Rumors were flying fast and furious yesterday and IT’S TRUE. Oscar® Nominee and recovering lawbreaker Robert Downey Jr. has signed to play IRON MAN.
Jon Favreau is directing the movie, which will be distributed by Paramount Pictures.
Downey will portray Tony Stark, a billionaire industrialist and genius inventor who is kidnapped and forced to build a devastating weapon. Using his intelligence and ingenuity, Stark instead builds a high-tech suit of armor and escapes captivity. Upon his return to the U.S., he uncovers a plot with global implications and must don his armor and protect the world.
[snip] The movie version, written by Art Marcum & Matt Holloway and Mark Fergus & Hawk Ostby, will be set in today’s geopolitical climate.
Okay, we can’t help but make the joke about Downey, whose battles with substance abuse have become the stuff of legend, playing billionaire playboy industrialist Tony Stark, the superhero with the drinking problem. However, according to
Varietythe celluloid Iron Man won’t be turning into a lush until the “sequel”:
In the comics, Stark was an alcoholic, a trait that will undoubtedly draw public comparisons with Downey’s own struggles with substance abuse. However, Feige said the first pic won’t deal with Stark’s alcohol problems, though it would likely come up in potential sequels.
This will be the first movie that Marvel is producing all on its own, so signing up an solid director and A-list (although not box office) star is a good step for Marvel. Variety notes that this will be Downey’s first action role.
PS: while we were looking for images we stumbled upon this cool little website of drawings of Iron Man. Check it out.
I think this could be great casting. I like it.
So who’s Molly Ringwald playing in the film?
At least it’s not Tom Cruise.
Whether or not its Junior’s first action movie would depend on how you classify US Marshalls. He’s not strictly art house.
UPDATE: This films marks the first role where Downey will fly around in Titanium armor.
I want to change my name to Hawk.
Tom Spurgeon wants to be a GI Joe action figure?
Who doesn’t?
With the people that are currently attached to this film, it only has two ways to go;
Incredibly cool or incredibly disappointing.
At first i was for Tom Cruise coz Stark is nuts and Cruise is too… (although i love the guy hehehe) BUT! Robert Downey Jr. is AWE-some for the part. So ya, there. Hey Hedi hehehe
Love Downey Jr. in this role. It seems like actors are starting to play roles that mirror their lives at time. Matthew Perry is playing an actor on Vicodin (though I don’t know if that will continue to be played throughout the season), and now Robert Downey Jr. playing an addict.
Should be a great movie, and I have a ton of faith in this movie.
Craig
I’d just about given up on comic book movies, but Downey in this role is very encouraging. I can’t recall seeing him in a bad movie (or, more to the point, I can’t remember HIM being bad in a movie).
I haven’t had a “movie party,” where I invite 100 friends over for food and drink before a big comic book movie, for a while – maybe I can with this one. Hulk and Dare-Devil were not a hit with my non-comic reading friends. It was hard to judge their reaction to Sin City (“Shock” probably describes it best).
– GSB
Comments are closed.