Jon Favreau sees Iron Man 3 and The Avengers in 3D

"I really love the 3-D," director Jon Favreau told MTV at the San Diego Comic-Con. "I think 'Up' was probably my favorite movie I've seen this year."

Marvel has plans to make at least one more "Iron Man" film, as well as an "Avengers" film in 2012 that will feature Tony Stark. If Favreau has his way, he'd like at least one of those films to be three-dimensional.

"I like all the new technologies, 3-D being one of them. James Cameron had brought me around a few months back to see what he was doing with 'Avatar'; that's what's been seen now by many of the fans," he said of the 3-D footage shown last week. "It was exciting to go in there and see what he's doing with cutting-edge technology. He's just a great storyteller as well, and to see a great filmmaker working with the cutting-edge of this technology is amazing."

"I talked to Marvel after I'd seen [Cameron's footage] about doing 'Iron Man 2' in 3-D," he said. "I was hoping to get a shot at doing it this time around, but it didn't work out that way. ... There are a few drawbacks to it at this point — there's more cost involved, and it also forces you to shoot digitally. My cinematographer [Matthew Libatique] really likes film, and 'Iron Man' had a certain look because it was film."

As of right now, Favreau isn't certain he'll direct "Iron Man 3" or "The Avengers." But Feige is on record as saying that he'd like to see Marvel films jumping off the screen soon, and Favreau is convinced that the technology will be there for whichever film he makes next.

"We haven't had any talks about [me directing 'Avengers'], although we do have talks about what the content of 'Avengers' will be," Favreau said of the film expected to feature Iron Man, Nick Fury, Thor, Captain America, Black Widow and others. "I'm going to be involved in some capacity with it, but as far as directing goes, we're still working on this one. ... I'm happy they brought me back to do 'Iron Man 2.'

"But I think that, as the digital technology gets better, 3-D is going to be a lot easier," the filmmaker continued. "Certainly for 'Iron Man,' I think it would work out well."

Would you like to see the Marvel superheroes go 3D?

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The Avengers and Captain America - Could the Skrulls and The Invaders feature in them?

Some interesting facts have been hinted at by Kevin Feige, over on CHUD, regarding various things that may feature in their forthcoming Marvel films.

'Will the Skrulls be the villain in The Avengers?' I asked.

Feige gave me one of those looks he's good at giving and just said, 'We do own them.'

More digging turned up the fact that Marvel Studios owns the Skrull race, while Fox own the Super Skrull.

The Skrull are a shape changing alien race who have had a hard-on for Earth for quite some time. They would make a pretty great big bad for the film for a number of reasons: first of all, there's a bunch of them, so the film wouldn't have to contain just one or two fight scenes with the main threat, and each of the team members could have their own battles at their own power level. For another, they allow Marvel Studios to do something really cool - what if it's revealed that certain characters from the previous Marvel movies have been Skrulls all along? And Mark Millar and Bryan Hitch proved in the first Ultimates series that the Skrull (called the Chitauri there) make a convincingly cinematic threat.

Of course the other possibility is that The Avengers will battle Hydra. As I mentioned in this story about The Invaders possibly appearing in The First Avenger: Captain America, Feige name-dropped Hydra as being something with which Steve Rogers had to contend. Might the truth be that Steve Rogers would just meet some of the Nazi supervillains who go on to head Hydra? And with The Avengers being a SHIELD group in the movies, it might make sense to make the villain a SHIELD villain. On top of that, like the Skrull, the sheer number of Hydra agents mean the film could contain lots of battles and that each of the Avengers could get something to do during the course of the film.

Having the Skrulls in the Avengers films throws up some interesting possibilities - the Hulk may feature but turn out to be a Skrull, other characters in Iron Man, Thor etc may turn out to have been replaced by Skrulls at some point.

What do you think of the news?
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The Avengers - Which heroes will make the cut?

Kevin Feige,the President of Production of Marvel Studios, spoke to Collider at the San Diego Comic Con and gave a run down as to who we will be seeing in The Avengers movie.

Kevin: I think we know. It’s going to be Iron Man, Thor, Captain America, Nick Fury. I think it’s safe to assume that there will be some members of the Hulk universe in the film as well. In terms of the additional, I think Black Widow for sure. SHIELD’s organization for sure. And, again, what’s exciting to me about the Avengers movie are seeing those four characters together and interact with each other. Anywhere from the first issue of the Avengers to Civil War, the dynamic between Steve Rogers and Tony Stark is awesome and fascinating. It brings out sides of the others that won’t be brought out in their own franchises. Throwing Thor into the mix is a whole other thing and I think that will be cool. So to pile in another ten or fifteen…or frankly even four…I think will be too many.

Is the Hulk in it?

Kevin: You know Zack Penn is outlining it as we speak so we’ll see.

Looks like no Wasp or Hawkeye then. What do you think of the line up?

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Iron Man 2 has finished filming

Good news for fans of old shellhead. Production on Iron Man 2’s principal photography has wrapped on Saturday, after 72 days of shooting.

Marvel Studios producer Kevin Feige issued a statement to Marvel.com:

Shooting ‘Iron Man 2′ was a fantastic experience and we couldn’t be happier. Although there were many challenges in making this film, having Jon Favreau, Robert Downey, Gwyneth Paltrow and almost the entire crew from the first film back on board, allowed us to hit the ground running as everyone was instantly familiar with each other from day one. This dynamic allowed us to get done what we needed on a day to day basis and was a big factor in why we finished slightly ahead of schedule. Scarlett Johansson, Mickey Rourke, Sam Rockwell and especially Don Cheadle all stepped right in and meshed well with our returning cast. From our experience on the first film, we learned what works and doesn’t work in terms of shooting practical versus CGI especially with the Iron Man suit. This enabled us to be much more efficient in many departments, making it a much smoother experience.” … “The next step for us is beginning the post production process which is extensive and filled with its own set of challenges. It is also a very exciting time because you get to see all the hard work from the hundreds of cast and crew members begin to come to life.

We’ve only seen a smattering of photos from the shoot so no doubt there will be many more over the next few months. I also wonder what Jon Favreau will unveil at the forthcoming Comic Con this year. Personally, I am still itching to see the War Machine armour that is meant to be in the sequel.

What are you looking forward to seeing in Iron Man 2? Do you think there will be a glimpse of the mysterious Mandarin? Maybe Sam Rockwell’s Justin Hammer is working for him?

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Kenneth Branagh acted out the whole Thor film

In his latest Cup O’ Joe column, Joe Quesada spoke about his time with Thor director Kenneth Branagh and head of Marvel Studios Kevin Feige. He mentioned one specific meeting as “one of the highlights of my time here at Marvel”.

“It was performance art,” Quesada recalled. “Kevin would give us the establishment of the shot and the situation: ‘Here we are. We’re in (take your pick of location). And here’s Odin and he’s coming up to (pick a character.)’ And then Kenneth would come in and give you the color commentary. ‘Odin has an air of majesty to him’ and he’d act out the Odin part or the Thor part. So we sat there and literally got a three-hour one-man show from Kenneth Branagh. It was fantastic.”

Quesada said that the “very Shakespearean” Kenneth Branagh had a phenomenal grasp on the characters of Thor, Loki, Odin and the rest of the film’s cast.

“He’s definitely about character, which is the quintessential trait you have to have to understand the Marvel characters,” he said. “It’s not just big hammers and capes and things like that. It’s about what makes the character tick. There’s definitely a reason for Thor, a reason for him being and a very deep family relationship and story in the movie that I think is going to be very cool.”

“I think it’s going to be [a tougher sell] on the surface,” he said when asked if it was going to be harder to market the film compared to Iron Man. “[But we've] got plans already to get Thor’s name out within a younger group of kids. I think the upcoming ‘Super Hero Squad’ and ‘Avengers Animated’ shows are going to do wonders to get that across, and then we’re working on a couple of ancillary things here and there to boost the desire for kids in particular to know more about Thor and the general public as well.”

I would love to see some video of Branagh acting out the Thor film. It would be amazing to watch. I wonder if he will have a cameo in the film as Jon Favreau did (although it was a bit more than a cameo) in Iron Man.

The more I hear about the Thor film the more excited I get.

Discuss in the forum or leave a comment below.

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Kevin Feige talks Avengers, Captain America and Thor

There is a great interview ove on Ugo with Marvel Films President Kevin Feige about the new films coming out over the next few years. He talks about the Hulk with the Avengers, Will Smith as a possible Captain America (which I think is a big mistake although he could fit into that universe as Isaiah Bradley that I've previously mentioned), Thor on Earth, the return of Blade and more. Here are some of the highlights.

Are you planning on putting The Hulk in The Avengers?

Feige: I think it'd be cool. I'd like to see The Hulk again. It will have been a number of years, four years since he was in a movie by that point, by 2012. So I'd like to see him in it. I'm not being coy. We're just starting the story. I was on the phone with Zak Penn this morning. He's coming in next week and he's going to work on the outline this summer, but because it's so intertwined with what we're doing before - I almost wanted to get done with production on Iron Man 2 [and] the scripts to Thor and Captain America well underway before we even started Avengers.

Is there any possibility of having SHIELD show up in a Spider-Man movie? Is that something you guys would like to do and is there a possibility of bringing these disparate properties back into the fold?

Feige: If we were talking about this four years ago and you asked if there was a chance to do an Avengers movie and a Marvel Cinematic Universe under one roof, I would've said that anything was possible, but that it's a long shot and I'm not sure. Now we're doing it. I'll kind of give you the same answer to that now. Anything is possible. Right now they're certainly different. What's at Fox is at Fox. What's at Sony is what's at Sony and what's at Marvel is what's at Marvel. When I say the MCU that's a goofy internal thing, but that's [how] we're referring to it.

You've got a lot now, but what other characters would you like to see make it onscreen?

Feige: Ant-Man. I want to make Ant-Man one of these days. I think that'll be surprising and a funny thing. I love that what Edgar [Wright] likes about it is that when he says he's doing Ant-Man people go, “Ant-Man? What the hell is that?” I think that's fun. I think Dr. Strange would kick ass. I think we've done very well at the superhero genre, if you will, this street level superhero aspect of the Marvel Universe. I think with Thor you'll see us cracking into the cosmic side of the Marvel Universe in a very good way that's never been done before in our movies and I'd love to get into that supernatural element. I think that Dr. Strange could be a good way of being the lynchpin to that universe with Werewolf By Night, with Blade again someday – that side of the Marvel Universe.

Recently it's been announced that more of the Thor story will take place on Earth. Is it a contemporary earth or Viking times?

Feige: It'll be contemporary.

How are you going to deal with the fish out of water aspect of it? Are you concerned at all about Thor dealing with the wacky modern day aspects of his life, being on a cell phone or something like that?

I am concerned about that and that's why we're not going to do that. We always think about, not in terms of “Thor,” but if you talk about fish out of water; if a character is goofy at any time he'll be goofy. If you bring in an idiot from the past he's going to come into the future and go [holding a recorder up to his face] “What is this? Hello?” That stuff is not funny and it's overdone. If Indiana Jones came to the future he's going to be cool. He's not going to be an idiot bumbling with things. There might be some fun humor out of him just getting something wrong for a minute, but he's going to play it cool and just not come off like an idiot. I think that Thor…if you look at [Jack] Kirby's Asgard, if you look at Walt Simonson's Asgard; they are technologically superior to us by far. They're not going to come and be flummoxed by much on Earth. There might be cultural differences that could be amusing or endearing, but he's not going to be talking to a lamppost for five minutes.

Is Donald Blake going to be in Thor and is he still going to be handicapped?

Feige: No.

Will Thor still be recognizable as a what we understand to be a superhero movie or is it going to be closer to fantasy?

I think it's going to be very much a Marvel superhero movie, but I think to the movie audience it's going to expand that definition more and more. Again, we've got a forty four year old guy who's going to be a superhero in a movie and he puts on an armored suit. That didn't necessarily mean superhero to people. In that same way, I think, someone who's got superpowers coming to Earth and dealing with other character from his realm will come off very much as a big ass superhero movie. But it's going to expand that definition, I hope, in a way.

QCan you talk about the casting of Chris Hemsworth and what it was ultimately about this guy after looking at all these other actors?

Feige: You couldn't take your eyes off of him. When he did his auditioned he worked for it. He put himself on tape. He put himself on tape again and then did it again and then came in and sat with Branagh and then worked again with Branagh and then ultimately did a very late in the process screen test and there was no question. It was very much like going back to 1999 when Dougray Scott got injured on Mission Impossible 2 and we had to go back to the videotapes and suddenly we saw Hugh Jackman who came in and did a screen test and it was like, “There's no question that this is our guy.” In this case it was actually even cleaner with Chris because with Hugh he was like two feet taller than the character was supposed to be which was nerve racking, but Chris is six four and looks exactly Thor.

Are you going to get a big name for “Captain” or are you looking to get another unknown?

Feige: We'll see. I do think that's something that we'll take into account, international appeal. There are only a handful of stars that mean anything here much less overseas. But I do think that will be a factor in it. As long as we have the freedom to do so at Marvel….to just cast the best actor for the part whether it's an actor who's been a great actor, but hasn't starred in marquee action movies before like Downey or somebody that came out of Australia that they've never heard of.

There's been some talk of going with a Will Smith and using the “Truth” storyline of Captain America.

Feige: I love the “Truth” storyline. I think that's very cool. I wouldn't do that as a first Captain America movie though. I think Will Smith is probably one of those handful of international stars. But I think that [arc] came about four or five hundred issues in to the “Cap” run. I don't see launching with that comic.

If one of the movies doesn't do well in this run, how will that effect The Avengers? It’s the riskiest one of the bunch because you're relying on people wanting to come and see Thor again and Cap again.

Feige: I think Avengers is going to have it's own vibe. I think Avengers will feel very much like…it'll have a different tone than the other Marvel movies. I'm not talking budget level here, but it'll have a much more massive global feel to it. Our movies aren't about saving the world. Iron Man doesn't save the world. Hulk doesn't save the world. Captain America, a little bit. But it's not about these comic bookey “I will save the world” things. The Avengers is about saving the world because there's no other reason for characters that powerful to band together. So I think the scope and the scale will feel like a much bigger thing. So whatever you had seen - whether Starscream was your favorite character or Megatron is your favorite character or Soundwave is your favorite character - you're going to see the experience of that epic thing together. I think it'll be the same thing. Clearly I hope it'll all work. I hope that people will, like they've done with the comics for years and years, argue about who their favorite is and who would win in a fight and all of that fun stuff.

For Avengers,will the threat to them come from outside the Earth?

Feige: It'll be big. It'll be something that no single hero can handle.

Discuss in the forum or leave a comment below.

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Master of the Mystic Arts, Dr Strange could be the next Marvel hero to hit the big screen

MTV have some news on the next Marvel character that could be heading to the big screen - the Sorcerer Supreme, Dr Strange.

[Dr Strange] is very much at the top of the list for a post "Avengers" make-over, Marvel Studios President of Production Kevin Feige told MTV News.

"Very much so," Feige said. "I’d say in the next year, year and a half, as we start putting together our film slate for 2012 and 2013, I would not be shocked if we saw Dr. Strange on those lists. I love the idea of taping into the magical realm of the Marvel Universe, which is fairly significant and hasn’t yet seen life on screen.

"It’s something I’m very, very interested in," he emphasized.

When asked about the fact Dr Strange is not that well known out of the comic community Feige had this to say.

"Ha!" Feige laughed. "I remember two years ago at Comic Con the cover of the ‘LA Times Calendar Section,’ read ‘Marvel calls out the B team’ and there was a picture of Iron Man. We don’t look at them as ‘B team.’ Dr. Strange? This is one of the best characters we have. [He represents] this amazing cosmic universe to Marvel that we haven’t played with in films yet and I think could be amazing to play with."
What do you think of that news? Who could play the surgeon turned sorcerer?

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