How long have rumors surrounded a possible Iron Man film? From the time when Tom Cruise apparently wanted to play the comic character to the last few years when it was sitting over at New Line with Nick Cassavetes set to direct.
Well, it looks like fans will have to continue waiting as Marvel has taken back the film rights to the comic from New Line and may just try to raise some money to bring the story of an inventor who dons a high-tech suit and becomes a superhero to life themselves.
“Right now we’re concentrating on finding the right creative talent,” Marvel Studios head Avi Arad told Variety. “It’s not a part of our slate deal, but we can raise the money to do it if we choose to. We would also have no difficulty licensing it to another studio.”
Apparently Marvel has raised $525 million from Merrill Lynch to produce up to 10 films, but Iron Man was not part of that deal. The Lynch deal includes such films as Ant Man, Power Pack and Captain America so Marvel would have to raise additional funds to produce the pic itself.
Word from Variety is that they will start developing the picture themselves commissioning a new script and attaching a director.
We’ll have to wait and see what happens.
