar is awful. At least TRY to convey the meaning of what you want to say!

Why doesn't Favreau think 2 years is enough time to make IM2? He needs more than a year in prep time? Why? The story can be hammered out within a few months, and the major set pieces can get moving shortly after. There's plenty of time. So much groudwork has already been laid. It's not like they're starting from scratch.

Also, shame on Favreau for not realizing what he was getting into. Iron Man was obviously prepping for franchise treatment. Marvel certainly discussed future plans with him. Instead of bitching to the press, he should be prepping story ideas if he gets to do a sequel.

Jesus Christ with a hockey stick.

If Downey says he won't work with anyone but Favreau, this will END IT, and well get Iron Man 2 as we deserve it.

Marvel has demonstrated remarkable ambition with their announced three-year slate of intertwined films, essentially a cinematic universe. The brazen plan initially suggested balls and a dedication to realizing the marvel universe on film. However, this rumor indicates, rather, a drive to pure capitalization. Money.

On Howard Stern Favreau revealed that he made 4 million for the two years making Iron Man. Given the 150+ budget and the profit that will be in the 100 millions, and the even better returns for Iron Man 2, doubling his salary would be of little consequence to the studio.

I just don't think having the same director for the sequel NECESSARILY guarantees you success with that sequel.

Don't get me wrong. I'm a HUGE fan of Favreau and thoroughly enjoyed ALL of his films - even the kids ones like Zathura, which could have easily come off as a cheap Jumanji clone. I'd LOVE to see him do both.

But if he can't, then I'd rather he tackle Avengers, quite frankly.

Actually, I'm still hoping for John Carter of Mars!

Please, consider that opinion when I request -

Do not fuck this up, you utter cunt. That man made you, your studio and holds your future success.

Maybe we'll remember May/June 08 as the time we had a Cinematic Marvel Universe ahead of us - controlled by people we liked and trusted with the project.

Maybe we'll forget how it really was when caught up in our extreme critisism of whatever may follow.

I'm sorry - there's no need for the drama.

Take the man and four of his buddies to Vegas.

Get drunk and marry a hooker; Use the shower curtain to get the body to the van; Go for a steak breakfast before flying out.

Ask him how he'd ideally schedule these movies - all the movies. Dont push him out. Bring him in a little further into the circle.

He may just be the key.

Surely you're a geek in there somewhere. He's the key? No?

Cunt.

Messi is also wrong, although rampant jingoism is faintly embarrasing to us, we are smart enough to distinguish between well established "captain America" and nauseating "Captain George W and his quest for mid-east oil"

sure I agree that Fav made a great film, but i also believe that it wasn't his. it was The screenwriters that layed it out, it was ILM that dazzled us with visuals, it was the cinematographer who gave it it's cinematic look, and it was the editor that held us in with great cuts. not to mention the outragously cool score, which was NOT written by Hans Zimmer as so many here believe.

Lets take spiderman - Raimi screwed the pooch big time and lets say that franchise had a new director each film then we may have gotten a fresh new flick each time.

it doesn't matter how many think Singer being dropped from xmen was a bad idea, Singer wasn't making good xmen films. he started a great thing, but those films didn't get any semblence of excitment til Ratner came along and THAT'S the general consensus - screw Xmen 2 and superman returns. those films are dull lifeless and FORGOTTEN.

If marvel wants an iron man 2 in production next year and Fav is saying "sorry, i can't do it, give me more money" then guess what, he's not the boss." He's also not the only person who knows how to make a film.

just because he amde a kickarse first outing doesn't mean he'll strike it twice. I use Time burton on batman, Shumacher on batman and robin, Raimi on spidey 3 and spielberg on indy 4 as examples...

seriously, get over yourselves and let this thing run it's course as the observers you are.

petitions??? you have no idea what Fav said that might have pissed off marvel. and believe me, he must have done something for them to even consider dropping him after the success of iron man. maybe he wanted more military parties with 80's disco flare?

Um Bender, not sure if I want to ask, but what excitement did Ratner bring to X3? I'm not going to blame him for the way X3 turned out fully, but what did he bring exactly?

And I'll just let you know that I think Iron Man blew away all the X-men films, which I like.

Will you stop being such a drooling fanboy cunt now?

Independance Day was a massive hit here, and although we smugly deride American patriotism it doesn't put people off seeing films.

Fucking idiot

You're such a fucking nob.

Child

I like America, and am married to an American, but she gets no end of shit on account of Bush.

Having said that- this will not stop us from seeing films such as Independance Day or GI Joe.

Magneto actually had some balls as a villain, using his powers to lash out and kill.

the non stop action! it just kept going, and it was awesome

The visual effects, it's rare that these sorts of films hold visuals that give tingles. the golden gate bridge scene was exciting & visually spectacula!!

the development of magnetos hieracy. the introduction of new bad guys who just hid in the background and did their thing when and as needed.

I even thought the phoenix plot was great!

the matching of Xmen powers at the end, where they were really pitted against each other, proving wolverine above all is the ultimate xman. That was great and unexpected!

the way magneto went from all powerful to frail old man... and then the satisfaction in his eyes with the relization his powers were coming back.

the betrayal of the blue chick, and her revenge!!

the movie was tight. I fucking loved it, and ill forever doubt harry for his hatred towards it. I almost didn't see it.

X3 is not the abomination everyone here seems to believe it is. And in talking to people in reality, not on-line, ive discovered that X3 is much better recieved than X2. C'mon, X2 was trash. Just like the climactic scene of X1 and all scenes in superman returns.

please shut the fuck up. you fucking dumb cockfucker. You are one of the dumbest posters on this site.

You pestilent little Argentian fanboy tit. Now go and fuck yourself, repeatedly and without lube.

And for the record, I'm deeply ashamed of the football team I support, but as I support the team from where I was born and grew up I'm stuck with them. And I hate all the big 4.

You, on the other hand, are a nauseating little gloryhunting twat that probably supports Barcelona because the player you've laughably named yourself after that you are proud of looking like (as if, and he looks like Snape's uglier brother anyway), and will change to whoever as soon as he moves. Cunt.

You ignorant little tit. And I'd say you clearly haven't met a Glaswegian.

Cyclops absolutely wasted and killed off for no reason. None.

The phoenix plot was weak. That should have been the major point of the movie.

The visual effects were pretty weak, especially during the last battle when it suddenly changed from day to night. The wire-work was pretty bad, as was the fight in general.

Juggernaught - did not like this version, and hated that Juggernaught bitch line. Yeesh...

What I did like in X3: when Jean wipes out Xavier and Wolvie in the forest going semi-beserk and taking out a few random backguys.

However, X2 has the great nightcrawler opening and the mansion invasion with Wolvie taking out a bunch of guys.

And Magneto escaping from his cell in X2 was better than anything he did in X3.

And people at my work who've seen the X-men films did not like X3. Hell, my wife didn't like the third one either.

Peasant.

"We used to Smarter."

I'm guessing it all comes down to power in this case. Marvel is attempting something different, where they hold all the chips and everyone else is several ranks below them with no means for advancing up those ranks. Seems like they wanted to cut Favreau's legs out from underneath him before he got too big and became a giant to be dealt with.

While it may help Marvel keep their power, it remains to be seen if their franchise will suffer. Considering the quality of IronMan, I would say that any other director would be a step down. I'm not a comic book reader though, so ultimately, I don't give two shits either way...but I do think Favreau is getting screwed royally.

I'm not originally from London and I'm lumbered with a group of twats that are so bad that if they were playing in the fucking garden, then I'd draw the curtains.

Hey, warciples, what's going on?

This genre of movie is best when it is done thoughtfully and with plenty of preparation. It might be better to follow the BB/DK, X/X2 three year release pattern than to scramble for a date. It is difficult because there are no Marvel 09 releases and they need product, but I also think we owe it to the fans to have a great version of IM2 and, at this point, we would have less time to make it than the first one."

That's just not cricket.

*strokes moustache and adjusts monocle*

I hope that Marvel moves forward with Jon at the helm.

http://tinyurl.com/5b2qrd

Also please tell me that your not a Ted.

ARSEnal, SCUMthorpe and FUCKING LEEDS.

hehehe

Any time you take a good movie, and then sacrifice character, script quality, or storytelling in the name of "big fucking action", you get a shittier movie that has a big opening weekend and then flames out. If X3 had had the same reviews and word-of-mouth and repeat viewings that X2 had, it would've made another thirty million dollars, easily.

And if you can't get it after that.....

Not quite hangover today but I had a few too many glasses of merlot celebrating what I thought would be a Celtics victory last night and I'm not entirely at my best this morning.

In other news, I'm disappointed to hear they may go ahead with Iron Man II without Jon Favreau. He seems like a director who's just hit his stride and it strikes me as crazy to take a risk on some other asshole when you already have a guy who's fully capable of directing an excellent sequel. Go with Jon, Marvel. You know it makes sense. Pay the man and get that damn sequel to us as soon as is possible without making a shitty film.

One final note. I would like to say that MEGAN FOXX MALICIOUS SENSE OF IRONY is my current favourite talkback handle. I don't understand it, and I'm not sure if I'm supposed to understand it, but I like it anyway. Good for you, MEGAN FOXX MALICIOUS SENSE OF IRONY.

You all got that it was a joke, right?

1) England is just plain horrible when we're at a major tournament.

2)The rest of Europe might actually have to admit to having hooligans as we aren't there/

3) We fired steve McLaren.

There's one reason and one reason only why soccer hasn't taken off in the U.S. and that's advertising. Without all the goddamn timeouts, there just isn't any opportunity for corporations to peddle their garbage. If ESPN had the balls to televise soocer matches round the clock, you'd see a much bigger interest in Americans.

But nobody does it better than baseball players. These pricks are the highest paid of any American athletes and not only are they fragile like fine china, but they are more arrogant than our Commander-in-Chimp, which says something.

They used to show taut Australian women doing aerobics in the morning on Eurosport. Does that count? If so, I was a big fan of that one.

Soccer is non-stop save for half-time. Unlike baseball (which I love, go Jays) where the batter constantly steps out of the box after every pitch and the right-handed pitcher spends 10 minutes trying to pick off the guy at first. Yessir, that's a rockin' good time.

Feeding Tiger Woods through an industrial shredder might hold my interest for a few minutes though.

OH yeah thats right a golfer is the highest paid athlete in the world. (I think not toally positive). OH and now there's that golf sports drink!

Saddael, Gatorade just put out a drink called "Tiger" so yes, golf has it's own drink now.

Morning, Danny.

I truly hope that Marvel removes their head from sphincter on this issue, or IM 2 may well be the last IM movie.

HOD, golf is a maddening sport, perhaps not with the greatests athletes in the world, but with people who can command amazing muscle memory. Woods is the greatest of them all, and a true athlete. Watching him create shots, and escape bad shots (that he created) is part of the magic of Tiger.

It is a slow moving sport no doubt, but it has it's charms.

Nothing can beat English Shin kicking though!

"They came from behind!"

We were indeed deeply stupid when we were teenagers.

And I still want to see Tiger kicked out of an airlock with a bag of cats on his head and a piranha tank on each foot.

When Homer was the only one at Isotopes Stadium watching the game without beer: "I never realized how boring baseball actually is."

Soccer rules. Get over it.

$ad but true

Golf is definitlely to be played while drinking serious amounts of beer! To be watched as well, while flipping channels!

I'm looking forward to seeing Ledger's take on the Joker, but the rest of it leaves me pretty cold. If it's another dour exercise in taking a silly idea far too seriously, I can't see myself enjoying The Dark Knight more than Iron Man. Not that Batman Begins was shit - it was okay, but not an awful lot of fun. Also, I heard Nolan has once again refused to use a second unit director for his action scenes. That is not good news.

Please flame if you like. I'd rather have people calling me an asshole than blathering on about sports.

Man, I am glad my teenage days are over.

In any case, I thought the action in Iron Man was awesome--it *looked* brilliant, it was easy to follow, and it was all justified by the plot and the characters. People complain about the action in Batman Begins, too, but BB was still one of the best damn superhero movies ever. I'd much rather have that than the incredible stupidity and lameness of X3 (that whole war sequence at the end just made me want to murder people, it was so fucking bad) or the incredible stupidity and impossible-to-fucking-follow-n ess of Transformers. Give me Dock Ock over that any day of the week.

Speaking as an American, we're dumber than shit.

(For the record, I'm American, too, or near enough)

But yes, this should be a kick ass summer!

Favs might be asking for a percentage of the final IM2 take which I think is reasonable.

The diff between you asking your boss for a raise, and Fav, is that you did not bring in a movie that will make close to 100 million in profit!

The biggest issues though, is that when a successful movie franchise is turned over to a director who will work on the cheap, it usually turns out badly.

IM was a monster surprise, and speaking as a very long suffering fan of the comic book, I could not have been more pleased that it came off so well. I would hate if they chose a hack like Ratner. It would do great business the first week, and then die a fast death. And the end of a franchise. That is not to say you cannot get a good director other than Fav. But you will still have to pay.

If Spiderman and X-men hadn't reached part 3 it's a true contender for worst trilogy ending of all time. And it's even more insulting given the dizzying drop off in quality from part 2.

With the case of "Iron Man", Favreu did a capable job. But in the hands of a director capable of economizing their budget, the 180 spent here could have been put to better use. Look at Del Toro. With half the budget he was able to make "Hellboy II" look more expensive than "Iron Man". If Favreau wants to be a douche and demand more money than Downey (who deserves a huge pay hike as he was the best thing about the film) then give him his walking papers.

I'm sure there are other GOOD directors out there who can take a nearly 200 million dollar budget and make the movie that would blow us all away completely. "Iron Man" was a start in the right direction, but let's not kid ourselves and start over praising a film that ganked the last 20 minutes of it's climactic battle from the final fight in "Robocop 2".

Interesting piece of trivia- the dude killed by the tree thing in Flash Gordon went on to be a children's TV presenter for years.

2nd- Iron Man

1st Doomsday, but I'm massively biased.

I haven't seen Speed Racer and would rather fuck a blender than sit through SATC.

Just thought I'd tell you.

Die in fire Argentinian cum dumpster.

Stan Lee's wet dream of perfect Tony Stark casting would be: Tom Selleck circa 1982.

The special effects team did a nice job animating the suit on suit action .. do we credit Favreau for that? Or do we damn him for the clumsy intermixing of the Suit-on-suit action with the Pepper Pots in Peril action? Because that part looked poorly imagined, executed, and edited. I think Favreau is a nobody and could easily be replaced by anybody (and the writing team could go too).

Sadly studio's don't usually get this right, and instead just opt for the cheap technically good ex-music video director who can make the FX work and can do a decent transition.

If this happens to IM2 then it'll be the ass-fuck of the franchise from which it won't recover.

Alex Proyas

Alfonso Cuaron

Zack Snyder

Guillermo Del Toro

Michael Bay

Len Wiseman

Brett Ratner

Francis Lawrence

Favreau did a fine job with Iron Man, and it would seem stupid to ruin a good thing, but is it really economical, or even necessary, to keep the same director on for each sequel? Marvel pretty much needs to test this premise out. Besides, it could actually be refreshing to see new takes on the characters with each release, comparable to bringing on new artists and writers to titles in comic books. Not to mention the Cinematic Marvel Universe could end up being a vehicle for lots of up-and-coming directors to have a hand at producing a blockbuster, then springboard themselves to bigger and better things.

It's only a trend that the same director stays on for two or three films in a franchise. I see what Marvel is doing as an exciting new direction for cinema – comic books as films. As production costs for CGI come down (it’ll have to peak soon, hopefully with Avatar), then we may very well see the day where a director can stay on for a couple of “issues.” Until then, expect more news like this. It’s nothing personal, strictly business.

How about if Hulk doesn't make as much money as Ironman, that guy directs IM 2. Because the action looks pretty good, and Ironman would've been better had there been some action scenes.

I can see Em'night right now thinking ' Hmm Pennsylvania dutch country - yeah! RDJ goes to rehab from too many Tom Collins's and BK Whoppers, on a farm. Falls in love with little amish girl played by BDH. He must protect her from hitmen so he creates armor made from the grain silos and becomes the Amish Iron Man"

Wow you made up an account, waited for him to post, then came up with some week ass insults. Your basically sucking him off online. DGDB might be opinionated, obnoxious and obsessive about posting, but the man has style, which you do not SONOFDANNYGLOVERS_DICKBLOOD

Hey look, it's Series9, Found Jarv, just mattress talk, frogsavercat, Abominable Slushy and SendingUglyBack.

I tell you what. If Favreau is jettisoned from Iron Man, then I hope every fucking superhero movie from now on is on par with FF and X3. Because y'all don't deserve better. I spit on you!!!

Messi, you shrill fantard, learn to stay down when you've been beaten. Seriously, how more obnoxious can you get?

BendersShinyAss, you really ARE one of the dumbest talkbackers ever.

zfisk, why don't you just fucking man up and come clean about who you are? This chickenshit, spring-loaded, anti-semite-in-a-box crap is really pathetic, even for you. Come out and play for real instead -- if you've got the balls for it.

I think that just about covers all bases.

there is money to be made in LED nail polish ala Total Recall

That genius children who become doctors of medicine during puberty still have a chance to develop their psychic abilities ala Starship Troopers.

Oh yes, he also blessed upon us the ability to re-watch Saved by the Bell with new insight.

This was a labour of love and it shows, its all there up on the screen & its as plain as day that Faverau & RDJ were an integral part of this. If you want the franchise to carry on being a success, you must bring back the original creative team, otherwise the coherence & the passion goes out of the window.

If you just use hacks for hire on sequels (X-Men I am looking at you), it just all goes to shit for a quick buck. Where is the X-men franchise now? Not Wolverine ( although basically Wolverine is X4 in all but name, with all the top heavy cameos), but if Singer had made X3, there probobly would have been scope for a proper X4.

Although in the case of Indy 4 that rule goes out of the window, as even though it was the original creative team, it had been left to stagnate for so long, so had the creative team & the coherence & passion had dried up after 19 years.

I have seen Iron Man 4 times now & plan to see it once more (Indy I only saw twice, the second time just to view it without the shock of the WTF have they put up on the screen factor!) - but basically, if you fuck this up with Faverau Marvel, I vow not to give you another penny of my hard earned cash ever again. You have met & exceeded what you were aiming for with Iron Man & that was no fluke, the fans arn't stupid, Iron Man was successful for a reason. We won't be passed off with something of substandard quality anymore, especially now that you are masters of your own destiny.

I reserve judgment on the Hulk, but it looks promising. I do hope that there are other Marvel/IM fans out there that feel the same as I do. Marvel, you stand at a crucial stage of you lives for a fledgling studio, "Don't muck it up, to make a quick buck"!

Apologies for the passionate rant, I don't post often, but this one comes from the heart. I have waited a long time for Marvel to get thier act together, I hope they don't fall flat on their faces, for all our sakes.

http://www.youtu be.com/watch?v=W19wr5rXVHk

Leave my uncle alone you mean mean little man!

Glad to see you're still around fighting the good fight and all.

And, fuck that CloneRangerUK cunt. Anyone who puts a prequel character into their handle WITHOUT making fun of it cannot be taken seriously.

Ratner.

I'm sure that's what everyone else in this talkback is saying, but I had to add in mine as well in the off chance this gets back to Marvel and they do something about it.

because you post something that is a shitty rumor. Shitty rumors come from shitbag sources and that's not cool. This rumor was so fake it was busted up in 14 hours. Fucking reprehensible.

The real slimy element of this irresponsible "REPORTING" is that this sort of bad journalism could create unnecessary tension during the real negotiation that haven't taken place.

And I work for Ratner? How fucking stupid are you, really?

LOL. Sam Fulmer and Rickey Henderson, thanks for keeping the scene alive!

Seriously? What did people do at work before the interwebs? Also I agree fuck english major stoners who sit at .... hahahah my boss ALMOST caught me! home worrying about proper grammar.

With regards to MiraJeff, I used the rectum quivering device known as the AICN search engine and came across his reviews but nothing about his downfall. I read a bunch of his old reviews and I gotta say, it's not like his were any different from Harry's (in fact he was much more credible) so I'm not sure why TBers eviscerated him.

And by the way, the 22-year old temp in my office is standing at the printer and I'd give my left nut to take her back into the storage room and fill her with the original White Out.

Anyone want to talk about The Incredible Hulk and how awesome it is?

I was hoping for a 'What did you think?' thread, similar to the ones they put up for Iron Man and Indy, but maybe it's too early.

Harry, you're missing the point. They ARE looking at their history and you're missing the point: They DON'T give a shit because past history HAS rewarded them. The bottom line: Marvel has remained the Number 1 comic company and sure there have been ups and downs, but what allows the corporate bean counters to sleep soundly at night is the fact that geeks buy the X books no matter who is doing them. And if sales drop, fine, they'll bring in the next person who's currently the hot stud in comics, and when they ask for more money or have creative differences then Marvel will say "Bring in the next stud!" And the reason they get away with that is because there are always going to be creators in comics...or even transplanted Hollywood people (I'm looking at you, Whedon)...who will gladly step up to the plate and eat the shit that Marvel is serving up for a sizeable upfront check.

Do I like it? Fuck no. Certain suits at Marvel deserve to burn in Hell for the way they cheated true geniuses like Kirby or Ditko or others out of the money they were rightly due. Do I wish Marvel would act different? Hell, yeah. Who wouldn't like to see creators treated with proper respect and given PROPER financial compensation or royalty rates for their creative contributions.

But do I expect Marvel and it's brass...from the movie division to even Quesada running the comic division to pull their heads out of their asses and to actually DO these things? Hell no. They're too busy cashing their own checks and living high on the profits of things like IRON MAN to worry about doing what's actually RIGHT for people like Favreau or anyone else.

Either way, now is the best time to "switch horses" with Spiderman.

As for the Fav, I'd be disappointed if he didn't come back, but I don't think it would necessarily spell the end of Iron Man. I think him and Downey have great chemistry from what I've heard from behind the scenes. But Downey is a great enough actor that he could do a great performance no matter the director.

I haven't seen Hulk yet, so I can't speak to where that movie fits in.