Monday, June 26, 2006

Iron Man gets release date.

Variety has confirmed that Marvel has set a release date for the big-screen debut of Iron Man and that day is May 2, 2008.

Director Jon Favreau said the story will be contemporary, although it will pay homage to the character's 1960s roots. "We're gonna have it take place in the present day, but there will be an origin story that has the old, gray Iron Man suit; eventually it will progress into more of the modern look," he revealed. "That's the fun of doing the first one."

The filmmaker also said that Iron Man will not deal with Tony Stark's alcoholism, at least not in the first film. "I think we're going to lay the groundwork for it, but the first one's going to explore him taking on this alter ego of Iron Man, and developing the suit, and what happens politically within the Stark Corporation."

Favreau also advised fans not to expect a big-name star like Tom Cruise to play the Armored Avenger, citing the example of casting lesser known thesps like Tobey Maguire as Spider-Man or Brandon Routh as Superman.

Two sets of screenwriters are busy working on drafts for shellhead' big-screen debut: Matt Hollaway and Art Markum (Convoy), and Mark Fergus and Hawk Otsby (First Snow).

One problem facing the movie is that no one has figured out yet who's paying the bill. The deal for Marvel's much discussed $525 million warchest (for funding films to be distributed via Paramount) did not include Iron Man or the sequel/reboot The Incredible Hulk, which is set-up at Universal.

Marvel can attach new characters to the loan but must receive permission from Merrill Lynch. Marvel general counsel John Turitzin said the company expects to start talks on Iron Man soon and hopes to secure permission in the fall, sometime before the pic is officially greenlit and starts production late this year or early 2007.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Is it me Colonel or are you the only one who actually is getting excited by the idea of Iron Man ?(I say this only because of the lack of response compared to your Damon Photoshop work)still at least they're giving themselves 2 years instead of nine months with the fiasco that was X men 3.

Major General Creedon said...

Well, if you really want to analyse it you have to understand that 90% of the posters here are from the same side of the atlantic, where Iron Man has always been regarded as a tertiary Marvel character far beneath the success of Spider-Man, The Hulk and Wolverine. He has never had his own comic book or TV Show this side of the atlantic instead being relegated to "The Transformers" back-up strip and bundled in the various incarnations of "The Avengers" so his exposure is almost as limited as Daredevil and Blade around here. Now everyone knows who Blade and Daredevil are but there wasn't much knowledge of them before their movies.
All I can do is assure you that a standard percentage of my Blog hits are due to Iron Man and I can only hope that the origin picture for Iron Man will be as good as those similar for Blade, Spider-Man and the X-Men and not in Daredevil(Original Cut), Fantastic Four or The Hulk territory.

Anonymous said...

Well I hold out hope since mr Favereau is directing however do you not remember the atrocious Mighty Marvel action hour that RTE showed in the early 90s with the FF and Iron Man , surely you remember the day we went to Easons(when they still sold toys)and I showed you the fing fang foom action figure from the series and you broke down and wept(grr great days)

Major General Creedon said...

Curse you to hell Vaughan, you know damn well I've repressed those memories!

*sobs*

Anonymous said...

Damn it, whats the betting that this will be the completely sanitized version. No mention of Tony Stark's alocholism.

I predict a movie about some guy with a bucket on his head with out Vader's attitude problems.

Thats it, this will be the nail in the coffin of Superhero flicks, this is Superman III for the new millenium! Baa!

Major General Creedon said...

No from what the director has said it will be an origin story first, and then if hopefully there'll be more he'll build on Tony's vice.
I'd be happy with no mention of Stark's alcholism but you can have him pouring an extra glass of brandy during a buisness meeting, emptying a bottle of red wine while on a date or just have the camera subtly move over his empty glass, maybe even showing a look of annoyance on Stark's face as he realises he's out? There's no reason we need to see it full on during his origin story but Fraveau can sow the seeds.

Anonymous said...

Colonel, I'm quite suprised, some very good ideas, very subtle, too subtle for your ham fisted thinking one might say, tell me did the other Bloke from 2igtv come up with them?

Major General Creedon said...

No he didn't. While I'm sure that Mark would agree that Tony Stark's drinking should be introduced in this manner, I've not spoken with him on the subject.
That said, it's obviously as you say too subtle for it to be my idea intirely. The manner in which I suggest that Fravreau introduce Tony's drinking is a similar way to the way that Marvel slowly did the same in the comic books before they ran the full "Demon In A Bottle" storyline in the early '80's. Before Stark began coming to work half dressed and reeking of brandy, this drinking problem was evidenced at least 8 months earlier were we would see him and one of his advisors Bethany Cabe having a coffee, but Stark had a Whiskey to wash it down. Scenes like Page 15 in Iron Man 124 (July 1979) became commonplace where Stark offers a bewildered client a drink at 09:30 in the morning- Stark's excuse was that it was half-past midnight in Somalia.
Hopefully Fraveau or his writers have read as much Iron Man as I have and will do things as they did in the comic books.