More than two months after the opening of Iron Man, it looks as if Marvel Studios finally has locked in director Jon Favreau for the sequel.
Although the studio set an April 2010 date for the sequel within days of Iron Man’s opening, it soon became clear that nobody had consulted Favreau. “They haven’t offered me anything yet,” the director told Howard Stern. “They’re all talking — they want to do it, they even announced a date.”
Favreau fueled further discussion a month later on his MySpace page, where he expressed doubts about the sequel’s timetable and a little frustration about the lack of communication from Marvel.
“It’s been five weeks since the one and only phone call my reps have gotten from Marvel,” he wrote. “I know their hands are full with the Hulk and I’m sure they will get into it shortly, as they tell me they intend to. I ran into the Marvel guys at the Hulk premiere and everyone sounded eager to get to work on IM2.”
Hollywood gossip columnist Nikki Finke, who broke the news of the deal, criticized Favreau for riling up “the movie’s many fans by spreading nonsense that Marvel was dragging its feet with an offer and then lowballing him.”
“Granted [Marvel Studios Chairman David] Maisel is no day at the beach himself,” Finke wrote, “but, seriously, could Favreau have been more of an asshole?”
July 10th, 2008 at 7:06 am
If that’s Nikki Finke’s example of ultimate asshole-dom, I envy her life.
July 10th, 2008 at 7:48 am
Yeah. You’d think by Hollywood standards, that would be pretty low on the Asshole Scale.
July 10th, 2008 at 8:16 am
Letterman: “How’d you decide to come back for the second one?”
Favreau: “I whined to my MySpace friends.”
July 10th, 2008 at 8:17 am
Agreed, fellas.
I think that it’s even more ridiculous when you consider that the first quote came out of a lengthy interview wherein he was asked about doing the sequel. “They haven’t offered me anything yet” was his honest (and apparently, at the time, correct) answer. The second quote was his follow-up to the topic.
Maybe Finke’s in a bad mood from some of the criticism that she’s taken lately.
July 10th, 2008 at 9:13 am
“gossip columnist Nikki Finke”
Wait a minute,….. a GOSSIP columnist calling someone an asshole?
July 10th, 2008 at 9:38 am
Pot. Kettle. Black. Nikki.
Let’s see, the guy does a masterful job bring a B-list superhero to the big screen, winds up making the biggest film of the year, thus far (I think Dark Knight can beat it), and he’s the one who had to convince the studio (correctly) that Robert Downey was the guy to play Tony Stark. If these things don’t happen, and if Favreau’s love for the character and the project aren’t there, none of this turns out like it did and Marvel’s plan for its own line of films in a shared universe falls on its face.
Yeah, I think he deserved to be signed for IM2 the Monday after the film opened. And allowed to set his own timetable for making it.
Bite me, Nikki Finke.
July 10th, 2008 at 9:44 am
Waitadarnminute! You’re not questioning Nikki Finke’s cred are you???
(Exactly how do you pronounce “Nikki Finke”? Like “Nicky finky”?)
July 10th, 2008 at 10:06 am
FUEN-KAY.
July 10th, 2008 at 12:33 pm
Clearly, Favreau’s an asshole. He responded to question’s truthfully at the time they were asked. What a bastard…
July 10th, 2008 at 1:53 pm
ah.. hopefully the Marvel folks won’t read the gossip column; I have no idea about the character of mr. Maisel..
I just want a solid movie, and hopefully it will be done with good planning and execution…
July 10th, 2008 at 2:36 pm
Jon Favreau is the only reason Iron Man was so successful. And Robert Downey Jr. said he would only return with JF at the helm. If Marvel tries to do without both of them it will damage their (Marvel’s)reputation.
July 10th, 2008 at 2:46 pm
Tyler: Nail on the head.
Nikki Finke has a well-deserved reputation for being a stupid, shit-mongering #@!$, albeit a relatively well-connected one, and this is a prime example of why.
July 10th, 2008 at 2:52 pm
I understand Finke is a gossip columnist, but calling Favreau and asshole is muckraking of the first order.
She’s just trying to get the geeks riled up since she knows the majority of us wanted Favreau back in the director’s chair.
July 10th, 2008 at 3:16 pm
Wow.
Anyone that has ever seen Favreau interviewed has witnessed a very patient, understanding and warm person. Case in point, he optimistically encouraged Iron Man fans to come to his Myspace site to offer advice and expectations. As far as I know, that’s unheard of in Hollywood. Can anyone imagine James Cameron involving the fans in a project of such magnitude?
I think Favreau was answering honestly and it may have be misinterpreted by Nicky.
That…or Finke’s simply an A-hole of the highest order.
July 10th, 2008 at 4:45 pm
I listened to the Stern interview. He couldn’t have been more polite or understanding about the situation, admitting that Marvel was focused on the Hulk movie, and that he was sure the situation would work itself out. Even when Howard was telling him that he should Marvel back up the brink’s truck, he downplayed it saying that he was sure he would be treated fairly. I don’t know about any other possible comments, but there was nothing in that interview that was asshole-ish.
glad he’s back.
July 10th, 2008 at 5:30 pm
I’ve never heard of this woman Nikki, but she’s getting exactly what she wanted by making that statement: everyone discussing her.
I think everyone should ignore the commment. And poor job on newsarama’s part even including such an unprofessional comment in an article where the focus is the great news that Jon is back for the sequel.
July 10th, 2008 at 6:51 pm
Call me an asshole…..one more time! This is funny,he should pissed for being called an asshole den out of spite abandon IM2 & go direct Hancock 2.
Whoever this Nikki person is,lady you have got zero class.
July 10th, 2008 at 6:59 pm
Forget Funky or Finke… not worth!
Any comments about the opening date?
Will it be the same?
Thanks
July 10th, 2008 at 11:58 pm
Am I the only one here who sees the words “Jon Favreau” and “Nikki” and connects it to the best scene in Swingers?
“Hi, this is Nikki, leave a message!” *beeeeep*
July 11th, 2008 at 1:59 am
Look at the geeks coming to Favreau’s defense. I don’t know who this Finke guy and he had no right to call Favreau an a-hole. But the fact is, john made Marvel look bad. And it was unprofessional.
July 11th, 2008 at 4:34 am
Regardless of what he said, I’m just glad he’s officially aboard. Avengers movie, here we come!
July 11th, 2008 at 12:51 pm
I’m also wondering why Kevin included a lame opinion from a gossip-columnist. It’s just adding to her cred - at the expense of Jon Favreau and Newsarama readers. I think I speak for many when I say that I could care less if some nobody calls Jon Favreau names. Maybe we could have bit more ‘news’ and a bit less ‘a-rama’
July 11th, 2008 at 12:59 pm
It was part of Nikki Finke’s report, which was (apparent) fact mixed with opinion; that’s her shtick. I don’t think anyone was sullied by reading Finke’s take on Favreau’s actions, no matter how much they may disagree with her.
July 11th, 2008 at 10:15 pm
I s’poze you have a point. It’s a matter of taking an uninformed and irrelevant opinion, and letting it snowball by repeating it. It’s the kind of thing we’ve seen happen on the internet more and more; a blogger says something stupid, and then it gets repeated by other bloggers and then before you know it Fox news is running it on the air.
I know this is newsarama, and not the associated press, but we don’t have to feed the stupidity machine. Every time we type the gossip-girl’s name, she gets more pings on the heat-o-meter. I’d much rather see Jon Favreau get more press, because Jon Favreau made a damn good movie, and I hope that Jon Favreau makes another one.