Iron Man 3 Update From Robert Downey Jr.'s Production Company President!

"We're still in the early phases. Shane & Drew Pearce (second screenwriter) are working through the story outline & hopefully, at some point in August, Shane is going to start hammering keys & writing the script, but he has such a unique viewpoint on Tony Stark & I think his corky sensibility is going to be great for the series. It's going to feel, like a reinvention of what it can be as opposed to continuing the saga. What makes Shane a good writer is that he's such a very complex human being. He's got his own demons in a lot of ways."

"Shane, like Robert, is very meticulous about the story. As we've seen just from this Summer's movies already, you can throw a razzle-dazzle on the screen, but if the stuff coming out of people's mouth doesn't work - your movie is dead.
It's interesting, because Shane is such a unique character. Robert obviously really hit it off with him in Kiss Kiss Bang Bang. Robert always says, that Shane is one of those guys, that just kinda gets the idea behind RDJ's character. There's sorta fast talking super intelligent guy, y'know. Not all of them (the directors & screenwriters) can nail that, but that's kind of Shane's ear, if y'know what I mean. He just does that naturally & it really fits well with Robert, who's been looking for an opportunity of doing another movie with Shane.

We want to have a different direction & feel to this movie. Robert wants to make sure, that he really gets the story right. He & Shane have been hammering through it for the last couple of months, making sure that they're making the right choices to take the series in a place, that's going to be surprising, not going to feel like a rehash. The first thing we've said, when we sat down was - why are we doing the third movie?! We know the obvious answer: because it's going to make the s**tload of money & everyone's going to be rich, but that's not the reason why we, as a company, want to make movies.

Favreau is still super close to this project. Actually, we're talking about putting him in the role (Happy Hogan) in the piece, but he (Jon) has given Shane his blessing on the series to continue on.

I can't talk about the villains right now, but what I can say is though that there's been lot of analysis of looking through all of the villains that have been in the Iron Man world. All I say is, that I think the person or persons, that we've decided to play with are going to be pretty exciting for the audience.

I think, that fanboys will appreciate it. Again, you have to be so deep inside the Iron Man series to really understand who all the villains are with their potentials. Look, it doesn't even matter who the villain is, because if you get the villain wrong - say, they (companies) are always making the announcements: We're going with THIS guy for the villain! and you're like GREAT and then you see him executed very poorly.

So, to us it's like figuring what the bad guy does & actually what Tony comes up against. We're not acting like: Oh, let's pick up that bad guy from the comics & let's hope it works! So, there's a lot of work, that needs to be done.

"Kevin has spent a lot of time with us on these meetings. He wants the best! He's sitting there, saying: Y'know, we need the best choice & the third film, that's going to improve on & make the brand more exciting, than anything we've seen in the first & second films. Everybody's head's in the right place, so that's a good starting point.

Again, we're really in the early phases of it. It's a little scary, though, because they want to start shooting next February or March. The intention is to make a film, that's going to stand the test of time & people are actually going to watch it, saying: Wow! The third one is even better than the first!