Iron Man (2008 film)

In April 1990, Universal Studios bought the rights to develop Iron Man for the big screen,[31] with Stuart Gordon to direct a low-budget film based on the property.[12] By February 1996, 20th Century Fox had acquired the rights from Universal.[32] In January 1997, Nicolas Cage expressed interest in portraying the character,[33] while in September 1998, Tom Cruise expressed interest in producing as well as starring in an Iron Man film.[34] Jeff Vintar and Iron Man co-creator Stan Lee co-wrote a story for Fox, which Vintar adapted into a screenplay. It included a new science-fiction origin for the character, and featured MODOK as the villain. Tom Rothman, President of Production at Fox, credited the screenplay with finally making him understand the character. In May 1999, Jeffrey Caine was hired to rewrite Vintar and Lee's script.[35] That October, Quentin Tarantino was approached to write and direct the film.[36] Fox sold the rights to New Line Cinema the following December, reasoning that although the Vintar/Lee script was strong, the studio had too many Marvel superheroes in development, and "we can't make them all."[37]

By July 2000, the film was being written for New Line by Ted Elliott, Terry Rossio,[35][39] and Tim McCanlies.[40] McCanlies' script used the idea of a Nick Fury cameo to set up his own film.[35] In June 2001, New Line entered talks with Joss Whedon, a fan of the character, to direct,[41] and in December 2002, McCanlies had turned in a completed script.[42] In December 2004, the studio attached director Nick Cassavetes to the project for a target 2006 release.[43] Screenplay drafts were written by Alfred Gough, Miles Millar, and David Hayter, and pitted Iron Man against his father Howard Stark, who becomes War Machine. After two years of unsuccessful development, the deal with Cassavetes fell through, and New Line Cinema returned the film rights to Marvel.[44]

In November 2005, Marvel Studios worked to start development from scratch,[45] and announced Iron Man as their first independent feature, because the character was their only major one not already depicted in live action.[9] According to associate producer Jeremy Latcham, "we went after about 30 writers and they all passed,” saying they were uninterested in the project due to both the relative obscurity of the character and the fact that it was solely a Marvel production. When the film did have a script, even the requests for rewrites met with many refusals.[46] In order to build the general public's awareness of Iron Man and elevate him to the same level of popularity as Spider-Man or Hulk, Marvel conducted focus groups, trying to find a way to remove the general perception that the character is a robot. The information Marvel received from the focus groups was used to formulate an awareness-building plan, which included releasing three animated short films ahead of the film's release. The shorts were called "Iron Man Advertorials,” and were produced by Tim Miller and Blur Studio.[47]

Jon Favreau was hired to direct the film in April 2006,[48] celebrating getting the job by going on a diet, losing 70 pounds (32 kg).[12] Favreau had wanted to work with Marvel producer Avi Arad on another film after they both worked on Daredevil.[9] The director found the opportunity to create a politically ambitious "ultimate spy movie" in Iron Man, citing inspiration from Tom Clancy, James Bond, and RoboCop,[49] and compared his approach to an independent film—"[i]f Robert Altman had directed Superman"—and Batman Begins.[9][50] Favreau wanted to make Iron Man a story of an adult man literally reinventing himself after discovering the world is far more complex than he originally believed.[51] He changed the Vietnam War origin of the character to Afghanistan, as he did not want to do a period piece.[13] Art Marcum & Matt Holloway were hired to write the script,[48] while Mark Fergus & Hawk Ostby wrote another version, with Favreau compiling both teams' scripts,[52] and John August then "polishing" the combined version.[53] Comic book staff Mark Millar, Brian Michael Bendis, Joe Quesada, Tom Brevoort, Axel Alonso, and Ralph Macchio were also called upon by Favreau to give advice on the script.[54]

Favreau planned to cast a newcomer in the title role, as "those movies don't require an expensive star; Iron Man's the star, the superhero is the star. The success of X-Men and Spider-Man without being star-driven pieces reassures [executives] that the film does have an upside commercially."[55] However, in September 2006, Robert Downey, Jr. was cast in the role.[56] Favreau chose Downey, a fan of the comic,[6] because he felt the actor's past made him an appropriate choice for the part, explaining "The best and worst moments of Robert's life have been in the public eye. He had to find an inner balance to overcome obstacles that went far beyond his career. That's Tony Stark."[6] Favreau faced opposition from Marvel in casting Downey, but would not take no for an answer, saying, "It was my job as a director to show that it was the best choice creatively ... everybody knew he was talented [and] certainly by studying the Iron Man role and developing that script I realized that the character seemed to line-up with Robert in all the good and bad ways."[57] Downey earned $500,000 for the role.[58] While preparing for filming, Favreau and Downey were given a tour of SpaceX by Elon Musk. Downey said, "Elon was someone Tony probably hung out with and partied with, or more likely they went on some weird jungle trek together to drink concoctions with the shamans."[59]

Additional casting for the film occurred over the next few months: Terrence Howard was announced in the role of Stark's best friend James "Rhodey" Rhodes in October 2006;[60] Gwyneth Paltrow was cast as love interest Virginia "Pepper" Potts in January 2007;[61] and Jeff Bridges was cast in an undisclosed role in February.[62] Don Cheadle had also been approached for the role of Rhodes, and would eventually replace Howard in the role starting with the sequel, Iron Man 2.[63] Choosing a character to be the villain of the film was difficult, as Favreau felt Iron Man's arch-nemesis the Mandarin would not feel realistic, especially after Mark Millar gave his opinion on the script.[54] He felt only in a sequel, with an altered tone, would the fantasy of the Mandarin's rings be appropriate.[64] The decision to push him into the background is comparable to Sauron in The Lord of the Rings,[50] or Palpatine in Star Wars.[64] Favreau also wanted Iron Man to face a giant enemy. The switch from Mandarin to Obadiah Stane was done after Bridges was cast in that role,[30] with Stane originally intended to become a villain in the sequel.[54] The Crimson Dynamo was also a villain in early drafts of the script.[10] Favreau felt it was important to include intentional inside references for fans of the comics, such as giving the two fighter jets that attack Iron Man the call signs of "Whiplash 1" and "Whiplash 2", a reference to the comic book villain Whiplash, and including Captain America's shield in Stark's workshop.[65]

A scale model of the "Iron Monger" suit

Favreau wanted the film to be believable by showing the construction of the Iron Man suit in its three stages.[13] Stan Winston, a fan of the comic book, and his company, who Favreau worked with on Zathura, built metal and rubber versions of the armor.[17] The Mark I design was intended to look like it was built from spare parts. The back is less armored than the front, because Stark would use his resources for a forward attack. It also foreshadows the design of Stane's armor. A single 41-kilogram (90 lb) version was built, causing concern when a stuntman fell over inside it, though both the stuntman and the suit were unscathed. The armor was also designed to have only its top half worn at times.[17] Stan Winston Studios built a 3.0-metre (10 ft), 360-kilogram (800 lb) animatronic version of "Iron Monger" (Obadiah Stane),[17] a name which Obadiah Stane calls Tony Stark and himself earlier in the film as a reference, but is never actually used for the suit itself in the film. The animatronic required five operators for the arm, and was built on a gimbal to simulate walking.[17] A scale model was used for the shots of it being built.[30] The Mark II resembles an airplane prototype, with visible flaps.[30] Iron Man comic book artist Adi Granov designed the Mark III with illustrator Phil Saunders.[66] Granov's designs were the primary inspiration for the film's, and he came on board the film after he recognized his work on Jon Favreau's MySpace page.[50] Saunders streamlined Granov's concept art, making it stealthier and less cartoonish in its proportions,[17] and also designed the War Machine armor, but it was "cut from the script about halfway through pre-production." He explained that the War Machine armor "was going to be called the Mark IV armor and would have had weaponized swap-out parts that would be worn over the original Mark III armor," and that it "would have been worn by Tony Stark in the final battle sequence."[67]

Production was based in the former Hughes Company soundstages in Playa Vista, Los Angeles, California.[68] Howard Hughes was one of the inspirations for the comic book, and the filmmakers acknowledged the coincidence that they would film Iron Man creating the flying Mark III where the Hughes H-4 Hercules was built.[17] Favreau rejected the East Coast setting of the comic books because many superhero films had already been set there.[13]

Filming began on March 12, 2007,[69] with the first few weeks spent on Stark's captivity in Afghanistan.[70] The cave where Stark is imprisoned was a 150-to-200-yard (140–180 m) long set, which had movable forks in the caverns to allow greater freedom for the film's crew.[13] Production designer J. Michael Riva saw footage of a Taliban fighter in Afghanistan, and saw the cold breath as he spoke: realizing remote caves are actually very cold, Riva placed an air conditioning system in the set. He also sought Downey's advice about makeshift objects in prison, such as a sock being used to make tea.[17] Afterwards, Stark's capture was filmed at Lone Pine, and other exterior scenes in Afghanistan were filmed at Olancha Sand Dunes, where the crew endured two days of 40-to-60-mile-per-hour (64–97 km/h) winds.[17] Filming at Edwards Air Force Base began in mid-April,[71] and ended on May 2.[72] Exterior shots of Stark's home were digitally added to footage of Point Dume in Malibu,[30] while the interior was built at Playa Vista, where Favreau and Riva aimed to make Stark's home look less futuristic and more "grease monkey".[17] Filming concluded on June 25, 2007, at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas, Nevada.[73] Favreau, a newcomer to action films, remarked, "I'm shocked that I [was] on schedule. I thought that there were going to be many curveballs". He hired "people who are good at creating action", so "the human story [felt] like it belongs to the comic book genre".[12]

There was much improvization in dialogue scenes, because the script was not completed when filming began (the filmmakers had focused on the story making sense and planning the action). Favreau felt that improvization would make the film feel more natural. Some scenes were shot with two cameras to capture lines said on the spot. Multiple takes were done, as Downey wanted to try something new each time.[30] It was Downey's idea to have Stark hold a news conference on the floor,[12] and he created the speech Stark makes when demonstrating the Jericho weapon.[7] Bridges described this approach as "a $200 million student film", and noted that it caused stress for Marvel executives when the stars were trying to come up with dialogue on the day of filming scenes. He also noted that in some instances, he and Downey would swap characters for rehearsal to see how their own lines sounded.[74] The dialogue for the Nick Fury cameo scene was also changed on set, with comic writer Brian Michael Bendis providing three pages of dialogue for the part, and the filmmakers choosing the best lines for filming on set.[54] The Nick Fury cameo was filmed with a skeleton crew in order to keep it a secret, but rumors appeared on the Internet only days later. Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige subsequently had the scene removed from all preview prints in order to maintain the surprise and keep fans guessing.[75] An alternate version of the Nick Fury post-credits scene was filmed in which he specifically said "As if gamma accidents, radioactive bugs and assorted mutants weren't enough" referencing Hulk, Spider-Man and the X-Men but this was cut due to legal problems with Sony Pictures and 20th Century Fox who at the time had full ownership of the characters until their reacquisition much later in the mid to late 2010s.[76]

Favreau's main concern with the film's effects was whether the transition between the computer-generated and practical costumes would be too obvious.[77] He hired Industrial Light & Magic (ILM) to create the bulk of the visual effects for the film after seeing Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End and Transformers. The Orphanage and The Embassy did additional work,[17] with the latter creating a digital version of the Mark I armor.[78] To help with animating the more refined suits, information was sometimes captured by having Downey wear only the helmet, sleeves and chest of the costume over a motion capture suit,[17] and skydivers were filmed in a vertical wind tunnel to study the physics of flying.[79] For shots of the Mark III flying, it was animated to look realistic by taking off slowly, and landing quickly. To generate shots of Iron Man and the F-22 Raptors battling, cameras were flown in the air to provide reference for physics, wind and frost on the lenses.[80]

Iron Man premiered at the Greater Union theater at George Street, Sydney, on April 14, 2008.[94] The film began releasing in international markets on April 30,[95] and was released in the United States on May 2, 2008.[96] Iron Man was the first film released in Phase One of the MCU.[97] The film was formatted and screened in IMAX for the first time on August 30, 2018, as part of Marvel Studios' 10 year anniversary IMAX festival.[98]

The film was released by Paramount Home Media Distribution on DVD and Blu-ray Disc on September 30, 2008, in the United States and Canada, and October 27, 2008 in Europe.[99] DVD sales were very successful, selling over 4 million copies the first week and generating a gross of over US$93 million.[100][101] There were a total of 9 million copies sold and an accumulated total sales of over $160 million (not including Blu-ray).[100] For the home releases of the film, the image on the newspaper Stark reads before he announces he is Iron Man had to be altered because of amateur photographer Ronnie Adams filing a lawsuit against Paramount and Marvel for using his on-location spy photo in the scene.[102] A Wal-Mart-exclusive release included a preview of Iron Man: Armored Adventures.[103]

The film was also collected in a 10-disc box set titled "Marvel Cinematic Universe: Phase One – Avengers Assembled" which includes all of the Phase One films in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.[104] It was released by Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment on April 2, 2013.[105]

Iron Man earned $318.4 million in the United States and Canada and $266.8 million in other territories, for a worldwide gross of $585.3 million.[5]

In its opening weekend, Iron Man grossed $98.6 million in 4,105 theaters in the United States and Canada, ranking first at the box office,[106] giving it the eleventh biggest-opening weekend at the time,[107] ninth-widest release in terms of theaters,[108] and the third highest-grossing opening weekend of 2008 behind Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull and The Dark Knight. It grossed $35.2 million on its first day, giving it the thirteenth biggest-opening day at the time.[109] Iron Man had the second-best premiere for a non-sequel, behind Spider-Man, and the fourth biggest-opening for a superhero film.[110] Iron Man was also the number one film in the U.S. and Canada in its second weekend, grossing $51.2 million,[106] giving it the twelfth-best second weekend and the fifth-best for a non-sequel.[111] On June 18, 2008, Iron Man became that year's first film to pass the $300 million mark for the domestic box office.[112][113]

The review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes reported a 94% approval rating with an average score of 7.71/10, based on 278 reviews. The website's critical consensus reads, "Powered by Robert Downey Jr.'s vibrant charm, Iron Man turbo-charges the superhero genre with a deft intelligence and infectious sense of fun."[114] On Metacritic, the film has an average score of 79 out of 100, based on 38 critics, signifying "generally favorable reviews".[115] Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A" on an A+ to F scale.[116]

Among the major trade journals, Todd McCarthy of Variety called the film an "expansively entertaining special effects extravaganza" with "fresh energy and stylistic polish",[117] while Kirk Honeycutt of The Hollywood Reporter praised the film, while nonetheless finding "disappointment [in] a climatic [sic] battle between different Iron Man prototypes ... how did Tony's nemesis learn how to use the suit?"[118] In one of the first major-daily newspaper reviews, Frank Lovece of Newsday lauded the film's "emotional truth ... pitch-perfect casting and plausibly rendered super-science" that made it "faithful to the source material while updating it – and recognizing what's made that material so enduring isn't just the high-tech cool of a man in a metal suit, but the human condition that got him there".[119] Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times gave the film a perfect four out of four stars, praising Downey Jr.'s performance, stating "At the end of the day it's Robert Downey Jr. who powers the lift-off separating this from most other superhero movies".[120] A. O. Scott of The New York Times called the film "an unusually good superhero picture. Or at least – since it certainly has its problems – a superhero movie that's good in unusual ways."[121] Among the specialty press, Garth Franklin of Dark Horizons commended the "impressive sets and mechanics that combine smoothly with relatively seamless CG", and said, "Robert Downey Jr., along with director Jon Favreau ... help this rise above formula. The result is something that, whilst hardly original or groundbreaking, is nevertheless refreshing in its earnestness to avoid dark dramatic stylings in favor of an easy-going, crowd-pleasing action movie with a sprinkle of anti-war and redemption themes".[122]

Among major metropolitan weeklies, David Edelstein of New York magazine called the film "a shapely piece of mythmaking ... Favreau doesn't go in for stylized comic-book frames, at least in the first half. He gets real with it – you'd think you were watching a military thriller",[123] while conversely, David Denby of The New Yorker gave a negative review, claiming "a slightly depressed, going-through-the-motions feel to the entire show ... Gwyneth Paltrow, widening her eyes and palpitating, can't do much with an antique role as Stark's girl Friday, who loves him but can't say so; Terrence Howard, playing a military man who chases around after Stark, looks dispirited and taken for granted".[124] IGN's Todd Gilchrist recognized Downey as "the best thing" in a film that "functions on autopilot, providing requisite story developments and character details to fill in this default 'origin story' while the actors successfully breathe life into their otherwise conventional roles".[125]

Roger Ebert and Richard Corliss named Iron Man as among their favorite films of 2008.[120][145] It was selected by the American Film Institute as one of the ten best films of the year[146] and by Empire magazine as one of The 500 Greatest Movies of All Time.[147] Tony Stark was also selected by Empire as one of The 100 Greatest Movie Characters of All Time,[148] and on their list of the 100 Greatest Fictional Characters, Fandomania.com ranked him at number 37.[149]

A sequel written by Justin Theroux and released in the United States on May 7, 2010, saw Favreau, Downey, Paltrow, and Jackson returning. Don Cheadle replaced Terrence Howard in the role of Colonel Rhodes, who is also seen as War Machine. Also starring are Mickey Rourke as villain Ivan Vanko, Sam Rockwell as Justin Hammer, and Scarlett Johansson as S.H.I.E.L.D. agent Natasha Romanoff.

Walt Disney Studios and Marvel Studios released a second sequel on May 3, 2013,[150] with Favreau opting to direct Magic Kingdom instead, but still reprising his role as Happy Hogan.[151] Downey, Paltrow, and Cheadle also return, while Shane Black took over directing,[152] from a screenplay by Drew Pearce. Guy Pearce also starred as Aldrich Killian, and Ben Kingsley as Trevor Slattery.