This past weekend I contributed to my own growing case of tinnitus by blasting Black Sabbath’s Iron Man again and again on my iPod shuffle. It just felt like the right song to listen to while walking around my neighborhood.
It may not be the best song to be playing in the halls of New Line, though. It looks like all their efforts to get an Iron Man franchise off the ground are coming to naught. Not David Naughton, which would be an interesting place for the film to go, but rather to nothing at all. IGN FilmForce is reporting that the rights to the character are about to revert to Marvel, and with their new deal with Paramount to make their own movies you can bet they’re not going to be leasing him out again.
This could mean that we’re one step closer to a truly awful live action Avengers movie – actually, does Marvel have the movie rights to Thor? That would be the last character they need to bring the classic line-up to the screen.
I assume that all the work that New Line has done with the property – including a number of scripts and endless meetings with Tom Cruise – will be dropped if the property reverts. The good news is that this means that Nick Cassavettes definitely won’t be directing it. Right, Avi? Right?!?