While it was announced a couple of weeks ago that Shane Black had signed on to direct Iron Man 3, conspicuous by its absence was any confirmation that he would also write the script. As he’s a screenwriter by trade, it seemed as odd omission, but now it’s been confirmed he will indeed be behind the screenplay.
Black appeared at the Omaha Film Festival over the weekend, where he revealed he’s writing the script and shed some light on his plans for continuing the Iron Man franchise (via AICN). It seems it’s very early days though, as he’s scheduled to meet with Robert Downey Jr. later this week to collaborate on the storyline, which makes it sound like little has been decided.
The writer/director promised that this will be a different sequel than Iron Man 2, partly because Marvel Studios and Paramount Pictures were unhappy with the direction that particular film took. He aso said that this new installment will not be “two men in iron suits fighting each other”, and that he hopes to make a Tom Clancy-style thriller with Tony Stark fighting a “real world” villain.
Iron Man 3 will go into production sometime in 2012, after shooting on The Avengers is completed. However, there will be apparently be no other characters from the Marvel comic universe appearing in Iron Man 3, as Marvel is currently only doing cross-over promotion leading up to the release of The Avengers next year (although with many of the actors from the likes of Thor and Captain America contracted for up to nine movies, don’t be shocked if plenty more cross-overs, as well as solo adventures, happen in the future). The plan is to make a self-contained, single-character based storyline.
It all sounds like Black knows what he’s doing and wants to take Iron Man in an interesting and necessary direction as the slightly damp squib mess that was Iron Man 2.