On the heels of the Marvel Studios schedule postponement came a “leak” reported on by formerly-respected Ain’t-It-Cool-News. According to their unnamed spy, the push of “The Avengers” to a 2012 release suggests that Marvel wants “Iron Man” helmer Jon Favreau to handle the directing duties. On a certain level, it makes sense to keep it in-house, and it gives a chance for Favreau to jump from post on “Iron Man 2” to “The Avengers,” but it does reek of a lack of imagination. Favreau’s skill with actors is undoubtable, and he’s a bottom-line guy who runs a responsible set, but “The Avengers” is meant to be the “crown jewel” of the Marvel movie universe, and handing it to the director of “Elf” just doesn’t seem prudent. The spy spins the schedule push-back as a chance to free up Favreau, who has taken an executive producer credit on “The Avengers” already, but its hard not to think that the real reason was because there’s a shit-ton of work still to be done on “Thor”- though the spy does confirm Alex Skarsgard, Stellan Skargard and Josh Hartnett are in negotiations.
The spy, who seems to have some deep, geeky connections, also takes a chance to shit on nerd enemy Tom Rothman over at FOX. The recent announcements of “Daredevil” and “Fantastic Four” reboots aren’t just whistling dixie, as FOX has a deal that forces them to keep reusing those properties otherwise they would revert back to Marvel. There’s the whiff of desperation regarding Rothman’s involvement from this announcement, as if Rothman is scared of letting go of a property as toxic as “Daredevil” in the fear that Marvel Studios would hire someone more competent than Mark Steven Johnson- which is reasonable, though Sony made the exact same mistake with “Ghost Rider.” Marvel’s got a sweetheart of a deal, since it seems they’ve forced the idiot executives to greenlight a succession of bad-idea tentpoles- “Ghost Rider 2,” “Fantastic Four III” and “Daredevil 2” are all in active development- which certainly cripples the bottom line, as Marvel and Paramount’s relationship lets them waltz to profitability. Provided their movies are any good and people like them, which is a whole other ballgame.