Stan Lee reveals his "Iron Man" cameo

To my knowledge, there's only one Marvel movie in which Stan Lee didn't have a cameo in. And I can't remember what it was! Daredevil I think, though I could be wrong. Perhaps Elektra. Curse my lack of useless information!

He WILL appear in the new Iron Man and Hulk movies of course. And they've reported that he will be a Hugh Hefner-like character in Iron Man!


STAN LEE REVEALS HIS ‘IRON MAN’ CAMEO
The legend gabs on his film cameos and Marvel movies in the works

Posted December 20, 2007 1:10 PM

Collider.com interviewed Stan “the Man” Lee on the red carpet at the Jules Verne Film Festival in Los Angeles, where the Marvel mastermind was receiving a lifetime achievement award. Lee revealed that his cameo in “Iron Man” would be Hugh Hefner-esque, featuring Smilin’ Stan with a pipe in his mouth and three girls at his side. The comic book legend also dropped hints that a Power Pack movie might be in the works for the kiddies and that he hadn’t filmed his “Incredible Hulk” cameo yet. For the full interview:

http://www.collider.com/entertainment/interviews/article.asp/aid/6405/tcid/1

Wizard Insider: War Machine

Let's face it: Tony Stark is the one that's always had the coolest armour, out of all the armoured heroes (and villains) in the comics-verse. There has always been one set of armour that I've always thought was more awesome than Stark's customary red and golds though: the War Machine armour, piloted mostly by Stark's best friend, James Rhodes.

Looks like he's going to be in the Iron Man movie too, so here's the Wizard 101 on War Machine!


WIZARD INSIDER: WAR MACHINE
Become a James Rhodes scholar with this primer on Tony Stark’s bust bud!

By Jake Rossen

Posted December 18, 2007 3:40 PM

In panels or on the big screen, comic heroes never stand alone. When Iron Man makes his Hollywood debut next May, he’ll be accompanied by James Rhodes, an ally that fans may know better as War Machine.

Polishing Machine’s armor will be highly respected actor Terrence Howard (“Pride,” “The Brave One”), a self-professed comics fan who says he “jumped” at the chance to involve himself in a Marvel adaptation. Here are the specs on the man in the can, customized just for Wizard.

FORGING A FRIENDSHIP
Rhodes was first introduced in 1979’s Iron Man #118. He and Tony Stark met just as Stark was escaping from the Viet Cong in his prototype armor. Piloting a stolen helicopter, Rhodes helped Stark escape, and the two forged a close bond. The billionaire industrialist hired Rhodes as his personal pilot; the two would frequently go airborne in tandem when Stark was faced with formidable threats like the Dreadnoughts.

IRON WILL
If there’s one thing Tony Stark loves more than money and women, it’s the booze. Unable to control his urges, the recovering alkie allowed himself to devolve into a disgusting lush, depriving the world of an Iron Man. Sensing the need for replacement justice, Rhodes donned the armor, but at a price: because it was configured for Stark’s brain chemistry, the interface turned him paranoid and violent. Wiping the vomit from his shirt, Stark cleaned up in order to oppose him.

ALIEN NATION
Distancing himself from Stark, Rhodes eventually adopted a suit culled from a symbiotic life form, a gift from aliens trying to prepare Earth for a pending invasion courtesy of Kang the Conqueror. Dubbed the Eidolon Warwear, it resembled nothing so much as a porcupine on steroids. While Stark would never approve of the style, the options are considerable: It can heal the wearer’s injuries, “grow” any weapon desired and had a sweet sound system that blared alien battle songs. Rhodes later destroyed it in an attempt to erase Stark’s armor designs before they could be uncovered and appropriated by rival businesses.

MACHINE MAN
With “franchise” the word of the day in Hollywood circles, it makes sense to plan for the future. “Iron Man” director Jon Favreau chose respected thespian Howard to portray Rhodes because he felt the actor would have the necessary gravity to essay the character throughout a planned three-film arc. He’s in good company: The four principals in the film (Robert Downey, Jr., Gwyneth Paltrow, Jeff Bridges and Howard) have all been nominated for an Academy Award.

TEST PILOT
Upon his casting in summer 2006, Howard began chatting up news outlets with his take on the part. “[I’ll] be sitting there waiting—lusting for the opportunity to have my own power,” he told MTV.com of Rhodes’ potential envy over Stark’s duds. “When I create my own War Machine stuff, I put some extra artillery on there.” Howard also believes his role as an ethnic superhero is an important one. “I feel like Jackie Robinson,” he told Crave Online. “Perhaps in the future they’ll green light other characters or other ethnicities will have a chance, based upon how this is accepted.”

METAL MEETING
Because director Favreau wasn’t up for a period piece, Stark’s wartime capture has moved to Afghanistan. What’s more, Howard told Ain’t It Cool News that he and Stark don’t meet under those desperate circumstances. Instead, he’s slotted in as a military liaison between Stark Enterprises and the Air Force. “We went to MIT together,” he explained. “I actually see his (character) change.”

FLIGHT PLANS
This past March, Howard went to visit Nellis Air Force Base in Nevada to examine planes like the HH-60G Pave Hawk and the F-22A Raptor. He also chatted up pilots, presumably in an effort to get a handle on their demeanors. This in addition to the physical training, which, he told Wizard, has resulted in an alpha-male showdown between him and Downey. “Robert and his competitive ass. I almost pulled my shoulder trying to keep up with him.”

FIRST IMPRESSIONS
Cognizant of how a rabid online fan base dissects news, both Favreau and his cast have been keeping their cards (and storyboards) close to their vests. While Favreau has hinted that the War Machine armor won’t show up until future installments, Howard told ComingSoon.net that “we start getting into it” in the first film. “War Machine is a very intricate aspect of the future franchise,” he said. Sounds like someone’s taking evasive action.

Armor all: "Iron Man" movie suits

Hey folks! Sorry about the lack of updates yesterday. I was too busy at work and just did NOT have any time to post anything!

So expect a LOT of posts today! Let's start off with some sneak peeks at the various armours that will be featured in the Iron Man movie!


ARMOR ALL: ‘IRON MAN’ MOVIE SUITS
Check out the suits Robert Downey Jr. dons in ‘Iron Man’

By Rickey Purdin

Posted December 10, 2007 9:20 AM

While most comic films feature only one version of superhero garb per leading man, “Iron Man” pulls out all the stops with three confirmed models of Ol’ Shellhead’s mechanical outfit. Each one plays a different role in Tony Stark’s war on crime and luckily (unlike the Dark Knight in “Batman Forever”), there’re no nipples!

MARK I
Initially constructed by Stark out of spare industrial parts after he’s kidnapped by terrorists, this clunky robot-looking suit provides Stark’s escape and packs a flame-thrower, rocket launcher and a tough outer shell. When one attacker sneaks up to shoot Stark in the back of the head at point-blank range, the bullet ricochets off and back into the jerk’s own noggin!

“We got the Mark I out which we took a little bit of leeway with because in the [comic] books it really doesn’t make sense that he would make that out of spare parts,” laughs “Iron Man” director Jon Favreau. “But we wanted to keep the personality of it. Everyone was like, ‘Holy sh--, that’s so cool!’”

MARK II
Seen for a split second in the “Iron Man” trailer and only from the shoulders up, this “evil” version of the armor stands somewhere in terms of design between the clunkier Mark I and the sleeker Mark III. Towering in size at about 8 feet tall, this version’s weapons system hasn’t been fully displayed. But what makes it evil? Gwyneth Paltrow, seen overshadowed by the suit during a display of sneak preview footage at San Diego Comic-Con, knows all too well.

“That’s Iron Monger,” the actress says with a smile. Looks like at some point, the film’s main villain, Obadiah Stane, follows in his comic book namesake’s footsteps and dons the Mark II to become Iron Monger.

MARK III
More closely resembling the suit worn by Iron Man in today’s comic books, this so-sleek-it’s-practically-a-jet version packs a powerful high-five thanks to gauntlets on the palm that emit repulsor rays and boots augmented with flight enhancers that allow for high-speed, mid-air maneuverability. Favreau says he wanted an authentic suit instead of a special effects extravaganza and it paid off after fans saw the final version.

“They were like, ‘Wait, it’s not a fake. It’s a real suit with a real guy!’” boasts the director. “Of course we could do different stuff in CG than it can for real, and that’s what becomes [a] difficulty. You don’t want [him] to be moving around like Robocop and then he flies through the air and looks like Spider-Man.”

[PREVIEW OF THE WEEK] Ultimate Iron Man II #1

Good morning! Looks like a whole heap of articles to be posted up again today!

Before I continue, since this segues nicely into the article I'm posting from Wizard Universe, I've started a standing orders list with Classic Comics. I've found that it's a bit erratic when new comics get "released" and put on the shelves there...it could either be Thursday or Friday...sometimes, with luck, even Wednesday! Meaning if I go down on Thursday and they haven't received OR unpacked the comics yet, it's a wasted trip.

So in one of my recent trips there, the shop owner actually asked if I went there regularly and if I had standing orders with them. He suggested if I did have a couple of monthly comics I bought regularly, to have a standing orders with them because there were a couple of advantages: (1) there was a further discount on comic prices that were on standing order, and (2) comics would be held for you and they WON'T get sold out, unlike if you were a walk-in customer and they had no issues of a particular comic left in stock!

So I've put House of M: Avengers, Mighty Avengers, Marvel Zombies 2, The Ultimates 3 and Ultimate Iron Man II on my standing orders list. Ultimates 3 was released yesterday, so I definitely have myself a copy! Wooooo! I want both covers though!

I believe Ultimate Iron Man II #1 gets released next week. So here's a preview:


[PREVIEW OF THE WEEK]] ULTIMATE IRON MAN II #1
After nearly being blown to bits, where does Tony Stark go from here?

Posted December 6, 2007 8:59 AM

The untold origin of Iron Man continues—written by international best-selling author Orson Scott Card! When last we saw him, young Tony Stark was nearly blown to bits. How much of him survived his initial Iron Man trial run—and where does the young genius go from here? Plus: How does James Rhodes fit into Tony’s plans for the perfect fighting machine? Four-time Hugo Award-winner, two-time Nebula Award-winner and World Fantasy Award-winner Orson Scott Card (author of Ender’s Game) returns to the Ultimate Universe, now joined by Ultimate Fantastic Four’s Pasqual Ferry!

ULTIMATE IRON MAN II #1 (of 4)
Written by ORSON SCOTT CARD
Pencils and Cover by PASQUAL FERRY
Variant Cover by GABRIELE DELL’OTTO
Parental Advisory …$2.99
On Sale—12/12/07

Iron Man and Hulk movie cameos

Whoa! This is some big news indeed, if it does indeed prove to be MORE than just gossip. Kind of like the April Fool's Day prank I concocted this year when I "released" an article saying that Captain America was going to cameo in "Spider-man 3" especially after he gained massive media coverage when he died in the comics.

But if this one is true...could it mark the first real cameo from ANOTHER character about to feature in his own movie in the comic book movie world?


IRON MAN AND HULK MOVIE CAMEOS
A rumored Iron Man/Hulk scene may lead to a shared Marvel Universe on the big screen

By David Paggi

Posted December 5, 2007 11:30 AM

An insider source has informed Ain’t It Cool News that possible cameos are in the works for two upcoming Marvel Studios movies, “Iron Man” (May 2, 2008) and “The Incredible Hulk” (June 13, 2008). It’s unclear which character might be making a cameo, but the theory currently running is that it might actually be a joint scene that would appear in BOTH movies. This new information jives with the theory that Sam Jackson’s rumored role in “Iron Man” as Nick Fury would lead to a shared Marvel Universe on the big screen, possibly paving the road to an eventual “Avengers” film.

Click here to see the full article: http://www.aintitcool.com/node/34962

Robery Downey Jr. talks "Iron Man"

Wow, it's almost 2008 already! Less than a month to go. Ergo, the Iron Man movie will be hitting big screens soon!

Wizard Universe interviewed Tony Stark himself, Robert Downey Jr:


ROBERT DOWNEY JR. TALKS ‘IRON MAN’
The actor discusses living large, working out and going to a happy place when you’re stuck in the armor

By Rickey Purdin

Posted December 3, 2007 9:15 AM

Ask anyone what they think of actor Robert Downey Jr. and you’re just as likely to hear praise over his brilliant acting career as you are about the drugs, booze and decadence that nearly destroyed his life. But starting May 2, 2008, all you’ll hear is the sonic boom he discharges when he jets into theaters at Mach 2 as the metal-clad superhero Iron Man.
Directed by Jon Favreau (“Elf”), “Iron Man” welds together an all-star cast including Downey as wealthy weapons industrialist Tony Stark, Gwyneth Paltrow (“The Royal Tenenbaums”) as his assistant Pepper Potts, Jeff Bridges (“Seabiscuit”) playing the conniving baddie Obadiah Stane and Terrence Howard (“Crash”) as Stark’s military liaison Jim Rhodes. After a kidnapping at the hands of terrorists wakes the affluent Stark up to the crime-ridden horrors of the world, he sets out to create a suit of armor (complete with repulsor rays and rocket boots!) that allows him to smash evil in the face.
But first, Downey smashes us in the face with his thoughts on everything from his rocky past to meeting Stan Lee to the intricacies of using the bathroom. Now take notes!

LIVING LARGE AS TONY STARK
“I could say that we’re similar. He’s in better shape, he’s smarter, and he’s probably a lot more quintessentially manly at the end of the day than I am. It’s not like I use a different voice or something. It’s just I’m an American guy and a citizen of the world, and there’s plenty of role models for that stuff.”

HIS TROUBLED PAST
“I think that when someone has had a fundamental change—they’re not just trying to backpedal and make it seem like, ‘I’m going to rehab again. Everything is fine. I’m fine, but I’m still clubbing tonight’—by the time that you’ve seen the light, by the time you get out of Dodge and start doing the right thing, you really don’t relate to the person that historically people still say you are…But I get it. In a way that’s why it’s ideally suited for me and I’m ideally suited for it.”

FAN REACTION
“Right from the beginning, I guess the response to me being cast was good. If it hadn’t been good, it would have made me try even—there’s no even harder. I’m not an incurable perfectionist, but I’m a hard worker. And I take it real serious, seriously enough to know that at the end of the day, by the time you’re shooting it, and you’ve exhausted every opportunity to make it watchable, that then you relax and enjoy it.”

CRANKING UP COMIC FILMS
“[While filming] there were a lot of moments of just pure bliss and understanding and feeling at one with the movie universe and the whole thing. But for the most part, we cranked and rocked and worked our asses off and tried to figure out how to not do this scene in this superhero movie ever again the way we’ve seen it 10 times. So we were always trying to put our own fingerprint on it, so that it didn’t seem like you’re just caught up in that technical realm.”

STUNTMEN SUPPORT
“We just rotate. We had a support group. I’d be laid out in the suit and the helmet. And then they take the helmet off going, ‘Uh.’ And [stuntman Mike] Justus would be there like, ‘Dude, you okay?’ And I’d be like, ‘Are you on tomorrow?’ He goes, ‘Second unit, all day.’ I’d be like, ‘Oh, dude.’ And then, the next day, between shots, I’d go over to the second unit. He’d be like ‘Ohhh.’ I’d be, ‘What happened?’ He goes, ‘Nothing, I fell, and I had to tuck my arms.’ And I’d go, ‘Uh. ‘What do you need?’ He goes, ‘Maybe a little Advil.’ I’d be like, ‘I’ll be right back.’”

DIRTY SEXY MONEY
“I drove really cool cars, and I’ve got this plane that’s a mile long. The only time I’ve ever gotten used to real wealth and toys and all that was when I was visiting my other buddies who have done franchise movies. My lot in life is not to be that kind of guy, but to simultaneously enjoy it and realize that’s empty materialism.”

READING COMICS AS A KID
“[I read] Spider-Man, Iron Man, Avengers and I was big into Sgt. Rock. That was another element of why doing ‘Iron Man’ was so appropriate, strangely, for me, is I’m a big military buff. And I’m strung out on the History Channel and the Military Channel.”

TONY’S HARDCORE SCIENCE SIDE
“Every aspect of flight and the technology and the weapons system on the later developments of the suits, it’s not like he’s out there on a test site. He’s basically gone underground. So the only test pilot he has, and again it was a little bit of a Howard Hughes nod, is himself. And some of it is terrifying, and some of it is hilarious. But it’s hard not to applaud the guys [like Tony]—that inability to not keep tinkering with something, even if it’s going to kill them.”

DISTANCING HIMSELF FROM STARK
“It’s so funny because I think that I’m old enough to have a pretty strong aesthetic distance. I remember the days of ‘Less Than Zero’ or ‘Chaplin’ where I would just throw myself into this tizzy of prep or live the role for 16 hours. The same makeup gal who’s doing [‘Iron Man’] did ‘Less Than Zero’ and puts menthol in my eyes and puts latex on my lips and I was doing push-ups before the scenes so that my heart was racing or whatever, and I feel like as much anything nowadays it’s not that we’re not phoning it in—we do really care and we’ve really prepped it into practical oblivion—but I say, ‘I still try to have some distance.’”

MEETING STAN LEE
“I took him to The Grill in Beverly Hills and I said, ‘What were the real origins of this, Stan?’ He said, ‘We kind of did it on a dare.’ It was whether you could make a billionaire industrialist hedonistic somehow through this vulnerability. You think about it and it’s interesting. I mean, 30 years ago and the history. That was a time when there was a very strong anti-establishment, anti-military industrial complex. So for [Stan] it was just a huge challenge.”

IMPROVISING WITH JON FAVREAU
“Jon has been very flexible and very fun because we’re very similar. I mean, I don’t know how this comes across, but it’s really Jon and I who are creating Tony and through that, half of the lines are his and half of the ideas are mine and we’ve got all these great people at the top of their fields who are simultaneously exasperated with the fact that we’re betting on an idea. I come in every day and I say, ‘I’ve seen this in a movie before, no offense. But if we do this, I haven’t seen that.’ Some of them are so far out they go, ‘Will you just go and put on your chest piece and earn a living like everyone else?’”

RESPONSIBILITY TO COMIC FANS
“More often than not, I feel the onus and the responsibility to not venture into this genre without an understanding that it’s actually inhabited and enjoyed by very apt, bright, perceptive and often educated-in-the-arts people. So, just because it happens to have this two-dimensional aspect to it in its origins doesn’t mean that it doesn’t go deep and that it shouldn’t be an art form.”

CONSTRUCTING IRON MAN
“I love Stan Winston and Shane Mahan and all the guys on his team. If Jon and I are Tony Stark then it’s me and those fellows—my stuntmen and stand-in—who can really wind up being Iron Man because it’s just such a massive undertaking. You could take the least macho superhero man or woman and put them in this suit and I swear to God that for 15 seconds you would believe that any of them would destroy their nemesis.”

THE HELL OF WEARING THE ARMOR
“It’s really about the long game. It’s about how do you not have a personality meltdown in hour seven when you kind of feel like you’ve been tarred and feathered and covered in machine parts, and you’re recalling every therapeutic moment that you’ve ever had with friends and family and strangers and every book that you’ve ever read.”

USING THE BATHROOM
“I’d like to say that I’m the first person who’s been able to relieve themselves while wearing the suit. It was precipitous. Suffice it to say, it’s like that thing where you say, ‘How did that guy escape from jail?’ And you go, ‘He was thin.’ ‘Well, there are a lot of thin people in jail.’ ‘Yeah, but that guy’s head was just the right size and he got out between the bars.’”

PACKING ON MUSCLE
“When I got the part, they asked if I wanted to put on some size. I’m not 28 or some guy who’s like Daniel Craig who already had meat packed on his shoulders and then was swelled up even more for that. I mean, you’ve seen me in all the movies. I’m not Mr. Buff Guy and now I’m in the over-40 crew and so it has literally been this excruciating process of working out so hard and so often just to not look like a little pot-bellied pig.”

CAPTURING A ‘TOM CRUISE COMIC BOOK’ FEEL
“We did a photo shoot the other day that wound up going great, but you see this [comic] picture of Tony Stark who kind of looks like Tom Cruise except more handsome and more buff and the suit and his hair is blowing in the wind and they go, ‘Can we get a shot like that? How do you look in the suit?’ And you’re tired and I’m not particularly tall and I’m surrounded by giants, and I was like, ‘This is weird.’”

BEING A SUPERHERO PLAYBOY
“This might sound a little weird, but I’m not drawing on other things for [Tony]. It’s like I consider him to be a real entity for the most part. Regardless of the amount of dough that I’ve made over the years, I’ve never lived a day—I’ve never lived four seconds—like this guy has lived every day. So it’s been this really amazing experience to see what it would be like if you had unimaginable resources and you had this change of heart and then you decided to pull those resources into something that became very much like a fetish and obsessive, but obsessive in a way that you kind of have to figure out as you go along what the moral psychology is of that.”

SHRUGGING OFF A DIVA ATTITUDE
“You have to keep your head right. It’s so easy to get spun out. You see people who have no challenges outside of their Hollywood problems come in and they regularly have meltdowns on set where they turn into a bitch or they say and do things because they’re under pressure or because they think they’re something that they’re not.”

RAISING THE BAR
“This has been a really grueling shoot and it’s also been a really magical shoot because, I sh-- you not, I come in every day and it reminds of reading about [Charlie] Chaplin in the early days where he’d go in without an idea in his head. It’s not like we don’t have a script. But you go in and you say, ‘How do we raise this to a level of something that we want to see that addresses all the different elements of these kinds of films?’ I’m actually starting to think that they’re a really, really high order of art.”

LMS: Batman Vs Iron Man

Well, no more scripts have been written. But because I posted up the Wizard Last Man Standing, Theo decided to start writing some LMS features of his own, with a couple of edits by yours truly. That lasted like TWO LMS features from Theo. <_<

Anyway, posting them here for posterity:

Tale of the Tape

Height:
Batman - 6'1
Iron Man - 6'8 (in armour, 6'1 as Tony Stark)

Weight:
Batman - 190 lbs
Iron Man - 1 ton (in armour, 170 lbs as Tony Stark)

Movie Girlfriend of choice:
Batman - Katie Holmes
Iron Man - Gwyneth Paltrow

Richer than:
Batman - Montgomery Burns
Iron Man - Richard Branson

Likes to spend money on:
Batman - Those wonderful toys
Iron Man - Alcohol

THE PLAYERS: After watching a mugger murder his parents, young Bruce Wayne embarked on a one-man war on crime, prowling the night as the brooding vigilante Batman!

After being injured near fatally by a exploded bomb's fragment inching its way towards his heart and held captive by terrorists, Tony Stark built himself a suit to keep his heart pumping and introduce himself to the world as the Armoured Avenger, Iron Man!

THE BATTLE:
Fresh from his knock-down no-holds-barred battle against Bane, Batman staggers away from the dank sewers, thankful that his spine is left intact from his latest skirmish with the drugged-up powerhouse. As Batman climbs out of the sewers, he hears an almost inaudible whine of hi-tech twin jet engines. Up in the sky! Is it a bird? Is it a plane? No! "Must be one of Toyman's gadgets," thinks Batman, observing a shiny red and gold glint careening across the sky. "This ends tonight!" Batman vows and pursues his target. Meanwhile, Iron Man's proximity alert informs him of a volley of fast approaching projectiles. He swings around but cannot avoid the exploding Batarangs, which temporarily blind and ground him. Batman seizes the opportunity to land a roundhouse kick into Iron Man's headpiece, with no discernable effect other than giving Bats a sore foot. Batman knows he has to end this battle fast, and unleashes a volley of batarangs at Iron Man's head.

Determined to get the unknown pointy eared assailant away from him, Iron Man fires up his chest-mounted unibeam and Batman unceremoniously crashes onto Wayne Tower's roof below. Batman quickly realises that he can't match his opponent's powered suit and decides to get crafty. He throws a smoke bomb to cover his tracks and flings more batarangs at Iron Man, striking his head, arms and chest. "Were those meant to stop me?" the unethereal voice intones from the suit. "No," Batman growls, "They were." and presses a trigger on his belt. A strong short range electromagnetic pulse fires up from the Batarangs' deposits and courses through Iron Man, sending him plummeting to the hard ground below and leaving him unconscious from the crash.

Somewhere in Wayne Tower, an oblivious cleaner turns up the volume to his favourite song and hums "Another one bites the dust..."

When Captain America throws his mighty shiiiiiiiiiiiiieeeeeeeld...

More scripts featuring Captain Ash! At least, that was the name I coined since "Bruce Campbell as Captain America" just was too bloody long.

This one, once again, was on 5 July 2007:


By popular demand (from the one other person who actually comes to read the stuff we post here): More of Bruce Campbell's misadventures as the Star Spangled Centurion - Captain Ash!


Panel 1 - Captain Ash and Iron Man, standing some distance away, like one of those showdowns you see in Westerns. (Camera angle: Perhaps starting from Iron Man's waist, and you see Captain America in the background. To emphasise that it's a "Western" kind of showdown, you could have one of those dust balls blowing across the panel)

Dialogue box: "And now: Outtakes and deleted scenes from Bruce Campbell's Captain America audition tape!"

BC: "Buckle up ironhead, coz you're going for a ride!"


Panel 2 - Captain Ash throws his shield towards Iron Man, who easily evades it.

Dialogue box (musical lyrics, so if you could add a note or two beside the text to indicate it's music...): "When Captain America throws his mighty shiiiiiieeeeld....."

BC: "That's it, go ahead and run. Run home and cry to mama!"


Panel 3 - Iron Man sticks out his tongue at Captain Ash with the words "neener neener" surrounding his head. Don't ask how Iron Man can stick his tongue out through his helmet...

Iron Man: "That the best you can do? Haha, you're a jerk! You're a goody little two-shoes!"


Panel 4 - Close up on Captain Ash's face. He has a raised eyebrow, a la The Rock.

Off panel Iron Man voice balloon: "Goody little two-shoes!"


Panel 5 - Captain Ash's expression has changed to anger. He reaches for the boomstick strapped to his back.

Off panel Iron Man voice balloon: "Goody little two-shoes!"


Panel 6 - Captain Ash shoots Iron Man in the face...metallic helmet pieces fly everywhere and we can see part of Iron Man's brain exploding out! A big caption of "BANG!" can be placed somewhere in the panel.

Iron Man: "Goody lit..."


Panel 7 - Captain Ash stands over the body of Iron Man and kicks him in the nuts.

BC: "I'm not THAT good."

"Iron Man" Trailer Image Gallery

Even more images from the Iron Man movie!

Original webpage here:

"Iron Man" Trailer Image Gallery

Want a closer look at the new 'Iron Man' trailer? Check out this gallery of images from the amazing clip!

Posted September 11, 2007 12:00 PM

The official "Iron Man" trailer hit the 'Net yesterday, and we've got a gallery of images pulled from the video for you to peruse at your leisure. So check 'em out, and start counting the days until the film's release on May 2, 2008!

I must say, Gwyneth looks HORRIBLE in the picture. And she doesn't look anything like what Pepper Potts should look like.

Inside the "Iron Man" trailer

Iron Man, Iron Man, does whatever an Iron can.

Wait, that doesn't sound right.

Anyway, more on the Iron Man movie.

Check out how awesome the "old" armour looks! And the new one is just awesome, of course.

INSIDE THE ‘IRON MAN’ TRAILER
From Tony Stark’s red carpet walk to the Mark 3 armor cutting loose, here’s a blow-by-blow of the eagerly anticipated footage

By Dave Winnick

Posted September 11, 2007 1:25 PM

The trailer opens with a brand-new silver Audi R8 driving with the license plate Stark 4 on it. Next up is Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.), walking down a red carpeted stairway into a press line where he is asked by a reporter (Leslie Bibb) about his nickname “The Da Vinci of our time.” Stark replies, “Absolutely ridiculous—I don’t paint.” The reporter then asks about his other nickname, “The Merchant of Death.” Stark nods his head in approval, stating, “That’s not bad.”

The trailer changes to the now-familiar Marvel flipbook opening before showing Stark talking to a group of camo-clad military men about a new weapon Stark Industries has created. Stark says of this new weapon, “They say the best weapon is the one you never have to fire. I prefer the weapon you only have to fire once.” The trailer then cuts to a quick flash of three missiles before focusing on Stark again. “That’s how Dad did it. That’s how America does it. And it’s worked out pretty well so far.”

Up to this point the trailer is fairly lighthearted with Tony Stark being his familiar arrogant, smart-mouthed self. After the speech, Tony is shown raising a glass of hard liquor for a toast, possibly an indicator of drinking days to come. With that slightly ominous footage in the mind of the viewers, the trailer then cuts to Stark in a Humvee with some military personnel asking for a picture with him. Stark cordially obliges, jokingly warning the soldiers that he doesn’t “want to see this on your MySpace page.”

Things really turn bad for Tony after that as a series of explosions and gunfire begin to bombard his convoy. The footage turns to quick flashes of Stark running for cover as all hell breaks loose around him. All of this is set to the rhythm of a heart beating. Unfortunately for Tony, he just isn’t fast enough. A shell explodes next to him and the sequence ends abruptly.

The trailer turns to a picture of Tony on a video camera screen looking badly beaten. The camera pans out to show the soon-to-be-hero tied to a chair, being filmed by a terrorist group. The group’s leader tells Stark he has until the next day to assemble a missile.

It would appear that Stark has other plans for the materials he’s given. In voiceover Stark is heard telling his cellmate, “I just finally know what I have to do.” Sparks fly and hammers crash on anvils as Tony begins to forge his new identity. Tony’s cellmate is then heard asking, “What are you building, Stark?” The next thing seen on screen is Stark laying down the mask of the Mark 1 Iron Man suit on a table. He says, “I’m working on something big.”

Next the trailer flashes to a door with terrorist staring at it. Someone, or something, is beating on the door. The thump of a bass drum can be heard as the pounding continues. The door breaks free of its hinges as Black Sabbath’s “Iron Man” begins to play in the background. The song accompanies footage of Stark using the Mark 1 to soundly thrash his captors. The trailer highlights some of the bulletproof suit’s attributes, including flamethrowers and added strength.

The music changes and the trailer switches to a series of quick scene flashes. Stark is shown in a tank top, the machinery that keeps his heart pumping clearly displayed on his chest.

Next up is a shot of Tony’s secretary and confidant, Pepper Potts (Gwyneth Paltrow), on a military base.

After the picture of Potts, the footage switches to a bald and bearded Jeff Bridges as Obadiah Stane. Stark’s rival is standing in front of an Iron suit. It’s unclear if this is Stark’s Mark 1 or Stane’s own Iron Monger outfit because the suit is filmed from behind.

The footage of Stane is followed by a quick shot of a wild pool party and what appears to be Stark in bed with a woman.

Fans of Jim Rhodes (Terrence Howard) are given a quick shot of Tony’s best friend. Howard stated at Comic-Con that he was looking forward to the possibility of donning the War Machine armor in future films.

Following the shot of Rhodes is more footage of Pepper Potts being terrorized by someone in the Iron Monger armor, most likely Stane.

This terror only lasts for a short time though, as the next thing on screen is Stark rising to his feet completely garbed in the Mark 3. The Mark 3 is a streamlined version of the Iron Man Mark 3 from the comic book. It looks like a cross between the regular Marvel Universe suit and the Ultimate Marvel Universe suit.

There is then a quick shot of Stark sticking his gloved right hand up toward the screen. The palm of his hand his glowing as a repulsor ray begins to fire from it.

The trailer then moves to the footage of the Mark 3 flying alongside two military jets. The speed and agility of the Iron Man suit is highlighted as Stark executes a quick barrel roll: then he leaves the two planes in his dust.

Once again the familiar sounds of Black Sabbath play over the trailer as a die hits a piece of iron, leaving the imprint of the Iron Man logo. Ozzy Osbourne’s voice is heard singing “I am Iron Man.” The release date, May 2, 2008, flashes on the screen. The trailer finishes with a shot of the flying Mark 3 suit breaking the sound barrier and then flying off into the distance.

Orson Scott Card talks Ultimate Iron Man II

Geez, it's only been the longest time since the sequel series to Ultimate Iron Man was going to be printed! Orson Scott Card's first six-issue mini-series was awesome...except that it ended with a "To be continued". That was a good year plus plus before, so us fans have been waiting around, wondering what's in store for Ultimate Tony Stark.

But wait no longer we shall, as Ultimate Iron Man II is coming soon!

ORSON SCOTT CARD TALKS ‘ULTIMATE IRON MAN II’
The writer says Tony Stark is ‘all blown up’ in the 4-issue follow-up announced in Baltimore

By Matt Powell

Posted September 10, 2007

As director of S.H.I.E.L.D. and with a star-studded film in the works, Tony Stark’s having the ultimate time of his life.

And at Marvel’s panel at last weekend’s Baltimore Comic-Con, the company debuted an ultimate surprise with the reveal of Ultimate Iron Man II, the sequel to 2005’s Ultimate Iron Man, from original series writer Orson Scott Card and superstar artist Pasqual Ferry (Ultimate Fantastic Four). The 4-issue miniseries begins in December.

The first Ultimate Iron Man chronicled the early life of the Ultimate Universe’s Tony Stark. The hard-hitting history of young Tony’s life—including the unique affliction causing Tony relentless pain, but also granting him his incredible genius, and his father’s framing for murder—forged the series into a hit. Without wasting time, Card plans to pick up Volume 2 right where he left off.

“The second series starts literally moments after the end of the first one,” explains Card. “So the stage he’s in is: all blown up and nowhere to go...”

Explosions may be the least of Tony’s troubles as Card reveals what’s ahead for the Ultimate Iron Avenger.

“[Tony] gets involved with terrorists and at the same time makes monkeys out of government people who try to control ‘the robots,’ as they think Iron Man and War Machine to be,” explains the writer. “Obadiah Stane continues to work his sneaky way through the story.”

Although the series revolves around Tony Stark, for Card, one of Stark’s trusted allies nearly steals the show.

“I’ve had great fun with War Machine, and he continues in this second series,” enthuses Card. “There are some other [familiar supporting characters] as well, though I use them differently from their roles in the ‘regular’ Iron Man comics, of course.”

“The fun is to balance three things,” explains Card. “The suit does cool stuff in an adventure setting; Tony is really, really smart, so he doesn’t always respond with brute force; and Tony is wrestling with the demons in his life.”

While this series takes place in the early days of Tony Stark’s life before The Ultimates , Card promises that this book can be enjoyed on its own.

“I’m trying not to contradict anything in The Ultimates,” assures Card. “That series is not taking into account what I’ve done with Ultimate Iron Man. I’m trying not to do anything that would really annoy readers of The Ultimates. As per my original charter from Marvel, I’m pretty much free to make Ultimate Iron Man stand alone.”

Kevin Feige on the Iron Man movie

And even more stuff about the Iron Man movie!

KEVIN FEIGE ON BRINGING ‘IRON MAN’ TO THE BIG SCREEN
Marvel Studios’ president addresses unconventional casting and the possibility of bringing Earth’s Mightiest Heroes together on-screen

By Rickey Purdin

Posted September 3, 2007 1:00 PM

Wizard recently visited the set of the highly anticipated “Iron Man” film, which hits theaters May 2, 2008, and will be the first feature out of the gate from fledgling Marvel Studios. In a roundtable interview, studio President Kevin Feige talked about the years-long effort to bring “Iron Man” to the big screen and why making seemingly unconventional choices in cast and crew has proven so successful with Marvel films.

Why did “Iron Man” take so long? This has been kicking around for years now.

FEIGE: It seems that after a good 10 or 15 years, each character’s ready to go. I mean, the gestation period is very similar to what “X-Men” was and what “Hulk” was and what “Spider-Man” was. It just seems that the time is right. Everyone has to wait for their at-bat, and now it’s “Iron Man’s” turn.

You’ve had big-name actors connected with this thing, you’ve had directors connected, they’ve come and gone. Is this something that’s more difficult to pull together than some of the other ones have been?

FEIGE: They’re all difficult. Every translation from a comic to a movie is difficult. Every film that is made is difficult. I wouldn’t say this is more difficult than any of the other ones. But frankly, and as you’re all familiar with the journey and the rights issues that were tangled up with “Spider-Man” for so long and because these contracts and these characters have been around for so long, and various people and entities and companies and corporations have had their fingers on it at some point, it takes a while. In the case of “Iron Man,” there weren’t those kind of complications. There was a first incarnation at New Line and they attempted to put that together and it didn’t quite work out.

You’ve had some interesting choices for the creative people involved in this film that are outside kind of what you would think of as mainstream comic books for your movie. Can you talk about why those kinds of choices were made rather than going with someone who might be more conventional? Or more fit in the idea of a comic book?

FEIGE: Well, you know the idea of a conventional director for one of our movies or a conventional star for one of our movies or something that might be more in line with a comic book movie, look at the people you’d be referring to now. Is Tobey Maguire more conventional for a comic book movie like this? Is Hugh Jackman more conventional? Is Bryan Singer, Sam Raimi—well, they are now because we picked them and we hired them and we turned out good product with them. But if you go back to before that, he’s the guy who’d done “Usual Suspects,” made very little at the box office, was just a great film and a great film maker. Tobey Maguire had done “The Ice Storm” and “Cider House Rules” and some great things but certainly never put on a costume and swung around and fought the bad guys before. Hugh Jackman was singing in the West End of London when we hired him for Wolverine. We always hire, whether they’re famous or not, the people that we think would best fit the role and best become the character. And in the case of Robert Downey Jr., he is a great, great actor and embodies that intelligence and that fun and that humor and sort of a wryness that certainly I always loved when I was reading the Iron Man comics. And the fact that he was so enthusiastic to come into a movie like this was also very intriguing. And same thing with Favreau, you look at his films, there’s some cool sequences within “Elf” that certainly start to elevate above what you would expect out of a Will Ferrell comedy. “Zathura” was extremely well handled in terms of his direction for it, sci-fi and dealing with more effects. And he came into us very interested in this project and this genre and obviously we brought him on board thinking he could give yet another unique out of these. These aren’t cookie-cutter products that we’re churning out. We want each of them to live and breathe on their own.

In the current sphere of comics, Tony Stark’s sort of a jerk. Was there concern about that? Is the whole idea by the time the movie comes out something’s revealed so that the non-core Iron Man fans, maybe other Marvel fans don’t look at him so negatively as a character?

FEIGE: I think people could argue whether you could look at him negatively or not. From Civil War, I think the way he ended up in Civil War was pretty cool and he was pretty smart and he did something that not a lot of people would be willing to do. He essentially put himself out there knowing people would look at him as being a jerk for the greater good, for what he perceived as the greater good in the comics.

The truth is, anybody that I’m having this kind of a dialogue with would have to be a die-hard comic fan and if they’re interested enough in the subtleties of his character within a certain storyline in the comics, I think they’re coming to the movie. At least that’s what we’ve seen in the past. Civil War has been great. Iron Man has been on more comic covers in the past year than he was probably in two or three years before that as a lead role.

In terms of him being a jerk or not a jerk, I think we’ll start to see more of traditional heroic Tony Stark in the comics. There’s always sort of various continuities going on at the same time and it was only Civil War that he did what some people might claim are questionable actions, but even then if people are talking about Iron Man, I’m very happy.

The fact that Marvel Studios is controlling “Thor” and “Captain America” and “Iron Man,” is there a possibility of an “Avengers” storyline anywhere in the future?

FEIGE: I would love to….What was preventing certain characters from crossing over in the past was the fact that they were all divvied up from different studios and there were big giant gates in between them and they couldn’t play in the same sandbox, and now that we have Hulk and Thor and Cap and Iron Man certainly would indicate to me that it might be fun to see them all in the same sandbox at some point. But certainly we’re introducing them and building them in their own franchises first.

Why did you guys choose Afghanistan instead of Iraq for this, the original story of Stark in this film? Because the original origin story, Vietnam and Iraq are much closer. Were you trying to avoid any controversy?

FEIGE: No. I don’t think we’re looking for controversy but I don’t think we’re actively avoiding either. I’m going to be called on my historical inaccuracies here, but I think in the early ’60s, America hadn’t entered Vietnam yet and wasn’t an active war going on when Tony Stark was injured by Wong Chu in the origin story. So the story was never about him going into an active war zone necessarily. He was entering into a conflict that was sort of brewing, much in the same way today that Afghanistan is sort of this continued conflict as opposed to an active, full-on war. So I think that was probably part of our reasoning. By the way, we may not even call it Afghanistan in the movie.

How do you align yourself in terms of the different properties? Do you separate what that origin story is from the live-action movie in terms of the way you are trying to expand?

FEIGE: Are you talking about our direct-to-DVD “Invincible Iron Man” animated movie?

Exactly.

FEIGE: Second highest-selling animated DVD, direct to DVD. Yeah. You translate it to the medium. The medium for direct-to-DVD animated feature and that audience and what fits in there can often be different than a giant summer blockbuster film. So we adapt them to fit the medium that we’re putting them into.

Do you learn lessons from doing that that you can apply to the live action?

FEIGE: Absolutely. I mean, Jon will tell you that we’ve had stacks of comic reference, we had stacks of reference from the ’60s “Iron Man” cartoon, from the ’90s “Iron Man” cartoon, although less from that and even some designs and some story elements from the animated. It’s all about looking at all of the source materials available and picking and choosing from there to formulate what we would believe to be the best story possible.

I asked this of Jon and he had one answer for it and I’ll ask you as well. The decision not to have the alcoholism storyline in Tony Stark’s character in “Iron Man,” the question comes up because Robert Downey Jr. has his own personal issues that sort of resonate with the character. Why was that decision made for this film?

FEIGE: Well, the story of Iron Man was never the story of an alcoholic that became a superhero. You know, the “Demon in a Bottle” storyline is a wonderful storyline but it was, you know, two or three arcs out of, I don’t know, 100 arcs over the past 45 years. It was never his defining attribute or his defining storyline. It’s something I think would be interesting down the road somewhere. I think all of our characters dealing with their flaws, and certainly whether it’s Peter Parker or any of our characters, Bruce Banner dealing with the flaws of their character, the curse of their powers, that’s always fun to play with. That’s always frankly what I think makes our characters stand apart is that they do have flaws and they do have struggles and they are battling not just whatever evil supervillain they’re up against, but they’re also dealing with issues that we all deal with in real life. And certainly that’s the case with that particular storyline of Tony Stark, but it was never our intention to play with that in the first; I don’t know if we’ll play in that with the first three movies. If we’re lucky enough that the character takes off and that people respond to him the way we hope they do, I’d love to play with that storyline at some point.

Can you talk about Jon’s touch on this particular movie? Like the humor? Can you explain how we’re going to see it?

FEIGE: Yeah. I mean, Favreau is a great storyteller. He’s a great filmmaker. He’s a hilarious person. Yes, there’s certainly an element of fun that he brings to it. But there’s also, he also is very demanding when it comes to the story. And if something’s not working, he will stop everything until he thinks that it’s working. And that’s what good directors do. But there is something in terms of the interactions of the characters, in terms of…you know, Jeff Bridges had said “Oh, we’re ad-libbing everything and it’s great and stuff.” And we’re not ad libbing everything. But Jon brings that feeling about that he likes to get the input from the actors, and if somebody has a better line, it’s going in the movie.

Who seems to be providing that the most?

FEIGE: Actually, everyone is, believe it or not. Gwyneth is and Robert is and Jeff is and Terrence. And that all comes and it’s filtered through Jon based on the atmosphere that he brings onto the set.

An interview with Robert Downey Jr

And to cap off all this Iron Man hype, Wizard interviews Tony Stark himself, Robert Downey Jr!

ROBERT DOWNEY JR.’S ‘IRON’ WILL
The ‘Iron Man’ star talks about getting in shape when you’re over 40 and working with director Jon Favreau to stay true to their vision

By Rickey Purdin

Posted September 2, 2007 9:05 AM

Wizard recently visited the set of the highly anticipated “Iron Man” film, which hits theaters May 2, 2008, and will be the first feature out of the gate from fledgling Marvel Studios. In a roundtable interview, star Robert Downey Jr. (“Chaplin,” “Zodiac”) talked about meeting Stan Lee and injecting originality into the superhero-flick genre, and spoke candidly about why he’s ideally suited for the role of Tony Stark.

If you met Tony Stark on a street corner, what would you guys have to talk about?

DOWNEY: Well, first of all he would be in a costume, and so we would probably throw down right there. It’s so funny, because I think that I’m old enough to have a pretty strong aesthetic distance, and I remember the days of “Less Than Zero” or “Chaplin” where I would just throw myself into this tizzy of prep or live the role for 16 hours. The same makeup gal who’s doing this did “Less Than Zero” and put menthol in my eyes and put latex on my lips, and I was doing push-ups before the scenes so that my heart was racing or whatever, and I feel like as much as anything nowadays, we’re not phoning it in—we do really care and we’ve really prepped it into practical oblivion—but I say, “I still try to have some distance.”

So it’s even more narcissistic to be talking to some department head and going, “You know, I don’t think Tony…” which is essentially saying whatever I don’t want to do or want to do in a scene. But if there’s ever been a character in the history of my career that I would be happy to kind of meld with and associate myself with it’s Tony Stark, because it’s the coolest job that I’ve ever had.

I love the history of it and I got to meet Stan Lee. I took him to the Grill in Beverly Hills and I said, “What were the real origins of this, Stan?” He said, “We kind of did it on a dare.” It was whether you could make a billionaire industrialist, hedonistic…I mean, 30 years ago, that was a time when there was a very strong anti-establishment, anti-military industrial complex, anti-rich-over-30 energy. So for him it was just a huge challenge, and he said that they got more female fan mail than all of their other heroes combined because there was this sense of him being very vulnerable and not knowing from day to day whether this very precarious device that keeps him alive and drives him, but is clearly a metaphor for something else—sometimes it’s not a metaphor. You’ve got a small reactor in your chest, which is the reason that you’re not dead and so in the movie, how can that be a metaphor? It’s like saying, “This aqualung underwater, this reed that I’m breathing through….”

Terrence [Howard] told us the story about how they had to relight a scene because one of your improvisations changed the scene. Were there any other times you caused resets like that because of your ideas?

DOWNEY: Well, first of all, as a martial artist you want to be as efficient and effective and use as much linear striking as possible and don’t fight force with force. There are a lot of these concepts where everything is like everything else for film, and so I’m not like coming in and going, “Hey, this is all wrong. Relight.” But I will come in and say, “Given the time that we have, we can probably get this many shots.” Jon [Favreau] has been very flexible and very fun because we’re very similar. I mean, I don’t know how this comes across, but it’s really Jon and I who are creating Tony, and through that, half of the lines are his and half of the ideas are mine and we’ve got all these great people at the top of their fields who are simultaneously exasperated with the fact that we’re betting on an idea. I come in every day and I say, “I’ve seen this in a movie before, no offense. But if we do this, I haven’t seen that.” Some of them are so far out they go, “Will you just go and put on your chest piece and earn a living like everyone else?” But more often than not, I feel the onus and the responsibility to not venture into this genre without an understanding that it’s actually inhabited and enjoyed, and me being amongst these people, by very apt, bright, perceptive people. So, just because it happens to have this two-dimensional aspect to it in its origins doesn’t mean that it doesn’t go deep and that it shouldn’t be an art form. I don’t know. I just think that audiences are continually underestimated, and at the same time I love “CHUD.” I can go see a pretty crappy movie and just love it. If it’s got a couple of things that work, I’m fine. I’m like a soccer coach with kids who probably shouldn’t be playing soccer.

What was going through your mind in having the reporters during the press conference sit on the floor?

DOWNEY: I walked into the room and everyone was standing up and I go, “Here we are.” And after they go [making yelling noises] I was like, “Can’t he come in…?” He’s also supposedly gone through this massive transformation. He’s been humbled and he’s seen things through new eyes and I think that the people he’s interacting with were like, “That’s the press and we do our sound bites and we do our damage control and we do our propaganda and that’s it.” I think that he’s starting to relate to the people as, not an idealist—because I think that he’s too educated in the dark arts of weapons manufacturing and also his family and their legacy to be a moron or suddenly be waving flowers and wanting to join hands and sing “Kumbaya”—but I think that there is an equalization that occurs. Still, that’s a little bit strange. It’s not like he raises his finger and he’s Caesar: “We wear the purple and everyone sit down.” I think that it was just kind of making them nervous and it was just a strange thing to do, and also later on it was like maybe Tony’s gone a little cuckoo, and I thought that’s why he might demonstrate that, even though that’s not why he did it. It’s that thing of miscommunication of intentions and ideas.

Can you talk about the wardrobe and getting into the suit?

DOWNEY: Yes. I love Stan Winston and all the guys on his team. There are several stuntmen as well and Mike Justice and these guys, and again, if Jon and I are Tony Stark, then it’s me and those fellows—my stuntmen and stand-in—who can really wind up being Iron Man, because it’s just such a massive undertaking. At first we said that we wanted to do as much as practically as possible. I came into this going, “Oh, yeah. Practically. Practically.” But it’s really tough and really great. Like, the first time you try on that suit, you could take the least macho superhero man or woman and put them in this suit, and I swear to God that for 15 seconds you would believe that any of them would destroy their nemesis. So it’s really about the long game. It’s about, how do you not have a personality meltdown in like hour seven when you kind of feel like you’ve been tarred and feathered and covered in machine parts?

I had come off doing “Zodiac” before this and “Kiss Kiss Bang Bang,” which was a really good movie that I loved, and “Scanner Darkly” before that—all of these films are really about character and once in a while you get your finger cut off, you have a bad day or you’re wearing an ascot or something like that, and so I had really gotten used to doing these non-technically driven movies. As much as we’ve been able to in this, we’ve tried to have it feel like if Bob Altman had directed “Superman” or something like that.

How long does it take to get into it, and can you not drink water the entire day?

DOWNEY: Right. I’d like to say that I’m the first person who’s been able to relieve themselves while wearing the suit. It was precipitous. Wouldn’t it be great if that was the rest of the interview?

I just want to know how?!

DOWNEY: It was a zipper, but the zipper was still covered by a hitch piece that actually had a groin attached. Suffice it to say, it’s like that thing where you say, “How did that guy escape from jail?” And you go, “He was thin.” “Well, there are a lot of thin people in jail.” “Yeah, but that guy’s head was just the right size and he got out between the bars.”

Like wearing the chest piece, does that ever feel normal or is frustrating sometimes?

DOWNEY: Well, look, wearing a watch can be frustrating if you’re not in the right headspace. Nah, it’s fine.

Can you talk about what your training process has been like?

DOWNEY: For the last five years or so I’ve been doing martial arts, and then when I got the part they asked if I wanted to put on some size. I’m not like 28 or some guy like Daniel Craig who already had meat packed on his shoulders. I mean, you’ve seen me in all the movies. I’m not Mr. Buff Guy and now I’m in the over-40 crew, and so it has literally been this excruciating process of working out so hard and so often just to not look like a little pot-bellied pig. There are a couple of scenes where they light it right and I do all of this stuff, and I’m like, “Wow. That really looks great. I’m really in shape.” Twenty minutes later it goes back down. [Laughs] I’m doing yoga and eating right and sleeping right, and all of the other obvious stuff that is probably more important than just working out.

Then there’s the whole thing of looking at the comic books. We did a photo shoot here the other day that wound up going great, but you see this picture of Tony Stark, who kind of looks like Tom Cruise except more handsome and more buff, and the suit and his hair is blowing in the wind and they go, “Can we get a shot like that?” I was like, “Let’s not go ‘Something About Mary’ here.” I’m like, “I’ve got this.” So it’s been a lot of outside issues: “How do you look in the suit?” And you’re tired and I’m not particularly tall and I’m surrounded by giants, and I was like, “This is weird.” I’m not walking around like Don Adams, on boards or anything, but there are all these elements of, like, when I see this movie I want to be able to believe that he’s the guy.

Are there any real-life playboys that you’ve drawn on for your take on Tony Stark?

DOWNEY: Well, this might sound a little weird, but I’m not drawing on other things for him. It’s like I consider him to be a real entity for the most part. I come into work and there are hundreds of people around, and things are made very easy and available to me. I see $100,000 cars and things and all this stuff, regardless of the amount of dough that I’ve made over the years, I’ve never lived a day—I’ve never lived four seconds like this guy has lived every day. So it’s been this really kind of amazing experience to see what it would be like if you had unimaginable resources and you had this change of heart and then you decided to pull those resources into something that became very much like a fetish and obsession, but obsessive in a way that you kind of have to figure out as you go along what the moral psychology is of that.

So I think that it’s a very human journey. To continue not answering your question, I tended to go more into mythology and the real basis of mythology and how men and women are capable of, at a certain sort of level, God making—making themselves godlike, clearing themselves of these earthly things and locking into a purpose or some sort of divine idea, whether it seems dark at the time or not. It’s like you can see through perception and then you have this heroic experience. I could say that about single mothers. I could say that about a variety of different types of folks that I’ve known growing up.

I’m sorry to ask this question, but it’s the natural progression of the character…

DOWNEY: It’s funny that you’re sitting dead center and this is the last question.

And I hope that you’re not offended by my asking it…

DOWNEY: Yeah, yeah, give me all the f---ing preambles. Just bring it, dude.

How much of [your struggle with addiction] has anything to do with what you’re doing with this role, or is it irrelevant?

DOWNEY: Right. Well, I mean, I think that when someone has had a fundamental change and they’re not just trying to backpedal and make it seem like, “I’m going to rehab again. Everything is fine. I’m fine, but I’m still clubbing tonight.” Whatever friends of mine or peers who are just in a different place in their own evolution, by the time that you’ve seen the light, by the time that you get out of Dodge and start doing the right thing, you really don’t relate to the person that historically [they] still say you are. It’s like the thing that guy says, like, “If you Google me all you’re ever going to see is that I’m accused of raping those two kids on the boat.” It’s like, “Why am I Googling you anyway?”

So, my thing is that Tony Stark has been known to go bonkers and be so irresponsible that he’s too hammered to put on the suit. I was like, “Really?” They were like, “Yeah.” I thought all of these times that it felt like it was an atmosphere where maybe there was another one of these because, you know, there’s that whole “you’re the superhero of the week” thing and there are so many, and I was like, “Green Hornet? No.” Or some of the other different ones, some of the other ones that have happened where the first thing is like, “We really want you to play the bad guy in our movie.” It’s the fact that Tony is so conflicted at certain points, I guess, in the later years with “Demon in the Bottle” and all of that stuff. There’s so much stuff going on in this movie as it is that we decided not to do that thing too, but I get it. In a way that’s why it’s ideally suited for me and I’m ideally suited for it.