‘Iron Man 3′ Nabs ‘Lethal Weapon’ Writer Shane Black to Direct

From Moviefone: Not long ago Shane Black was rumored to be one of many being looked at to write and direct 'Iron Man 3' (since Jon Favreau had moved on to direct Disney's Magic Kingdom), and once that news was out there fanboys went nuts. Black, who's known for writing Lethal Weapon, The Last Boy Scout, and The Monster Squad among others, already comes with strong ties to Robert Downey Jr. since the two worked together on Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang, which also marked Black's directorial debut. Now they look to be reuniting again, as Deadline says Black is in final negotiations to direct (and maybe write) the next 'Iron Man' sequel.It's not worked out yet whether he'll also write the script, though we imagine that'll be a given. Naturally Marvel will have several ongoing storylines and plotpoints that Black will need to work off of since Tony Stark/Iron Man (Downey Jr.) will find his story continuing in The Avengers, but once those are made known (perhaps through a draft by a more superhero-friendly writer), chances are Black will get his hands on it as Joss Whedon has done with The Avengers.

What you get with Black is a fantastic sense of character and dialogue. He knows how to write "buddy" stuff, so the relationships between Stark and Pepper Potts and Stark and Rhodey should be kicked up a notch automatically with Black in charge. Definitely will be interesting to watch to see how such an original squeezes himself into the Marvel fold (same goes for Whedon), which makes the next couple of years kinda fun for us Marvel movie fans.

Iron Man 3 is scheduled to hit theaters on May 3, 2013.

[Original Post by Erik Davis]