It seems like Marvel Studios is currently considering moving forward with Iron Man 2 without the involvement of director Jon Favreau. Despite the great success of Iron Man, much of which is credited to Favreau's involvement, according to a report from IESB.net, Marvel may be looking to go forward without him due to money disputes.

According to reports, Favreau directed the first Iron Man for a very modest fee, and was looking for a slight bump in his fee for the sequel film. However, despite the financial success of Iron Man, Marvel Studios chairman David Maisel is apparently unwilling to pay a higher fee to Favreau. Reportedly, the studio believes the film will be a success whether or not Favreau is involved.

Official statements from Marvel still say that negotiations between the studio and Favreau are still ongoing. Despite this, Favreau claimed on his MySpace forum that "It's been five weeks since the one and only phone call my reps have gotten from Marvel."

Stay tuned for more news about the future of Iron Man 2as it becomes available. In the meantime, let's just hope that Marvel and Favreau are able to come to an agreement for Iron Man 2.

You won't believe what Marvel Studios is contemplating, shame on you David Maisel!

Marvel Studios is sitting on top of the world with the recent success of Iron Man so far taking in over $535 million in worldwide box office receipts. So why hasn’t Marvel locked in Jon Favreau to direct the sequel Iron Man 2?

It's been known since the release of Iron Man that director Jon Favreau had not yet been officially signed on to direct Iron Man 2. Kevin Feige during our edit bay visit of the Incredible Hulk mentioned that they were in negotiations, several producers have confirmed the same to several different news outlets, so the question is why isn't he locked in yet?

About a week ago, the IESB was tipped off by a junior source at Marvel Studios that there had been some delays with Jon's negotiations regarding the sequel. When asked why I was told that Marvel and Favreau hadn't been able to come to terms regarding money.

At first I thought my source was full of shit and I dismissed it as a rumor. This last Friday I was contacted by another source at Marvel and this one, let's just say, is much higher up on the food chain, and told me that the chairman of Marvel Studios David Maisel who has been in charge of negotiating new terms with Favreau is being cheap and not willing to pay a fair directors' fee.

Favreau was a bargain to begin with, he is after all a fairly new director even though he has had several commercially successful films under his belt when he was brought aboard Iron Man for a steal.

Don't know exact numbers but I am sure that it wasn’t a Michael Bay/Brett Ratner/Bryan Singer paycheck. He had to prove himself after all and looking at what the box office and DVD sales are going to bring in, around $750-800 million, I'd say he did his job well, very well.

So according to our source at Marvel, Jon was expecting a moderate bump in his fee for the sequel but apparently Marvel has other plans.

Our source continues that Maisel believes Iron Man 2 will be a success regardless of Favreau's involvement and feels the studio does not need to pay Jon a higher fee for his services.

This is the most disappointing news that I have heard coming out of Hollywood in years, is Marvel out of their Vulcan mind?

So bottom line, Jon Favreau has not been locked in to direct Iron Man 2 for the simple reason that Marvel is being cheap - this is 100% accurate folks, no bullshit.

This is completely disheartening. Iron Man was the first real Marvel production on their own two feet and Favreau came through like a champ. He gave credibility to the studio, hell, I'd even say he MADE the studio.

If that movie had bombed and he hadn't done his job right Marvel wouldn't be making the plans for the future like they are now. They would be going back to making films with other studio partners like they always have.

It's time for Marvel to return the favor - give the guy his fee (which I hear is the regular standard director's fee, no more), bring him back and kick some ass with IRON MAN 2!

I've contacted Marvel Studios who quickly asked us to contact their publicists over at Principal Communication Group for comment.

In regards to the March production start date that Terrence Howard talked about in his interview with Military.com, Paul Pflug from Principal Communications gave us a standard "no comment."

So what about Jon coming back to direct Iron Man 2?

The official statement is that they are still negotiating with Favreau.

Interesting…negotiations huh? Take a look at what Favreau posted on his official MySpace page just yesterday:

It’s been five weeks since the one and only phone call my reps have gotten from Marvel. I know their hands are full with the Hulk and I’m sure they will get into it shortly, as they tell me they intend to. I ran into the Marvel guys at the Hulk premiere and everyone sounded eager to get to work on IM2.

I am concerned, however, about the announced release date of April 2010. Neither Robert nor I were consulted about this and we are both concerned about how realistic the date is in light of the fact that we have no script, story or even writers hired yet. This genre of movie is best when it is done thoughtfully and with plenty of preparation. It might be better to follow the BB/DK, X/X2 three year release pattern than to scramble for a date. It is difficult because there are no Marvel 09 releases and they need product, but I also think we owe it to the fans to have a great version of IM2 and, at this point, we would have less time to make it than the first one."

One call five weeks ago is not what I consider "negotiations."

Enough said. I have double checked with my sources again at Marvel who are sticking to their story, negotiations - if you want to call them that - are not going well.