Jon Favreau is not directing Marvel’s The Avengers.
At least, that is what he’s still saying after months of rumors. MTV caught up with Favreau at the press junket for his latest film, Couples Retreat, in which he stars alongside Vince Vaughn. When they asked the actor/director about his rumored involvement with The Avengers, he was very specific about staying out of the director’s chair.
“They’ll have to [find a different director], because I’m not going to be available,” he explained. “It’s something I’m being the executive producer on, so I’ll definitely have input and a say.”
“It’s going to be hard, because I was so involved in creating the world of Iron Man and Iron Man is very much a tech-based hero, and then with ‘Avengers’ you’re going to be introducing some supernatural aspects because of Thor,” he continued. “How you mix the two of those works very well in the comic books, but it’s going to take a lot of thoughtfulness to make that all work and not blow the reality that we’ve created.”
Of course, we’ve seen this song-and-dance from Favreau for a while now, so this is nothing new. He baited the world for a long time after Iron Man, then ultimately signed back on and is currently working post production on Iron Man 2. There’s no reason to rule out Favreau as the Avengers director, as the film is still so far off in the distance, it just appears that he’s not planning on doing it. At this point.
In related news, Peter Hall over at Cinematical gives us ‘Five Folks Who Could Direct The Avengers Instead of Jon Favreau,’ citing guys like District 9’s Neill Blomkamp, Taken’s Pierre Morel, sci-fi great Alex Proyas and even Matthew Vaughn. After District 9, Blomkamp has become the de-facto sci-fi/action director of choice for bloggers and fans alike online, so he’s an obvious choice. Proyas is interesting, but he seems to like to direct his own material and do so outside the studio system. I like Morel and Vaughn, but neither of them have shown us anything relevant to an Avengers film.
Then again, we also still have Thor director Kenneth Brannagh to consider and The Incredible Hulk’s Louis Leterrier (who could be a great choice) already in the Marvel family. Favreau makes the most sense, as he seems to work well with Kevin Feige, but there are plenty of possibilities. I’m withholding judgment until we see the next round of Marvel releases.
Who do you think should direct The Avengers?
Related Topics: Iron Man, Jon Favreau
