LATEST NEWS

Jon Favreau Talks 'The Avengers', Joss Whedon, Happy Hogan & More

by Alex Billington
August 19, 2011
Source: IGN

There's been a oddly large amount of news related to Iron Man 3 in these last 24 hours, specifically a big update from Robert Downey Jr. on his early interactions with director Shane Black, who's taking over the franchise after The Avengers. Now we have another small update, this time from franchise creator Jon Favreau, who spoke briefly with IGN UK recently about Shane Black and Iron Man 3, which isn't even out until May 2013, and even Marvel's The Avengers and its director, Joss Whedon, plus he answers the question about Happy Hogan that Ethan actually brought up yesterday in the post. Read on for the quotes!

One of the questions on everyone's mind since Favreau left is whether or not they'll put Happy Hogan in the next one and how they'll deal with Favreau when that happens. "They've been asking me if I'm available to play Happy Hogan in it, so I'm curious to see what they're working on. I've been pretty busy with Cowboys & Aliens as they've been developing the material for Iron Man 3," Favreau says. So Happy is in it, and I expect Favreau will return, they've just got to work it all out. As for Shane Black and his involvement with him, Favreau knows Black through Downey Jr. and they even worked together on the first movie.

"I've spoken to Robert about Iron Man 3 and I know Shane Black, who's the director, and Shane is somebody whose been in Robert's life for a long time, and I've met him through Robert over the years. I remember we would go to his house and talk with him about certain script issues on the first Iron Man film, so I think he's well equipped to work on it."

Always great to hear encouraging words early on, especially from someone who used to be the caretaker of the Iron Man franchise. But before we even get to that, next up is The Avengers, and Jon Favreau is an executive producer on the film (remember years ago he said he wanted to direct it and was trying to talk Marvel into it?). Whether he's just saying this for the camera or not, I don't know, but he mentions: "The nice thing about working for Marvel, is they give the directors a lot of latitude to bring their own style and signature to the piece. So it'll be interesting to see how Joss contends with all of the disparate characters and films that they came from as he combines them into The Avengers." Indeed it will be interesting to see.

Finally, Favreau throws some praise towards Avengers director Joss Whedon, too. Given they're already well into production on The Avengers and shooting is almost wrapped anyway, this isn't anything new that we haven't heard, but as I said before, it's always great to hear one director speak confidently about another. Especially the one who now holds six superheroes and their fate in his hands. Favreau says of Whedon:

"His knowledge of comic books is very deep, he's worked in that medium, and he's a big fan and has been for some time. He's been going to Comic-Con for a long time and he's been part of that world. He's also really good with ensemble, and I like his tone of comedy. There's a lot of exposition that's been established in the other films and he's going to have to not only corral all the characters and find how they interact in the most interesting way, and hopefully bring his sense of humor to it as well, but also help keep the storylines aligned that continue from before the film starts and after it finishes."

His point about the storylines is exactly the concern of many, especially after Captain America as that ended with a connection that should/could continue in The Avengers or beyond. I'm very curious to see how all this turns out as well, and while we aren't even looking at the set photos coming out, I'm patiently waiting to see the first full trailer. Despite the rumored troubles Favreau had dealing with Marvel, I'm glad to hear he's not lashing out at them, and is even praising them and their decisions. As the creator of the Iron Man big screen franchise, and as a huge fan himself, it's important that they all can continue to work amicably. For anyone interested, here's the full video from IGN of Jon Favreau talking about the topics covered above.

Tweet

Filed under Hype, Movie News, Opinions

From around the web: