Iron Man director Jon Favreau opened up at the Iron Man 3 premiere last night on how he struggled to get the film of the ground.
Iron Man was a breakthrough in film. It was one of the first times a superhero movie was done right in the eyes of the most skeptical fans, mostly due to the casting of Robert Downey Jr. as Tony Stark, and it was a perfect fit. Tony Stark is a character whose alcoholism and carefree attitude makes him difficult to work with, and the actor playing the role has a very similar past. And it seems Jon Favreau had trouble getting Robert Downey Jr..
Even more surprising was the inclusion of the Black Sabbath song “Iron Man” in the film, making it more iconic than ever.
The video starts with Scott Mantz saying, “…all started five years ago with you…”
Jon Favreau replies, “Is that it? Five years? It seems so much longer, doesn’t it?”
Scott Mantz, ever smiling, adds, “No, it really doesn’t.”
Jon Favreau continues, “I was pulling up here on Hollywood Boulevard … wax museum has a big screen up there, and I saw what looked like it was Robert [Downey Jr.]. It was [Robert], a photograph of his wax sculpture in the Iron Man pose from the first film and I’m like, ‘How much has changed since we first did the first film?’ And now it’s part of the world culture.”
Scott Mantz says, “Three Iron Man films and an Avengers film.”
Jon Favreau responds, “Yeah. And Avengers 2 , yeah, with him in it.”
Scott Mantz asks, “Your movie really kicked off phase one of this Marvel universe?”
Jon Favreau answers, “Yeah, you know at the time, you know, nobody expected anything from it, It was a negative pickup, done with independent financing. It was just a few of us trying to put something together with an interesting group of actors, an interesting story, and now it’s this huge Disney franchise that’s now seen all around the world.”
The rest of the interview is above.
What do you think of what Jon Favreau had to say about making the first Iron Man ?