While the hiring of Jon Favreau as "Iron Man" director is pretty exciting movie-geek news, it seems that Marvel's Avi Arad has a whole bunch of new projects just waiting to get underway. In addition to the Iron Guy's first adventure, we can now report some progress on titles like "The Ant Man," "Captain America," "Hulk 2," "Nick Fury," and (yes!) "Thor."

The bullet points:

-- "Iron Man" will be directed by Jon Favreau ("Zathura"). Screenplay by newcomer writing team Matt Holloway & Arthur Marcum. Production is supposed to begin in January.

-- "Hulk 2" will be written by Zak Penn, whose previous screeplays are an eclectic mix indeed: "Last Action Hero," "PCU," "Inspector Gadget," "Behind Enemy Lines," "X-Men 2," "Incident at Loch Ness," "Suspect Zero," "Elektra," and "X-Men: The Last Stand." (Previous reports indicate that Hulk's villain will be "Abomination," which is a very cool name for a villain.)

-- "Ant Man" will be directed by "Shaun of the Dead" co-creator Edgar Wright. (Cool!)

-- "Captain America" will be written by comic-expert David Self, who previously penned "The Haunting," "Thirteen Days," "Road to Perdition," and the (eventually) upcoming "Sub-Mariner" and "Deathlok."

-- "Nick Fury" is being written by Andrew Marlowe, credited screenwriter on "Air Force One," "End of Days," and "Hollow Man."

-- "Thor" will be written by Mark Protosevich, the scribe behind "The Cell" and "Poseidon."

Click right here for the whole juicy article at THR, which is packed with stuff that comic freaks should really enjoy.