Jon Favreau is not directing 'Avengers' and Norton is not in 'Iron'

Ladies and gentlemen, today is a sad day.  The Jon Favreau, Mr. Iron Man, god among Marvel movie directors has decided he will NOT be directing the planned Avengers film to be released after the Captain America film.  Fans have been pushing for Favreau to direct the film starring the Marvel characters, Thor, Captain America, The Hulk and Iron Man.

I say again Favreau will not be directing The Avengers. It’s a shame, yes, but someone else deserves a shot at the film.  Favreau is hogging the awesome and needs to spread it among the Marvel movie directors.  It will be good for him to be on the side and maybe have his major input with the film be on Iron Man and not tackle all of the characters.

Favreau is currently working on post-production for Iron Man 2 and will be release on May 7, 2010.  No footage for Iron Man 2 has been released to the public but some was shown at the San Diego Comic Con this summer. Favreau spoke with MTV News recently at the Couples Retreat junket in Bora, Bora and said:

“They’ll have to [find a different director], because I’m not going to be available.  It’s something I’m being the executive producer on, so I’ll definitely have input and a say.”
Favreau did give some incite on where exactly the film might go and how the director and producers will deal with the diversity of characters.  Favreau said:

“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. 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.”

Favreau had talked about taking the reigns of The Avengers but any speculation can be nixed.  The question at hand now is who will take the position?  Well, bare with me here but because Disney just bought Marvel could Marvel be interested in making the cross over by first having a Disney director handle the film perhaps John Lasseter or dare I say BRAD BIRD.  It’s known that he can handle a team of superheroes flawlessly with The Incredibles and is a true visionary in terms of visual storytelling.

You know that idea rules admit it!  Or perhaps another interesting choice of direction similar to the pick of Kenneth Branagh for Thor. How about Gus Van Sant directs The Avengers, epic.
Alright in other Marvel and Favreau news, Edward Norton will not be appearing in Iron Man 2. There was rumor that he would either cameo as Bruce Banner or The Hulk but Favreau also discredited those rumors.  Thanks Jon!