Jon Favreau to Direct The Avengers?

The Avengers is delayed a year because of financing issues but also because the plan is for Favreau to helm it. Everybody here loves the guy and he wants to do it, but it would have been impossible for him to do before the date change given his Iron Man 2 commitments. Also partly the reason why he agreed to do the Stark sequel on such an accelerated schedule was so he could get given first dibs on this. It would still be a punishing schedule for him, so hes not firmly confirmed yet, but he is certainly the presumptive director at this point.

Iron Man 2 starts rehearsals in a few days, which is why the casting is finally coming together so quickly.

Alexander Skargard is indeed Branagh's favorite to play Thor as some sites are reporting. If all goes well and it happens then we hope to get Stellan Skarsgard for Odin (though at present Odin is only a very small cameo part in this movie).

Loki will probably be played by Hartnett, if his pay negotiations work out. All the commentary about him wanting to do a Ledger and play a villain is B.S. though - WE APPROACHED HARTNETT because Branagh's a big fan of the Othello adaptation O where Hartnett played Iago who is very similar character wise to how he sees Loki.

Fox is serious about doing remakes of Daredevil and Fantastic Four. They have to make new movies with these characters every few years because otherwise the options will revert to us. This point is kinda obvious but Im not sure people realise it -I havent seen anybody pointing it out anywhere. The mood around here is pretty negative about Rothman's potential to execute these properties properly, (I'm sure you know why it might be particularly negative at the moment) but we are all hoping his recent promotion will mean hes kept away from direct control of these movies.