Paramount announcing a May 3, 2013 release date for the film. Iron Man and Iron Man 2 director Jon Favreau said in December 2010 that he would not direct Iron Man 3, opting to direct Magic Kingdom instead. He remained an executive producer of director Joss Whedon's crossover film The Avengers and also served as an executive producer of Iron Man 3. Also in 2010, Downey reached out to Shane Black, who directed him in 2005's Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, to write and direct the film. In February 2011, Black entered final negotiations to join the project, and in March it was announced that Drew Pearce, who Marvel had originally hired for a Runaways script, would work with Black on the script. Downey said, "Bringing in Shane Black to write and direct Iron Man 3 to me is basically the only transition from Favreau to a 'next thing' that Favreau and the audience and Marvel and I could ever actually sign off on." Writing Shane Black described his take on the film as not being "two men in iron suits fighting each other," and more like a "Tom Clancy thriller", with Iron Man fighting real-world type villains. Drew Pearce added that they would avoid magic and space, with Iron Man 3 being "a techno-thriller set in a more real world than even The Avengers". The duo spent some time discussing themes and images and ideas before starting the script. While writing, the focus was to avoid scenes of pure exposition, making every moment propel other narrative points forward. Some elements from the comics were used even if in different connotations, such as making Rhodes wear Norman Osborn's Iron Patriot armor and naming some characters with names from unrelated people in the Marvel Universe, such as Eric Savin and Jack Taggart. The film's plot is influenced primarily by "Extremis", the 2005–2006 Iron Man comics storyline written by Warren Ellis. The first two acts would remain character-centric, albeit in Shane Black's words "more hectic, frenetic, and large scale" to fulfill its sequel obligations, with the third act going for more over-the-top action to what Drew Pearce described as "giving a sense of opera". The middle act was compared to Sullivan's Travels in having Tony meeting various people on his journey, and the writers made sure to not make the characters too similar. The initial draft had Maya Hansen herself leading the villainous