Probably one of the most exciting moments of this summer's blockbuster season was seeing Marvel set up for the impending superhero team flick The Avengers with a bumper introducing Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury at the end of Iron Man. Even cooler was Marvel's choice to begin to create their own cinematic Marvel universe by having Robert Downey, Jr. make a cameo as Tony Stark in The Incredible Hulk. But now it appears the coolness factor of this little venture might be in a bit of a spot.

IGN sat down with Sam Jackson himself and asked him about the rumors circulating that Marvel may not be able to afford to have him aboard:



This is not good news for Marvel or fans of the upcoming potential franchise. While some might think that it's not necessary to have Jackson keep the role for this to work, this predicament is just as annoying as when Marvel switched out the already established Terrence Howard (Rhodey from Iron Man who later becomes the character War Machine in the comics) for Don Cheadle. Not that I don't like Don Cheadle, but casting changes like this for what is to become a franchise is just frustrating.

I can't say that Marvel is being stingy with their money, especially because we don't know how much Jackson is supposed to get paid for portraying Nick Fury (I would hope that he'd be willing to take a pay cut to participate in something like this, especially since the man makes about 5 films a year). However, Marvel's negotiating tactics don't seem to great considering their first offer to Mickey Rourke as a potential villain in the sequel to Iron Man is a lowball figure. Anyway, I really would like to see this all successfully come together, and hope that Marvel and the negotiating talent can come to some sort of arrangement. What do you guys think about this debacle?