Justin Theroux to Write “Iron Man 2″
Marvel Studios has reportedly tapped Justin Theroux to pen to “Iron Man 2“. Hollywood is finally noticing Theroux for something other than his soulful eyes and killer cheek bones.Theroux made his directorial debut with last year`s Billy Crudup/Mandy Moore dramedy “Dedication” and will now get first crack at writing the sequel to this summer`s highest-grossing film so far.
Variety also reports that Downey Jr and director Jon Favreau are close to signing on the dotted line for the new film.
The first film has gone onto become the second highest worldwide grosser of 2008 by accumulating $565.2 million across the globe since opening on May 2, 2008.
It was Marvel Studios’ first self-financed pic, and released by Paramount Pictures, so it’s no surprise that the studio is looking to get another installment into theaters as quickly as possible.
‘Iron Man’ Los Angeles Premiere
Paramount Pictures and Marvel present the Los Angeles Premiere of Iron Man starring Robert Downey Jr., Gwyneth Paltrow, Terrence Howard, Jeff Bridges.
Director Jon Favreau, Shaun Toub, Faran Tahir, Jack Black, Ben Stiller and Christine Taylor, Channing Tatum, Vince Vaughn, Stan Lee, Avi Arad, Kevin Feige, Pete Wentz and many others walked down the red carpet of the Los Angeles Premiere of Iron Man.
Iron Man played at about 2,500 locations last night with the screenings starting at 8pm. The country’s largest exhibitor Regal Cinemas generated an estimated $1.3M in ticket sales for the Jon Favreau-directed superhero flick while the AMC chain is reporting $1.2M.
Robert Downey’s trainer, Brad Bose, told the IESB that he starts training with Downey just after this final premiere in LA. Downey has had a few months off in between going to work on Ben Stiller’s Tropic Thunder. Then, he will have him ready to wear the suit again in just 5 months. This time around he wants to put an extra 10 pounds on the actor, for a little more bulk.
So most likely, fan can look for a production start in early 2009 for Iron Man 2. The first film is tracking highly and can expect a big box-office opening weekend.
Sumner Redstone and Paramount Pictures CEO Brad Grey told that if the movie does as well as expected, Paramount will greenlight a sequel for the same week in 2010.
‘Iron Man 2′ is coming…quickly!
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Jon Favreau Talks ‘Iron Man’
While at the Wonder Con 2008 event, director Jon Favreau sat down and talked Iron Man with members of the press and here’s what he had to say about the upcoming adaptation of the famous comic icon.
“Iron Man has to attract people who don’t know anything about the comics, or who don’t know anything about the character,” Favreau said. “So we sort of walk everybody through everything that happened. I think we also limit things a bit, make things a little bit more plausible, so that people don’t look at it and say, oh it’s just a comic book movie anyway, anything could happen. And then we also have a cast that is a little bit more broadly appealing, people might give us a chance who wouldn’t normally come to a Marvel-type film. But for the fans, we wanted to have enough stuff happening in there that it seems like we were either reacting to or by making a choice to go against what their expectations might be, based on the comics. So we always said, okay, here’s a suit that was in [the film], how do we tip a hat to the suit that wasn’t in? In the books, Iron Man was in this country, he was in Vietnam — well let’s make it Afghanistan now, that seems consistent.”
