Holy cow, I know what you are thinking - "don't tease me with a headline like that!" The Hollywood Reporter say Shane Black has met with Marvel execs and he is now officially 'in contention' to fill the gaping hole in the director's chair for Iron Man 3 after Jon Favreau packed his bags off to Disney's Magic Kingdom late last year. Black is the perfect choice. It is as perfect as the original hiring of Downey Jr to play Stark in the first place and bringing Black on board here to not only direct but also write the next installment is as genius an idea as it gets. On Dec 22nd last year, in an article titled 'Who Should Direct Iron Man 3' I wrote about Black; "When you need a director to tackle a smart action series thats loaded with adult-humoured gags and a narcissistic lead, who better than Shane Black the writer of the Lethal Weapon movies, The Long Kiss Goodnight and the writer/director of Kiss, Kiss, Bang Bang which incidentally starred a then much less bankable Robert Downey Jr. In many ways, Tony Stark is the Shane Black character he never created and Iron Man the franchise he would have made if Stan Lee & co. had gotten there first! His one directorial credit to date (aforementioned Kiss Kiss Bang Bang) boats a wildly entertaining action vehicle that plays it loose from one of the best scripts of the past decade. If Marvel were to hire Black to write and make the Iron Man movie the way he wanted it then the end result could be spectacular." Spectacular indeed. I also went on to say that he would need complete control of his screenplay before he would even seriously consider jumping on board and I'm guessing that's exactly the reassurances he is currently seeking from Marvel, whilst in the mean time it's made clear that the studio are talking to other writer/director's right now. Black is the guy that gave Robert Downey Jr his big comeback in Kiss Kiss Bang Bang and we always figured they would work together again, but on a property like Iron Man? Wow, I'm in. Iron Man 3 is scheduled for a May 3, 2013 and will be a post-Avengers film, so Black will have a lot of continuity to sort out - it will be a film with baggage. But we're hoping he can work out a deal.