Just a few days after Marvel Studios celebrated the successful opening of their first self-produced feature, Iron Man, their announced plans for their superhero franchise films may be in danger as Matthew Vaughn, the director tapped to head up Marvel’s adaptation of the mythological superhero Thor, is no longer attached to the project.
According to the Hollywood Reporter, Vaughn’s holding deal to work on the film expired last December and has not been renewed.
Currently waiting for a polish on the script to be delivered by scribe Mark Protosevich , Marvel is hoping to have the film in theaters for July 4, 2010. Protosevich’s original draft was budgeted out to approximately $300 million. Marvel requested a rewrite which would half that budget.
This is not the first comic book project that Protosevich has walked away from. He was previously set to direct X-Men 3, but left the project when he felt that Twentieth Century Fox was not giving him enough pre-production time to make the film properly.
With Marvel’s continuing franchise plans depending on all their announced films being released in order to build up to the announced Avengers superhero team up film, they will have to scramble to get a director on board in order to make their release date. Ironically, Vaughn’s departure has created a situation for a new director similar to the one he found himself in with X-Men 3.
