Shane Black to write/direct Iron Man 3; describes film as "Tom Clancy thriller"

I think we all gave a hearty round of applause to Marvel for making the inspired decision to hire Shane Black(Kiss Kiss Bang Bang) to direct Iron Man 3. While his directing credits are limited, Black basically spearheaded the majority of the fast paced action flicks we all loved in the 80s and early 90s as a writer, such as Lethal Weapon and The Last Boyscout. So while we were all happy he'd be directing, his true strength comes from his scripts. Any chance he could pen the next adventure of billionaire industrialist, Tony Stark?

Black was a featured guest at the Omaha Film Festival, where an Aint It Cool News reader was able to capture some highlights from his speech regarding the direction of Iron Man 3...

First: Black is scheduled to hook up with Robert Downey Jr. this week. Not only will he be directing the film, but he will indeed be scripting.  Downey will be contributing to the story as well.  Downey and Black worked together on Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, one of the films that really pushed Downey back into Hollywood's good graces.

Black also mentioned that Marvel wasn't really happy with the direction Iron Man 2 took.  They don't want this next film to be "two men in iron suits fighting eachother".  Instead, the approach will be to give Iron Man more realistic villains, with the film having a Tom Clancy thriller feel.  Not sure how I feel about that. I go to Iron Man for big action, not political conspiracy. But then again, I've read enough Iron Man books to know that he can exist in both worlds, and this might be more in line with Shane Black's strengths.  I just don't want everything we've come to expect from the Iron Man franchise to be forgotten, which leads to the next bit of info...

Iron Man 3 will be shot after The Avengers, and will be a self-contained story. No other Marvel heroes will appear, as Marvel was only doing the crossover thing as a lead up to the Joss Whedon film. Whether this is a good idea or not will depend a lot on what they mean by "crossover". For instance, I would categorize both Iron Man and Iron Man 2 as self-contained stories. And yet there are elements that could tie in to other characters' flicks if Marvel decided to use them. I'm assuming what they mean is that we won't get those cool post-credits sequences with Nick Fury popping up anymore. At least not until The Avengers 2 is underway.