Interview - Iron Man

By Clint Morris
Interview with Jon Favreau
Director of Iron Man

The toughest part of doing a movie like Iron Man isn't casting the film, building the superhero's suit or convincing the studio to donate another 50 million towards the escalating effects budget – no, it's keeping those mad comic-book loving fans on the Internet happy.

Director Jon Favreau (whose also an actor; he's appeared in such films as Swingers, Made, The Break Up, and even briefly appears in Iron Man) was determined to keep in good with the film fans of the Interwebs.

Thankfully, it wasn't terrain for him; like fellow filmmaker Kevin Smith (Clerks, Chasing Amy) and TV vet Ronald Moore (Tvs Battlestar Galactica), Favreau was already the owner of a familiar avatar in many movie forums.

“I'm one of them, one of the community. They know that”, the director of the multi-million dollar superhero film says. “I read everything. It's a great way to listen in at the big water cooler, and see what people are thinking. It's been a tremendous asset in my career, and it's been very helpful in bringing Iron Man to the big screen”.

Favreau says it's not that it's crucial to have the Internet on your side, as long as you're responsive to what's going on on the Internet.

“You have to take into consideration what the popular opinion is. I get a lot of feedback from the people I work with, and work for, but I also keep my ear to the ground on the Internet”.

The Internet is an open forum for discussion – but also attack, and when Favreau reads an item from a reader, or group of readers, that they're not happy about, he doesn't “defend myself, but I do respond”.

Unlike Superman and Batman, Marvel's Iron Man, says Favreau, is one inked hero that people “didn't know about, and the people that did, saw him as a B-level Superhero – sort of a poor man's Spider-Man."

“Though he's one of the big names in the Marvel Universe, and the Comic Con crowd and Internet crowd are very familiar with him, [Iron Man] never filtered out into the mainstream”, explains the director.

“Over the past year, I've been dealing with the crowd that are familiar with the character – letting them know the character is in good hands – and in doing so, Iron Man has trickled into mainstream consciousness".

“That's their doing”, says a thankful Favreau. “I owe them a great deal of gratitude. It's great that they've been so vocal, because now more and more people are aware of the character – and the movie”.

While some filmmakers may be dead against the Internet, or rather Internet movie sites, because of  a portal's mission to reveal spoilers about a movie early on, or publish unauthorized set pictures months before the studio planned on giving anyone a sneak peek at the product, Favreau believes it's all just part of the game – one neither party can control.

“I think it becomes a bit of a game of cat-and-mouse between the filmmakers and the online community, because you want to keep surprises, but you want to keep it fresh” and obviously, by websites constantly talking about your film, the film remains fresh. “There's a whole rhythm of give-and-take that goes on between the filmmaking community and the Internet community. Some people get it, some don't.”

Favreau created a MySpace page where he talks to fans about the movie – and has done so since it started production. “I did it so that I could address things about the movie to them - even if it was just letting them know that some things [they'd heard] weren't the case. There's a great frustration when you don't have a voice in that community that the information could kind of snowball out of control, and rumours can be kind of hard to quash. If you have a presence, and a voice, and you have a forum in which you can communicate with the fans, it's a terrific thing.”

Favreau came on board Iron Man in May of 2006. At that time Marvel had just retained the rights to the character from New Line Cinema who had long planned to make a feature based on the property – with Nick Cassavettes (The Notebook) attached at one point to direct -  but didn't see it through. From the day Favreau, who had previously directed the films Elf and Zathura, was hired to work on the movie, he was told he had a clean slate – nothing from the New Line incarnation would remain.

“They went out of their way to make sure that was not the case”, says the director. “Part of the deal, when Marvel was able to get the rights back to certain characters, was that they had to start anew. So I was never shown any scripts, nor was I privy to any plot information from the previous incarnation.”

Robert Downey Jr had been suggested a few times for the role of Tony Stark/Iron Man, an alcoholic billionaire who builds himself an Iron Suit in order to fight crime.

“I originally didn't think he was right”, says the director of the Oscar Nominated actor whose off-screen performances overshadowed his on-screen work there for a while. “I met with him though, and he really responded to playing this part. And Tony Stark was one of the few characters that Downey could actually play – age-wise, because a lot of the other characters are much younger. So, it did begin to occur to me that he was perfect. It also became evident that he was in great shape, great health... and many years had passed since his lower points... it became more and more possible that he might be Tony Stark”. 

Granted, Marvel might have preferred Favreau had cast someone who didn't overshadow the superhero, but the director thought it was perfect that the actor was bigger than the character in this case. “[Downey Jr] was defining the first movie for Marvel Studios Production slate. The jury's still out on whether making such a bold move is going to be accepted by the fans, and the movie community. I think it's like when you heard Johnny Depp got cast in Pirates of the Caribbean – suddenly people that wouldn't have otherwise had been interested in seeing a movie based on a Disneyland theme park ride, were.”

Favreau hopes the casting of Downey Jr as Iron Man brings people to the cinema that wouldn't otherwise have wanted to see a Superhero movie. “I think it's already happening. People are suddenly aware who Iron Man is”, he says. “Further more, we got a great cast that was assembled, I think, because Robert Downey was involved. You know, when we first put the offers out to the actors, we didn't have a script really. It was a big leap of faith for these actors to jump on board a film in a genre that doesn't consistently produce good films. Often they'll do well, but there's only a handful of them that are good – that aren't just visual effects.”

Downey Jr may be back as Iron Man – possibly even in a film that unites many of the Marvel superheroes. The Avengers, based on the comic book title of the same name, sees several classic heroes coming together. It's been in early development for a few months now. Favreau believes it'll definitely happen.

“The fact that Marvel now have the rights to these characters, that would make up the members of The Avengers, rather than have them scattered among various Hollywood studios, makes it very possible."

"Before you couldn't have Spider-Man and X-Men in the same movie, but now that Marvel is reacquiring the rights to so many of these characters, you can unite characters. I think after a few of these franchises have done a few movies, they can team them up for an Avengers movie, where they're bringing those people together and doing something on a larger scale, and it'll reinvigorate all of them [the franchises].” 

IRON MAN is in selected cinemas from MAY 1, 2008