Leaving on a jet plane …

… but I do know when I’ll be back again.

I’m going to Los Angeles (with detours to Santa Barbara and Las Vegas) from July 11 to July 21.

I get to L.A. on Friday; I’m renting a car and driving it to Derek and Kyle’s house, where we’ll hang out and then later meet up with my good friend Kareem and his gorgeous girlfriend Claire and his friends Jonathan and Zeve to see Hellboy II: The Golden Army at Grauman’s Chinese Theatre.

Saturday morning I’m driving the rental car up to the ridiculously beautiful Santa Barbara, where I will be treated to excellent hospitality and tour guidance by my ridiculously beautiful friend Kate. She’s taking me on a tour of her favorite Santa Barbara spots on Saturday, and taking me up into the mountains, and then on Sunday she’s taking me to wine country.

This is all very exciting.

And then Sunday night I’m driving back down to L.A. to meet Kareem’s family and have a fine dinner. I’ll be staying with them Sunday night, and then …

… on Monday morning I’m driving back to the airport, where I’ll get on a plane that will take me to Las Vegas the set of Magic Man, the new thriller being made by my good friend Alexander Nevsky, who’s a multi-talented actor, writer, author, producer, and bodybuilder. I can’t wait to see him and his lovely wife Katya again. The movie stars Alexander, Billy Zane, Robert Davi, Richard Tyson, and Bai Ling. This will be my first trip to a movie set, so it’s very exciting. And Alexander and I are doing to discuss some things that might lead to some very interesting news here on the old blog. Stay tuned.

Then on Wednesday it’s back to Los Angeles, where Kareem is picking me up at the airport and we’re going to present the gloriously high-definition Blu-ray of Batman Begins to his parents, who haven’t seen it. I’ve never seen it in high definintion, so I can’t wait for that.

And then … Thursday … Kareem and Claire and their friend Kay-Anne and I will be seeing THE DARK KNIGHT on IMAX at midnight!

WHAMMY.

Preceded by some In-and-Out Burger, which is very exciting to me because I love burgers and I especially love new burgers that I’ve never tried before.

We’re going to the movie again with Kareem’s parents on Friday, and again with Jonathan and Zeve on Saturday.

And I’m hoping to see my awesome friend Racheal at some point in there, too.

I get home way late on Monday night, July 21, and I’ll get caught up on everything then.

In the meantime I won’t be posting much; I will put up my Batman essay next Thursday and I’ll write a short thing about The Dark Knight after I see it next Thursday night with a larger review to follow upon my return.

I’ll also be updating my Flickr account as often as I can with pictures from the main trip and the exciting detours.

In the meantime, check out Bill “Jett” Ramey’s incomparable Batman on Film for all the latest Batman movie news, and my friend Stephanie’s own excellent Dark Knight coverage right here; she has an amazing talent for collecting all kinds of awesome tidbits and presenting them with a lot of commentary and sass.

And I’ll see you after July 21!

Be safe.

Be good to each other.

I’ll talk to you soon.

Marvel makes nice with Jon Favreau …

… and not a moment too soon, especially after they went ahead and set an April 2010 release date for the film without even consulting their director, who wrote on the Iron Man message board on MySpace that he thinks the date is a little too fast for the amount of work he wants to put into the project:

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.

Part of me thinks that Favreau isn’t giving himself enough credit; they made an amazing movie and I’m sure it’ll be easier to make the next one in the sense that they really know what they’re doing now (even though logistically I’m sure it’ll be a much bigger picture).

Then again, I massively respect the fact that he wants to take his time and get it right, and because of that I’m totally on his side, as if he even needed my help or support in the first place, which he doesn’t.

Anyway, CHUD reports today that Marvel and Favreau have reached a deal:

Marvel Does Us All a Favreau

Smart move, Marvel. Don’t let this guy get away.

I think Marvel really needs to be careful. When you’ve got guys like Favreau and Robert Downey Jr. on Iron Man and a guy like Ed Norton on The Incredible Hulk, you need to respect the talent and let them do what they do.

Because as much as Marvel might like to say that it’s all about the characters and not about the actors or directors, they need to keep in mind that they’ve made some really bad movies in the past. When good talent comes to your project, treat the talent well and you’ll get more good projects.

Look at what happened over at Warner Bros., for example, with Batman. After a string of bad Batman moves, they’ve given Christopher Nolan the keys to the kingdom and trusted his decisions to big results.

More on the development of Iron Man 2 as it happens!

And you can read my review of the first one right here.