You know Shane Black don't you? Scriptwriter of the first (and lest we forget, very good) Lethal Weapon (directed by Richard Donner, director of the original brilliant Superman), massively under-rated Last Boy Scout, Long Kiss Goodnight, director AND scriptwriter of utter geek-fest Kiss Kiss Bang Bang?
Well, he was all set to write and direct Iron Man 3 and everything was going to be LITERALLY brilliant. Reports now are that he's just been demoted from scriptwriting and directing duties on Iron Man 3 and will only direct instead.
Which is like demoting James Bond to an office-administrator.
And the scriptwriting now falls to Drew Pearce, whose glittering credits include working on long-deceased British breakfast show The Big Breakfast and painfully unfunny BBC3 sitcom How Not To Live Your Life.
The decision to take one of Hollywood?s most impressive, bankable and ? if you care to look for it ? interesting screenwriters off a major franchise seems an odd one, unless the producers are determined to rob the franchise of any sense of fun whatsoever and instead have Zig and Zag pop-up for a perplexing cameo.
Heaven forbid anyone write something interesting, such as Tony Stark?s alcoholism as explored in the original comics.
Any of the eleven people out there (excluding myself, making up twelve) who saw how well Robert Downey Jr. responded to the writing and direction of Black in Kiss Kiss Bang Bang will now realise that Iron Man 3 will be even weaker than Iron Man 2 now that Black has had his teeth removed, making John Favreau?s castrated sequel look like a tour-de-force.
And anyone ? such as myself ? interested in seeing their young son punch the air saying ?YES? at a key moment in a superhero film as he did during the first Iron Man can probably now look elsewhere.
Which is retarded, as that is EXACTLY THE POINT of films like this.
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