Favreau will not direct The Avengers

Bad news if you were hoping that Iron Man's Jon Favreau would be bringing The Avengers together - Marvel will have to find someone else as he has no room in his schedule.

"They'll have to find a different director, because I'm not going to be available," he tells MTV. "It's something I'm being the executive producer on, so I'll definitely have input and a say."

It's been largely a rumour for a while now, with Favreau refusing to definitively say whether he'd be the one in charge of the film beyond the idea that he'd like to. But he did have something to say about the challenges.

"It's going to be hard, because I was so involved in creating the world of Iron Man and Iron Man is very much a tech-based hero, and then with Avengers you're going to be introducing some supernatural aspects because of Thor.

"How you mix the two of those works very well in the comic books, but it's going to take a lot of thoughtfulness to make that all work and not blow the reality that we've created."

Oh, and if you were thinking that Edward Norton might crop up for a brief cameo in Iron Man 2 after Robert Downey Jr appeared in The Incredible Hulk? More bad news - Favreau has confirmed he's not crossing over.

That said, it could all be a clever ruse to through us off the scent, since Favreau admits they've had trouble keeping secrets in the past.

"As soon as we shot the Nick Fury thing — we had a closed set and nobody was supposed to know about it—a week later somehow it was all over the internet. It's a little bit of a cat-and-mouse game."

But if you're craving actual Favreau footage, take a look at this new Iron Man 2 behind-the-scenes video, courtesy of the team at Canal Plus. A double warning: it's partly in French, so non Francophiles won't catch every word, and there a very minor story spoilers for anyone who doesn't wish to learn a thing about the movie.

So the hunt is on for an Avengers director…

[Source: MTV ]

Who do you want to see making The Avengers? Should they make it at all?