Burgeoning Power Player Jon Favreau Cockblocks Proposed 'Iron Man 2' Release Date

We're receiving our first signals this week that the Jon Favreau Power Index has irrevocably entered "player" levels of awareness. While the global $550 million take for Iron Man says pretty much all the industry needs to know about the viability of the franchise itself, director Favreau bristled recently (and publicly to fans on Iron Man's MySpace message board) at Marvel Studios' sequel announcement — especially that troublesome part about Iron Man 2's scheduled April 30, 2010, release date. Or, as Favreau might say it these days, "Nobody asked Jon Favreau!":

It's been five weeks since the one and only phone call my reps have gotten from Marvel. I know their hands are full with The Hulk and I'm sure they will get into it shortly, as they tell me they intend to. I ran into the Marvel guys at The Hulk premiere and everyone sounded eager to get to work on IM2.

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So, We're Going To Do The Sequel, Right? I Really Like Being In Movies That People Actually See

'Ant-Man' Cometh, and More Fallout From 'Iron Man''s Golden Weekend

Gosh, Marvel Studios, just take a minute to chew your food, would you? Less than 24 hours after its debut picture Iron Man finished a $100 million opening weekend, studio boss David Maisel was all over town announcing Marvel's forthcoming slate — through 2011. As we noted yesterday, an Iron Man sequel is naturally to follow on April 30, 2010, while an adaptation of Thor will drop that same summer on June 10. It gets fairly outrageous from there: The First Avenger: Captain America appears May 11, 2011, followed by The Avengers — combining Iron Man, Captain America, The Incredible Hulk and Thor a mere two months later. (The studio says its sitting out 2009 as a result of a development lag left over from the writers strike.)

And there's more: "Ant-Man also is in development," notes Variety, "with Edgar Wright attached to write and direct, but that project has yet to be dated." And some fucking crackhead fanboy just started a rumor that Matthew McConaughey leads the candidates to portray Captain America. And then, after the jump, there's the Iron Man Oscar hype. Jesus Christ — stop the Marvel gossip mill already, we want off.

The Schlub Factor (And Four Other Reasons 'Iron Man' Struck Box Office Gold)

We assumed in last week's Defamer Attractions column that $75 million opening-weekend estimates seemed awfully conservative for Iron Man, but even our $90 million forecast undershot the film's $100.7 million three-day take. (It was $104.2 million if you count Thursday night previews, and more than $200 million globally.) Aside from the obligatory splash for any early-summer tentpole, we're surprised observers didn't see the finely calibrated alchemy that Marvel and Paramount used to spin its Iron into box office gold:

1. The Schlub Factor. Like Sam Raimi, who guided Marvel's previous blockbuster franchise Spider-Man to its own record openings in 2001, 2004 and 2007, director Jon Favreau is kind of a schlub — a normal dude who came up through the ranks and pretty much is his audience. He's not Ang Lee, whose misunderstood Hulk is disavowed to the point that its own studio is remaking it this summer (with another non-schlub, French action auteur Louis Leterrier), or even Bryan Singer, whose X-Men franchise coasted on star power before burning itself out at the hands of patronizer extraordinaire Brett Ratner. Favreau imposes a fan's vision and an indie mandate (i.e. character development, budget-mindedness) that works primarily because it threatens no one — neither the studio that paid for it nor the viewers spreading word-of-mouth months in advance and lining up around the block on opening weekend.

Daniel Day-Lewis Checks Out The Singing-Barber At The Arclight

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In today's episode: Daniel Day-Lewis; Diane Keaton; Jake Gyllenhaal; Vince Vaughn, Jon Favreau, Justin Long, Jonah Hill and Peter Billingsley; Doris Roberts; Joe Pesci; Rebecca Gayheart and Eric Dane; Jimmy Kimmel and Sarah Silverman; Adrian Grenier; Randy Jackson; Alexis Bledel; Bob Saget; Danny Masterson; James Roday; and Sean Gunn.

Jodie Foster Typo Crisis Averted!

Jon Favreau Is Keeping It Real