LMS: Wolverine Vs Sabertooth

What fabulous art by Jim Lee! It's the match-up all Wolvie fans wanna see: a knock-down, gritty and dirty battle against his arch-nemesis, the hairy wonder himself, Sabertooth!

Sif we all don't already know who's going to win. :p


LAST MAN STANDING

Wolverine vs. Sabertooth

Art by Jim Lee

TALE OF THE TAPE
Wolverine		Sabretooth
5'3"	Height	6'6"
195 lbs	Weight	275 lbs
63"	Reach	78"
23,153	Backhairs	23,153
Molson Canadian	Beer	Labatt's XXX

THE PLAYERS... A mutant with enhanced senses and a lightning-quick healing factor, Logan participated in Canada’s “Weapon X” program, which gave him an adamantium-laced skeleton. Combined with retractable claws, this killing machine now protects humanity as the X-Men’s Wolverine!
A mutant with razor-claws, heightened senses and an accelerated healing factor, the so-called Victor Creed also took part in “Weapon X.” Now a freelance mercenary, Creed uses his powers, instincts and uncontrollable bloodlust to tear through his victims as Sabretooth!

THE BATTLE... Honing his skills in the woods of upstate N.Y., Wolverine suddenly drops the scent of the deer he’s tracking and picks up a more familiar one: Sabretooth! Muscles tensed and claws extended, Logan turns just as Sabretooth lunges at his foe. A few quick swipes, and Sabretooth draws first blood. Wolverine counters with some well-placed blows to Sabretooth’s midsection, knocking the villain into a formerly solid oak tree. The ’Tooth gets up and pursues Wolverine, locking the two in a frenzied dance of blood, slashes and snarls. Getting in close, Sabretooth’s bloodlust rises as he cuts open Wolvie’s abdomen. Berserker rage now kicking in, Wolverine slashes out with his claws, slicing Sabretooth’s right hand clean off. With the smell of blood filling his nostrils, Wolverine mercilessly hacks away at his wounded foe, pausing not even for a second as he delivers the final blow through Sabretooth’s heart. Holding his guts in with one hand, Wolverine spits a good-bye on his enemy, before falling to the ground and passing out in a sea of blood as his healing factor kicks into overdrive.

Ultimates team to do UFF!

Yay! One of my favourite creative teams of the 00s is reuniting in the Ultimate universe! While they won't be doing The Ultimates anymore, they WILL be doing Ultimate Fantastic Four. Wizard has this report:

‘FANTASTIC’ NEWS
‘Ultimates’ team of Millar-Hitch tapped for ‘Fantastic Four’

By Ben Morse

Posted September 2, 2007 11:30 AM

Fantastic Four gets a truly “ultimate” creative team when the acclaimed Ultimates duo of writer Mark Millar and artist Bryan Hitch comes on board in 2008 as the new regular creators chronicling the adventures of Marvel’s First Family. On the heels of the official announcement made at Wizard World Chicago, Millar talked about taking hold of the reins on “The World’s Greatest Comic Magazine.”

WIZARD: How did you and Bryan end up taking on Fantastic Four as your first post-Ultimates gig together?

MILLAR: We were actually going to take over Astonishing X-Men and had been talking about doing a big X-Men project for awhile. But that seemed like another monumental thing [coming off Ultimates], like we were jumping into a project even bigger than [the one we just did]. [Bryan] felt kind of wary about it, and I think he fancied taking it easy for a year and then doing something a bit lighter, self-contained and fun. Fantastic Four was the one.

What is the crux of your plans for the book?

What we’re doing is really a response to what happened to the FF during Civil War. Instead of a family breaking up, [our run will be] all about a family coming together.

How long are you planning on sticking around?

I’m going to do at least 15 or 16 issues.

Given that Ultimates had some trouble shipping on time, how far ahead are you guys on this one?

We managed to do the first issue in seven weeks. Everybody thinks that Bryan draws for two hours a day or something, but he’s sitting there for like 10 hours a day. He’ll spend a day just on a panel sometimes. But we’ve both agreed there will be no delays [on Fantastic Four].

How does Fantastic Four contrast to Ultimates for you and Bryan?

In a way, [Fantastic Four] is the antithesis of Ultimates. Ultimates was all about how real you can make superheroes, but I think you’re making a big mistake if you go in that direction with Fantastic Four. They’re not called the Mundane Four or the Ordinary Four. [Laughs] You have to make it almost a cartoon where anything can happen, and no idea is too silly.



I'm crossing my fingers and hoping that the issues will be on time, or at least NOT horribly late.

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.

Interview with Jim Rhodes from the Iron Man movie

Terrence Howard (Hustle and Flow), who plays Tony Stark's best friend and confidant, Jim Rhodes (War Machine in the comics), speaks to Wizard:

TERRENCE HOWARD EYES THE ARMOR
On the set of ‘Iron Man,’ the actor reveals his No. 1 reason for signing on as James Rhodes—he wants to play War Machine

By Rickey Purdin

Posted September 2, 2007 10:00 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, actor Terrence Howard, who plays Lt. Col. James Rhodes, talked about his bench-press contest with Robert Downey Jr., his crush on Gwyneth Paltrow and why spoilers endanger his job security.

What attracted you to this role?

HOWARD: War Machine, the whole idea of being able to play a superhero, so to speak. Getting able to go up in jets because the Department of Defense took me up in a T-38 and an F-16. They might let me go up in the B-1, I hurled, like everybody hurls, but all those ideas, man, that was it for me.

Kevin [Feige] says that you were already attached, or that you were being talked to being in the film even before Jon [Favreau] came aboard. How early on was that?

HOWARD: About a year before they got it started. I got a great manager who was all over this a long time before and me and Avi Arad had spoken. And then about six months later it all happened. I mean I was taken by surprise by it, still I’m shocked by it.

We saw some footage of you…

HOWARD: Oh, that was great. I got to shoot that M-50. That was one for when I was up with…nah I can’t say that. [Laughs] Well, I had some fun with the Air Force. The Air Force took me out on some of their real training stuff and let me play.

What’s been the hardest part for you?

HOWARD: Well, like if you remember in the comic book, even though Rhodey’s by the book so to speak, he’s a bit of a rogue in his own nature. But since we’re working with the Department of Defense, we have to pull back because of trying to appease them being so generous to us. So that’s been the hardest thing—to be true, as true to Rhodey as the comic book and still satisfy the needs of the Department of Defense.

What can you tell us about the arc your character goes through the movie. Started with the straight-laced and kind of setting up towards…

HOWARD: Well, I think it’s pretty much a three-picture arc. So we’re right in the very beginning of that, of him having to consider that perhaps there is a different way. You know my character starts off in complete disgust of how Tony has lived his life, but then he realizes perhaps there is a different way to live one’s life. So that’s where we are now, we’re in the debate of whose way of life is the right way. Is it the military and the strict disciplinarian way, or is it being an independent-acting and -behaving individual? That’s where it’s at.

Have you worked with Robert before, and what was it like working with him?

HOWARD: I love him. The first film I ever saw him in was “Weird Science,” which I watched like 400,000 times. And so when I saw him that’s all I wanted to talk to him about. [Laughs] I mean, he had heard all those questions before, but he was a fan of mine and I told him that the reason that I really wanted to do this movie, especially once I found that he was doing it, was I wanted to work with him because I wanted to learn from him. I mean, he’s brilliant—every day he rewrites his script, every single day. And the stuff, we have great writers, but every day he would sit there and spend the first hour and a half making it perfect, making it better. He has this light, jovial nature about him that floats everywhere, floats everywhere and then for when he’s focusing in on something, its powerful, it’s magical. He’s really, probably one of the best actors I’ve ever worked with in my life and I look forward to learning a little more from him

What have you learned from him?

HOWARD: Well, nothing looks so unnatural as an attempt to look natural. You know, you start off when you’re on the outskirts of the business, way over there, you’re able to do whatever you want to do because nobody’s really checking on you. But to get welcomed inside and then everyone expects so much from you, you find a way. Like the last film I did, I was so busy trying to be the good actor and not to ruffle anything that I don’t think I did the service that I was supposed to do to it, because as an artist you’re not supposed to think. An artist is supposed to stand apart and have a different point of view, and what I’ve noticed about Robert, Robert is just himself. He has no other point of view except his own, he believed in it wholeheartedly and you’ve got to win him over with convincing argument. You know to have that type of backbone in a business where they remove your backbone slowly and surely. He’s been through so much. I loved him for that. And that’s what I’m learning from him.

We’ve heard that there might be a lot of improvising between the actors and some of them might be a little more strict than some of the actors. What was your take on the improvising atmosphere, what was the experience?

HOWARD: Well, Jon Favreau’s an improvisational actor. So he brings those sensibilities to his directorial work. He trusts what the actors are going through, where they’re going to do. There’s one particular scene that just blows my mind in this movie where we were having a press conference and Robert just decided to tell the entire press to sit down, on the floor, 400 people. After we had already lit it to shoot it with them standing. It was brilliant. Jon went with it, we relit and it just took the scene to a whole another place. If I’ve ever, I didn’t know that Jeff [Bridges] didn’t like improvisation because Jeff is freaking brilliant.
We’ll start off in the morning and talk through what’s there and we look around the room and say, you know, “Who believes it?” And if we don’t believe it, then we’ll start having a conversation: “What would you say?” Sitting there and having that conversation of what would we say and they have a little Dictaphone, like this, sitting around and another one that’s like that. And we’re all listening to it, and the next thing you know they’ll come back in an hour and have written out everything that we were able to put into it. So it starts off with a structure but then we let the plant grow and then we trim it down and it’s perfect. It ends up being absolutely perfect. But Robert is the kind of improvisation, because every single take, he will adjust the word or phrase that just gets a little more closer to home. You know, his light just gets brighter and brighter and brighter. I mean, everyone is sitting there watching him like he is a mad genius. He is.

So did you base any parts of your character, even if you’re just laying your simplicities on them, but that you worked with or met on the base?

HOWARD: General Thomas. He’s so insightful, he’s the chief of the head of command at Nellis Air Force Base and a black general. And I have never heard of a black general in my life, so I was happy to meet him. [Laughs] But he’s so insightful, so sweet, very sweet but very direct about accomplishing. The first thing he told me, because I shook his hand respectfully, I felt strongly and he slapped my hand away and he said, “You fly a $200 million aircraft, act like it.” So I shook his hand and tried to break it. [Laughs]

What kind of physical training have you done?

HOWARD: Robert and his competitive ass…you know, I almost pulled my shoulder trying to keep up with him because here I’m 40, 50 pounds heavier than him, so I’m in there lifting and I push up about 225, knocked it out 10 times. Robert wanted to go and do 235, and he did it. So I’m going to push it up to 245. But I took him out running and gave him some nice cramps while we were in Long Pine. [Laughs] He couldn’t walk for a couple days; that was really nice.

When we interviewed you last time, you said you were training with Will Smith’s trainer doing five miles a day. You still doing that?

HOWARD: I’m doing six now, but I found the best way to do it is not to do it straight, you know do a mile and a half that’s running for 15 minutes, rest for an hour, do another mile and a half, so you go the first three and then in the evening do the same thing. And you can sprint it and it doesn’t hurt your legs or anything like that. It’s great now, I was actually able to pull off a hundred pushups without stopping, without resting. You know, we all do that, we all try to do it, I can do a hundred pushups without resting now. So I’m all right, I’m still on it.

Now Jon looks like he’s been doing something?

HOWARD: Oh, Jon is great, man. I watched him drop 70 pounds in the process of shooting this thing. He’s been eating 900 calories a day. That’s it, and directing this movie. He’s completely slimmed down, have you all seen him yet? And he’s still on it, he’s still on it.

What about working with Gwyneth? Have you had a scene with her?

HOWARD: We’ve had a couple of scenes, but Gwyneth is hard to work with because she’s so beautiful and you try not to flirt with her, you don’t want to flirt. But you’re hoping somewhere in your heart, I’m hoping she likes me. [Laughs] I’m hoping that means she likes me and is gonna leave Coldplay to come and hang out with me. Because I got three more pictures, two more pictures to work on with her.

What was it like working with Jeff Bridges?

HOWARD: He surprised me because he is so good at improvisation, he’s so comfortable it just flows. He reminds me of Nick Nolte in that sense, and they both, they’ve always been competing giants anyway. But he’s like that and one of the first times when we got together he took me in his trailer, we smoked cigars, drank some vodka and played guitar for four hours after wrap. And he’s a brilliant musician and a great songwriter. Jeff is beautiful and he kept giving me hints on how to play my character around, which I love.

Are you willing to do that?

HOWARD: Yeah, oh yeah. I love his work. So for him to tell me…Gwyneth has given me points. Same thing with Robert; we all do that, and everybody is completely secure.

Do we see the birth of War Machine here?

HOWARD: You read the comic book? If you read the comic book then you kind of know what happens. But you still have to wait because you all ain’t taking away my next two movies. [Laughs] I ain’t thinking about you all. I like you all, but man….

Interview with Iron Man director, Jon Favreau

And more on the Iron Man movie:

JON FAVREAU TESTS HIS METTLE
In our first ‘Iron Man’ set visit interview, the director talks about moving from independent films and comedies to big-budget action

By Rickey Purdin

Posted September 1, 2007 10:10 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, director Jon Favreau (“Elf,” “Zathura”) gave up the details on everything from casting decisions to armor design. He also talked about why the Internet is so important to the hype machine and how he’s keeping his options open for sequels.

So, there was an announcement on your blog recently that said “Iron Man” was going to be PG-13.

FAVREAU: I put it out. A lot of people say that I put out announcements, but I’ll jump onto the Iron Man Movie Group and if I see people talking about something or they have a question or they’re speculating I’ll clarify as best as I can with pertinent information, but I don’t really make announcements like that. Like, “Here’s a big announcement, the movie is going to be PG-13.” We don’t actually know, but that’s what we’re all shooting for. So, when people were speculating, I think, when “Fantastic Four II” was given a PG and people were surprised and wondering what we were going to be I said I thought we’d be PG-13.

What’s the reason for that?

FAVREAU: Because I think that you want it to be entertaining for everyone. You want it to be appropriate for kids, but not geared towards kids and I think that PG-13 is that sort of good balance where you can have violence and you can have real life-or-death stakes, but yet it’s something that I would comfortable bringing a 13-year-old kid to. It’s tough though. With these types of movies you want it to be good for the whole audience, for everyone and if you skew it too young you sometimes disappoint adults and if you make it too dark and too violent or too much explicit language and sexuality to it, there are a lot of kids out there who want to see this thing and won’t be able to. I have a 6-year-old who’s dying to see the movie and so I don’t want anything in there that’s going to make me, as a responsible parent, uncomfortable where he’s going to be repeating something at school or something that’s going to freak him out too much.

So is that why you took the alcoholism angle to the story out of the first one?

FAVREAU: Me, honestly, I’m sort of really trying to be dictated by the story from the books and so he starts—“The Demon in the Bottle” happened in the ’80s. It started much later, and this started off in the ’60s and so what you really grasp for it seems in success, if you’re lucky enough to make more than one of these movies, is what happens to the character, how does it change so that it doesn’t just feel like a serialized hero that just fights different bad guys. How does he progress through each story. The good part of an origin story is that you have a Joseph Campbell journey that a guy goes through in becoming a hero. The problem is that you have so much story to tell that it starts to get clogged up with too much stuff and then you end up rushing through beats or villains or things. The problem with the second and third ones are that you’ve got great villains and everyone knows who the guys is, but how is he different from the beginning to the end of the movie. So, for me as a filmmaker and as a storyteller I really look for that whole progression in character as the mythology of the movie, what’s the myth that you’re telling. That’s what makes it entertaining, I think.

What will the fights be like then, how will those change when you try to make a film for a broader audience?

FAVREAU: Well, as far as what the technology you use, we really have all the options. We have ILM and after seeing the last “Pirates” movie I really feel quite comfortable that they can make it look good. Then you have a Stan Winston suit and so you have that to help make it feel real and connect things, and I think that you have to do a little bit of a shell game with the audience there too. So you show it real one shot, fake another shot and not let them know where one shot becomes real and digital so their left brain is so locked up worrying about it that they’re right brain can’t enjoy the movie.

But I mean, more of the art of the fights—are they going to be fancy?

FAVREAU: I think that you always have to look for fancy things to do. I think that you have to be innovative in the action. There were a lot of movies that I saw and enjoyed where I couldn’t follow the story and didn’t give a damn about the story, but because the action was so innovative it entertained me and I was excited by it. Honestly, with these kinds of films you’re working on the action long before you’re working on the dialogue. You’re working with storyboard artists, with writers, with actors, with producers and studios.

You mentioned that Iron Man is a hero in a way like Batman who sort of creates himself and his own superpowers. Can you talk about what the story is about for you in terms of that?

FAVREAU: Well, the story for me is about a guy who’s got—in every movie there’s always something rotten in Denmark. You have to sort of start off with something being out of balance in the world. I think that in Marvel movies especially you look at the personal life of the character in the microcosm and then you sort of look at the macrocosm of the climate of the world. There is a supervillain doing something. There is a problem in the world that has to be fixed. Otherwise, life as we know will not exist, but then also in the character’s personal life there is that sort of thing that happens too and what’s nice about Tony Stark is that he’s a guy who’s got all the flash and glamour of Tony Stark billionaire, inventor genius and playboy. You get to play the fun of that, but then you also get to explore what that might leave to be desired and how he’s flawed and how he grows and changes through his captivity and when he comes back how does he become Iron Man. So it’s what those steps in the journey are that get us to the point where we understand who he is and what he stands for and how he’s changed.

Can you talk about what this set is and what you’ve shot already?

FAVREAU: This is his workshop and the beginnings of what will be The Hall of Armor. This is below his house. We built a house that sits on the bluffs overlooking the Pacific up in Malibu, in Point Dune and we have another set that we’re shooting on today that sort of sits above this. It’s sort of an architectural high-tech home and this is his subbasement. So, out those windows you would see the Pacific ocean. That’s a driveway up to the outside of his house. He has all of his awesome cars there, everything from a ‘32 Ford Roadster all the way through to a Tesla electric car. We have everything here lined up—a Saleen Supercar. He has great, great cars. A Shelby Cobra. Then over here is the remnants of what was a really well—everything that you could possibly need for fabrication and design. You could build anything in here and so this area was more of a living area. This is sort of where he would seclude himself. We sort of suggest that all the innovations and inventions that come out of Stark’s mind usually start alone here as opposed to somewhere else. He’s got his office at Stark Industries, but this is probably where most of his work happens at 4 in the morning.

Jeff [Bridges], who plays Obadiah Stane, said that his relationship with Stark is that of a mentor. Will you be exploring the storyline in which Stane becomes Iron Monger?

FAVREAU: Here’s the bottom line. We’re making a Marvel movie and it’s the first time that Marvel is making its own movie. So, I feel, and also as a filmmaker I want to stay true to the books, but with these movies everyone is watching. I’ve been working on this thing for a year and it’s going to be another year before it’s out and if everyone figures everything out along the way it gets to be like by the time you see the movie you feel like you’ve seen the movie already.

So we try to put enough twists and turns and things in there to keep you guys in the dark about something as we go forward, but by the same token because it’s Marvel I want to stay as true to what the broad strokes of the comic books are. Is he a mentor to Tony Stark? Yeah, that’s sort of the relationship that we found between Jeff Bridges and Robert Downey, that would be good. Is it still Obadiah Stane? Yes it is. Are there certain expectations that people might have who have read the comic books for several decades based on who it is? Are they going to be waiting for another shoe to fall? I think that probably will be, and I think that we’re not going to change the universe so much that to the purist it will seem like we’ve betrayed the underlying truths of it. So if you’ve done the homework on the books it’s going to serve you well as you go into the movies because we’re doing that too.

Can you talk about the undertaking for you in terms of taking on all this action which is a little different for you?

FAVREAU: It is and we have a great second unit. There is a guy named Phil Neilson who is directing second unit probably as we speak. If you hear something blow up he’s on the other set blowing things up. We’ve been very, very lucky to have a group of people who are very good at developing and culling the action. I don’t want to sit here and pretend that I have a lot of action experience. I think that I can tell a good story. I think that cinematically I can make something compelling. We have a great director of photography, but what I’m bringing to the table is more of the humanity of the story and forcing rules on the story as well where it doesn’t feel like two completely different films. There is the possibility that it goes from “Swingers” to “Power Rangers” and people are like, “What am I watching?” So, the trick is to sort of bring up the human story to a world where it feels like it’s a comic book and it fits into the genre and then keeping the action aspect of it, I won’t say restrained, but hold it up to a certain standard of reality where there’s a broadness that you expect in a comic book movie, but it’s not like just doing whatever the hell you want because it’s a movie and everyone just wants to eat popcorn. So, I have a certain—I think that in my body of work I’ve held it to a certain standard and now in making something that has to be appealing to a much larger audience than I’ve really hit before I want to make sure that we’re giving everyone what they want and making it fun and exciting, but also making it something that I can be proud of.

Can you talk about casting Robert Downey Jr. in the lead?

FAVREAU: When we cast Robert, when he was approved and we got him to be in the movie and Marvel gave us its okay, it completely freed me because I knew that I was halfway there to having a movie that I could be proud of. I can’t think of anyone better than him. He brings a reality, a humor, a panache, a life of experience where he really feels like with what he’s bringing to the table—there is a lot of Tony Stark in him. That’s so much better than trying to teach someone to pretend that they are funny or pretend that they are smart or pretend that they’re talented or pretend that they’ve lived with fame and lived with all of the challenges and benefits of it.

Can you talk about the fans that are following your progress on this?

FAVREAU: Yeah, the fans are great.

How did they react to the picture of the armor when it was released?

FAVREAU: They’ve been great about everything, they really have. You almost want something out there that they’ll have a problem with early on so that you can get that out of the way because, look, fans for any movie are important. For this particular type of movie, that’s the nucleus of your audience and I don’t know if the Internet is something that could be seen as dictating the marketplace or not. I don’t understand how that works yet, but I know that as a filmmaker I get that the fans of this particular genre are very smart and know more in certain cases than the people that are working on the movie as far as how much and specific their information is. So, I like to go there and just get to the minutia of the detail in certain cases because it’s a great thing. It’s like Wikipedia. It’s a collection of information from a lot of people that tends to bear out in a very cogent way. There are certain people out there that are idiots, but they don’t tend to be drawn to this material that much. They tend to give a damn, and most of the stuff that I see is like, ‘Thank you for caring so much about it. I’ve been waiting for this movie for twenty years. I’ve been waiting for ten years since I heard that they were going to first make this. This was my particular favorite superhero and it’s nice to see that it’s getting this type of treatment and this type of cast.’ When they first hear that it’s getting made they get excited and then they hear who you’re casting and then they go, “Oh, this might actually be one of those types of superhero movies and not the other kind of superhero movie.”

In terms of comic book storytelling what lessons did you take from, not just Marvel movies, but from comic book movies in general?

FAVREAU: Well, I think that [Chris] Nolan is just really reinventing the genre yet again. I mean, I really liked the first “Batman” movie, the Tim Burton one was very exciting. The caliber of cast that he was able to get, the level of storytelling and acting and the sense of fun that was maintained with a character that I thought was completely picked over by the time that they did their last movie before that, but they were able to sort of hit reset and come with that and make it fresh again was exciting to me. That said that the sky is the limit for who you could get and a filmmaker with that background, it’s nice that you have all of these guys coming out of independent films who don’t resent big movies. It’s not like the ’70s where the system is keeping us down. We’re people who grew up loving movies and the reason we’re doing character is because we don’t know any better or have the resources. So, as you see Peter Jackson, as you see Chris Nolan, as you see Bryan Singer finding a way to bring integrity and a sense of fun to these big movies where you feel like you’re watching a good movie and it’s not one that a director is doing apologetically—they’re doing it because they love it and they’re excited by it. Then I get to play with all of the toys and build the suits and do the CG, build all of these great sets. For me that’s what it’s all about.

I think that it’s the sort of indie background where all you have is character, that’s your car chase. Your car chase is a funny scene. Your car chase or your big explosion is two people having a conversation that’s interesting. It sort of sharpens those tools and so by the time you have all of these great storyboard artists and designers and CGI wizards coming, you’re not relying on that. You’re not just hammocking between those set pieces. You’re able to actually bring in what you need. I mean, when I’m here with Gwyneth [Paltrow] and Robert, I’m working with them in the same way as if I had written the spec script and was shooting it for a million bucks. You bring that same sensibility to it and hopefully—I don’t want to lie to you like I know it—it all comes together in a way where it feels like of one movie, and yet it’s not insulting to smart people and it’s not inappropriate for me to bring my kids to as well.

Can you talk about the design of the suit?

FAVREAU: We have some artists that we had hired to work on it. Phil Saunders and Ryan Meinerding worked on various suits that we have. They’re people that I had met on “Zathura”—Phil. Ryan I met as I was developing “John Carter of Mars.” They’re great artists, and they have a whole department overseen by Mike Riva who is our production designer and then I really gravitated to the Adi Granov stuff. Adi had actually contacted me through MySpace because I set up a little group, or actually even before the group, just when I put my thing up he contacted me to be my friend. He said, “I thought that you might want to meet me. I’m the guy who did all the drawings that you have on your website.” I was like, “Oh, I would love to talk to you.” He was really excited to get involved. He was doing some drawings for us. We flew him out here and he met with Phil and Ryan and Mike and the Stan Winston crew and we all sort of collaborated together in finding a suit that could be made practically, to be worn, so that it wasn’t always a cartoon. Also, when you have practical things it tends to keep the CG a little more honest because if you have to make a direct cut from a practical suit that you love the way it looks to something virtual you now have a litmus test.

What was important to retain about the comic book suit?

FAVREAU: With the suit it was the more that we could. I didn’t want to reinvent it. It’s not like the glowing Superman fiber optic suit. I really am embracing what it is and the best thing that I heard was—first we got the Mark I out which we took a little bit of leeway with because in the books it really doesn’t make sense that he would make that out of spare parts, but yet we wanted to keep the personality of it. Everyone was like, “Holy sh--, that’s so cool.” So immediately we were like, “What’s going to happen when they see the Mark III?” What happened when we showed the Mark III was, “This is great. It’s just like I saw it in my head.” That’s a very hard thing to achieve because everyone sees different things in their head. So it was just like that and everyone was like, “Oh, but that’s clearly a CG suit.” And then all of a sudden, I think that they saw the suit and a guy moving around with the suit on. They were like, “Wait, it’s not a fake. It’s a real suit with a real guy.” Of course we could do different stuff in CG than it can for real and that’s what becomes the difficulty, it’s where you do that. You don’t want to be moving around like Robocop and then he flies through the air and he looks like Spider-Man. So that’s the balancing act that we’re playing, but we have great people on it.

What’s been the most challenging scene to shoot so far?

FAVREAU: Scene to shoot? The most challenging scene to shoot, well, when we were at Edwards Air Force Base and we had all of the C-17s and the Raptors and all the stuff that Rhodes has—we made him an Air Force lieutenant colonel. We took a little bit of a leap there, but the logistics of that were very hard because there are a lot of things that you can’t point a camera at there and there’s a flight line. I mean, they’re testing state-of-the-art, experimental aircraft there. So all of the stuff we have, thinking that we have the best stuff, there are hangars there that you can’t go near. I’m sure that they have stuff in there that they’re flying around now.

Anything about this whole process so far that’s been surprising for you?

FAVREAU: I’m surprised that I’m on schedule. That’s the biggest surprise. I brag always that I’ve stayed on schedule all the time and I have on every movie that I’ve ever been on and I’m always on budget and I’m always on time, and I thought with this one there was going to be curve balls and so much out of my control, and so the fact that we’re on schedule now and things have seemed to have borne out well is great. I’m also surprised by the amount of freedom that I’ve gotten from Marvel.

Why are you surprised about that?

FAVREAU: Well, because there are certain things that Marvel is very meticulous about and there’s a definite formula to the way that the action is done and so when it comes to the scenes between people we have very, very good actors. Marvel has been very involved, but they’re a small crew. You have Kevin Feige and you have Jeremy Latcham who are sort of our executives on the project. So we could sit in the trailer with the Marvel guys, with the producers and the actors, and talk about what the scene should be about based on what we’ve shot and we’ve learned and there is a flexibility in the material. So in a lot of ways there is a lot of freedom to try things in different ways and get what we know we need to get the story to work and then bring a certain humor to it sometimes or a humanity to it. So there’s a real sense of freshness and discovery in this project.

Were you ready for the challenge this movie was going to present in terms of the CGI involved and also from the vocal fan base?

FAVREAU: I was ready for the challenge. I mean, I had done “Zathura” last. My last experiences were developing “John Carter of Mars” which we did a bang-up job on, beautiful artwork and these guys, [Mark] Fergus and [Hawk] Ostby, did a great script for us and everyone loved it. They were just scared of that genre or the material or the fact that they had “Star Trek” coming out next year. Not only did they not greenlight it, but they let the rights lapse thinking that this was not a project that anyone would care to do. Then of course you’ve got Brad Bird and Pixar thankfully picking it up and that thing is going to be huge. If they’re as true to the source material as we were when we were developing it they’re going to have a phenomenal movie. Between “Star Wars” and “300,” this is the type of story that you need to find to use the technology that you have available today. Right across the road they’re doing “Avatar” right over there. They’re doing a huge, huge movie in a room this size. That’s the new way they’re doing it. So I think that they missed a tremendous opportunity with that, but I’m glad that it’s going to be made.

Then the last experience before that was “Zathura.” We worked really hard on that and we made a movie that was well received, but was not really supported in a way. It was the best-reviewed movie that Sony had that year, and there was never one billboard. They didn’t even print up posters and so that was very disappointing that we came in at the end of a long string of flops over there at Sony, between “Stealth” and “Zorro” and everything that they had, and by the time that we had come out there wasn’t really a game plan, I don’t think, to release the film. Fortunately now it’s out on video and people are seeing it and liking it, but I didn’t want that to happen again. I didn’t want to fall through the cracks.

So, when you work with Marvel, you know that there is a fan base of core fans that are going to pay attention to what you’re doing. If you’re doing a good job those fans will be very vocal and word will spread and right now so many people try to virally create this sense of grass roots something on the Internet and they try to force it and you can’t force it. It has to come organically and when you do a movie like this you get to play with all of the big toys and you have a fan base that is going to be very vocal positive or negative. I mean, if you have “Catwoman” they will put the pillow over the head of the movie and make sure that it never sees the light of day, but if you have a “Dark Knight” or if you have any of the myriad of quality movies that come out the word will get out there and people will start to pay attention to it. I think that reviewers aren’t really paid that much attention to. I care about reviews. I like reviews, but if you look at the correlation between reviews and box office, it doesn’t really correspond. I think that people are looking to the Internet and to peers and to see what the buzz and to see how the buzz is growing. “Transformers” is building a tremendous buzz now. I think regardless of the reviews it gets I know that my kid wants to see “Transformers” and I’m going to see it with my kids.

Can you talk about the commercial pressure coming off of “Zathura”? Do you feel like this one better be a hit?

FAVREAU: What’s good is that “Elf” really sort of carved a real path for me, and so, if “Zathura” had been a bad movie and not made money then I would have something to worry about. I think that’s why you always have to make a good movie because even if the movie doesn’t perform there are people lining up to work with you saying, “They f---ed up the marketing, but you made a good movie. If you can make me a good movie I’ll take care of my end of things.” I don’t know that it’s ever been a director’s job to create a marketing campaign. I mean, you do sometimes have a voice in it, but ultimately I think that they just include you enough to make you feel like part of the process so that you’ll hit up the actors to do what they need them to do. They can’t get an actor to go to Comic-Con. I can turn to Robert and say, “Comic-Con is f---ing fun and it’s going to blow your mind. Wait until you see how many people give a sh-- about this movie. Wait until you walk into that room and see it.” They’ll say, “Really?” I’ll say, “It’s going to be fun. We’ll have a blast. We’ll go out to dinner and have a good time. We’ll walk the floor. Bring your kids. I’ve done it two years in a row. My kids love it and San Diego is great—” and they’ll go. Or you say, “Hey, let’s do this one extra interview. Let’s add one extra day to the press junket. Let’s fly to the premiere here together.” If the director says that and is excited about it and buys into what’s going on I think that the actors are more likely to do it. I’m more likely to go out and do press for the movie and that’s the kind of thing that you can’t buy with marketing money, but I don’t think that they really look to directors to lead the charge in ways other than participating.

So, the success of something certainly has a lot of benefits. It can keep a career going and it can make someone very rich even if the quality isn’t very good, if they’re successful. So success is always good, but if it doesn’t end up being commercially successful it better be creatively successful. If you can’t do either of those you’re not going to work for a long time.

Can you talk about casting Terrence Howard as Rhodes?

FAVREAU: Yeah, he’s great. Terrence was someone that they were talking to before. Avi [Arad] was talking to him even before I had been hired on. So by the time that I had come in he had brought in Terrence and it’s hard to argue with casting Terrence. I mean, he could’ve been Tony Stark if we had gone a little bit of a different way, different from the books. I think that he’s got those type of chops, and the idea that in success where you go with these movies, I think that’s where they fall short. People don’t think far enough in the future. They have a great movie and then they say, “How do we do it again?” That’s the difference between a sequel and a chapter. So, in looking at chapters where can we go? You can go “War Machine” with Terrence Howard. We could go a lot of different ways with this cast that we have.

Would you do four of these films?

FAVREAU: If the experience was as good as this I would do another one. It’s really hard to say at this point because I’m sure that Gore [Verbinski] and Sam [Raimi], I’m not sure that they would do four after what they’ve been through. That journey is 10 years, but I could see working on this thing. I think it’s been fun and great and hopefully it gets easier as it goes on and as you get it down.

With quality of the actors that you have and how demand in they are, how hard is it to get them back for more, or are they already locked into more?

FAVREAU: I think that if their experience is good, which it has been so far based on what everyone has told me—maybe they’ll say something different to you guys, but I know that I’ve made it fun and I’ve made it something where hopefully the quality of the work is as good as it is on any movie. So it doesn’t feel like they’re working on a movie that’s one for them, like you know, one for the man and then do one for themselves and then another for their career. Hopefully, they saw this as a big opportunity. I asked Robert what he wanted to do in his career now and he said that he wanted to make movies that were good and that people were going to see. That seems very simple, but it’s a pretty profound statement. Actors want to be in movies that are good and that they’re proud, but there is nothing more frustrating than making a great movie that is a featured title on Netflix that you go, “Oh, I really wanted to see that one.” You want to do a movie that’s going to be part of the culture. “Pirates of the Caribbean,” that’s like “The Sopranos.” Everyone knows what you’re talking about and you’ve seen it and it’s impacted lives and has created a cultural ripple. That’s something that you can’t always get with an indie. Sometimes that happens with something like “Swingers,” but usually it doesn’t.

How do you deal with the Internet presence on a movie like this?

FAVREAU: I welcome it because I’m right in there. It’s not as scary and weird and a looming presence. I go online and I look at stuff. I see what people are saying, that they’re saying, “What are you doing with this…?” and people are confused about this and there are certain things that they’re confused about that I want them to be confused about and there are things that they’re confused about that I don’t want them to be confused about. I don’t want them to be confused about whether or not we hired someone for the film because they’re reading on IMDb that something happened, or whether they think that the rating is going to be something else or whether the suit was designed this guy or that guy. So I like to clarify. It’s a game that you can play with the audience, but I think that if they know that you care and are paying attention and that there choices that you’re making because you’re making them as a choice and not because you don’t know what you’re doing, they like that.

So, to me, the buzz is great. I would’ve killed for people to care this much about the last movie I was on. What you don’t want is for something to disappear because you work so hard on this. I mean, we’re two years on this movie. I will have gone from a pregnant wife to a walking baby in the time that it takes to make this movie. That’s a mind-blower and in one bad weekend, if something happens, you have everything on one dice roll. So I love to have the interaction. I love to know that they’re out there. I love to know that after working a 14- hour day and things feel bleak and “Did I get everything that I need?” and then you go online and you see people saying, “Right on.” Even if it’s a little thing it’s a big deal. It’s not easy doing this sh--. I love it, but it’s hard.


Just look at that awesome armour. Updated for a modern look, but at the same time, it has a bit of that classic Iron Man retro armour feel.

On the set of the Iron Man movie

Robert Downey Jr in the Iron Man armour.

Wow. It's like James Bond got himself some spiffy new duds in the form of a metallic red and gold suit.

WIZARD ON SET: IRON-MAN
Jon Favreau and Robert Downey Jr. forge a high-stakes thriller starrring Marvel's heavy metal hero

By Rickey Purdin

Posted September 1, 2007 9:35 AM

Glance out the production office window on the “Iron Man” set and you’ll spot a burnt-out military helicopter ominously resting among the staff’s cars and trucks. Wander down the hallway of the soundstage and you’ll have to step around 12-foot Stark Industries model fighter jets made of Styrofoam. Turn a corner and you’ll sneak a peek at Tony Stark’s industrial workshop and the massive crater in the floor where a superpowered fight has obviously ruined someone’s day.

All in all, the movie’s set wears its action-packed status on its metal sleeve. But peel back the armor on the estimated $186-million flick and it’s easy to see Marvel Studios’ first independently financed blockbuster, with an all-star cast featuring Gwyneth Paltrow, Terrence Howard and Jeff Bridges and a story revolving around billionaire weapons-manufacturing industrialist Tony Stark, plans to bring something fresh to the big screen when it hits theaters May 2, 2008. And it all starts with its star, Robert Downey Jr.

Right now, Downey, as playboy Stark, strolls through a multimillion-dollar, postmodern bachelor pad—a circular haven scaling the seaside hills of the Pacific Ocean in Malibu—and inhales the wealthy excess. A petrified tree trunk coffee table the size of a piano marks the center of a richly elegant room decorated with the finest in young-stud amenities. You’ll also find floor-to-ceiling windows, expensive guitars lining cream-colored walls and an animal skin rug beneath a red leather reading chair that looks more suited for display in a museum of modern art than for resting affluent rumps. With a detached, indifferent stare draped across his face, Downey removes his sport coat and approaches what can be best described as a super-tech mega-computer with a touch-screen, paper-thin, window-mounted monitor. “You have 1,713 new voice messages,” remarks a calm, robotic home computer system voice. “Including three from the Mandarin.”

Stark’s come home after being held prisoner by terrorists for months in Afghanistan and forced to build weapons. This isn’t a pimple-faced mutant at a school for gifted youngsters or a nerdy spaz with spider-powers rushing to deliver pizza. He’s a weary, real-world boardroom hustler facing genuine, adult problems. As much a Tom Clancy thriller as it is a metahuman adventure, “Iron Man” has set its eyes on comic book fun with a mature, sharp edge.

A DYNAMIC DUO
To forge a new kind of comic film, you need a new kind of leading man. That’s why it should come as no surprise Marvel chose Oscar-nominated Robert Downey Jr. as its lead. The often-troubled actor may be best known for his public battles with alcohol and drug addiction over the last decade, but he’s not afraid to face questions about his past and what it means for his new role, an attitude that comes front and center when a reporter on set in Playa Vista, Calif., stumbles through a dozen apologies on his way to asking Downey about that dangerous past.

“Yeah, yeah,” nods Downey, his eyes wide with awareness conerning the subject of which he’s about to be questioned. “Don’t give me all the f---ing preambles. Just bring it, dude.”

Finally, quietly and slowly, the question drops: Knowing that Tony Stark is an alcoholic in the comic books, how much of that has anything to do with what Downey’s doing with this role? Downey sits up, and everyone holds their breath as he looks over his folded hands on the table in front of him.

“Right…I think 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’—by the time you’ve seen the light and start doing the right thing, you really don’t relate to the person that historically people still say you are,” admits the actor. “But I get it. In a way, that’s why [‘Iron Man’ is] ideally suited for me. And I’m ideally suited for it.”

Over the last 10 years, everyone from Nicolas Cage to Tom Cruise has fancied themselves ideally suited for the role, too. But an alcoholic playing an alcoholic? It’s a bold choice for the studio, although since his last arrest in 2001, Downey’s been rebuilding his career, and his reputation, with critically acclaimed turns in 2003’s comedy/musical/drama “The Singing Detective,” 2005’s “Kiss Kiss Bang Bang” and this year’s “Zodiac.”

“When we cast Robert, when he was approved and we got him to be in the movie and Marvel gave us the okay, it completely freed me because I knew I was halfway there to having a movie that I could be proud of,” gushes “Iron Man” director Jon Favreau (“Elf”). “I can’t think of anyone better than him. He brings a reality, a humor, a panache, a life of experience where he really feels there is a lot of Tony Stark in him. That’s so much better than trying to teach someone to pretend that they are funny or smart or that they’re talented or that they’ve lived with fame and lived with all of the challenges and benefits of it.” An admitted comics devotee, the 40-year-old Favreau’s fanboy résumé includes an acting role in 2003’s “Daredevil” playing Matt Murdock’s law partner Foggy Nelson. Well-versed in Iron Man’s history, from his debut in 1963 to his current comic occupation as the director of a military super-agency known as S.H.I.E.L.D., Favreau’s got the goods. But when he needs a hand, he calls on pros like Marvel Editor-in-Chief Joe Quesada or Iron Man artist Adi Granov, who will team with Favreau for a four-issue Marvel Knights mini-series in 2008 titled Iron Man: Viva Las Vegas.

Despite a PG-13 rating, the film follows the violent story of Stark becoming a hostage in Afghanistan after demonstrating his experimental repulsor ray technology. Wounded during his kidnapping and relying on an electromagnetic device to keep shrapnel from erntering his heart, Stark crafts a crude suit of armor, escapes to freedom, re-evaluates his life and goes on to develop the suit as a life-saving tool under the guise of Iron Man. In short, it’s a film update on the classic comic book origin.

But one comic element Favreau points out will be missing from this inaugural film is Stark’s raging alcoholism. The director points out that comic book storyline, “Demon in a Bottle,” didn’t take place until 1979—a full 16 years after Stark first appeared. If anything, the story of Stark’s personal battle would be held onto for a possible sequel.

“What you really grasp for, if you’re lucky enough to make more than one of these movies, is how does it change so that it doesn’t just feel like a serialized hero who fights different bad guys?” questions the director. “How does he progress through each story? The problem is that you have so much story to tell that it starts to get clogged up with too much stuff and then you end up rushing through beats or villains. So for me as a filmmaker, and as a storyteller, I really look for that whole progression in character as the mythology of the movie.”

CASTING IRON

Aside from developing the story as equally as the action, “Iron Man” producers deserve accolades for tagging three more Oscar veterans for roles in the film. When filling out the spots, Favreau and his team didn’t just want movie stars—they wanted actors.

Cast as Stark’s friend and military liaison, Howard (“Hustle and Flow”) plays Jim Rhodes, a man who, in the comics, dons the Iron Man armor for a time when Stark’s alcoholism proves debilitating. When asked about why he took the Rhodes role, Howard sits up and smiles.

“War Machine,” the actor says, naming the hero Rhodes eventually evolved into in the comic books. “The whole idea of being able to play a superhero, so to speak.”

“He could’ve been Tony Stark if we had gone a little bit of a different way,” notes the director of Howard’s ability. “I think he’s got those type of chops. People don’t think far enough in the future. They have a great movie and then they say, ‘How do we do it again?’ That’s the difference between a sequel and a chapter. So, in looking at chapters, where can we go? You can go ‘War Machine’ with Terrence Howard. We could go a lot of different ways with this cast that we have.”

That’s a cast that also includes Oscar-winning actress Paltrow (“Shakespeare in Love”) as Virginia “Pepper” Potts, Stark’s personal assistant in the film. Paltrow admits her real-life husband, Chris Martin of the band Coldplay, let her borrow some of his comics to prepare for the role. And although she’s known as one of her generation’s best actresses, she still enjoys a good old-fashioned explosion.


“We were at Edwards Air Force Base and [an] aircraft carrier blew up,” the actress brags. “I mean, it was happening with tanks rolling around and F-14s. It was amazing to be in these situations and watch them blow up stuff. The special effects guy who was blowing up stuff was a little overzealous. He’d be like, ‘Don’t worry. This gunshot is a tiny charge.’ Then it would go off and you’d go deaf and throw up and cry.”

Playing Stark’s mentor Obadiah Stane is Oscar nominee Bridges (“The Big Lebowski”), who shaved his head and grew an imposing beard for the part. In the comics, Stane competed with Stark as an industrialist, took over Stark’s company and even built his own suit of armor, becoming the villainous Iron Monger before committing suicide.

Whether Stane shows his nasty side in the film has yet to be announced, though that’s just one of the many details being kept under ironclad wraps. But let’s speculate, shall we?


METAL SPECULATION

The Mandarin may have left Tony Stark some voice mails while the hero was tied up in Afghanistan, but that’s all anyone knows as of press time about the movie version of the Iron Man villain. No casting announcement, either.

“He has a large presence throughout the film,” admits Kevin Feige, president of Marvel Studios. “I think [Favreau] has said in a few interviews that the Mandarin, as he was in the comic books, will be pulling a lot of strings.” And considering the comic incarnation of Obadiah Stane plagued Stark as a baddie, chances are he’ll turn to the dark side in the film, too. Screenings of footage at San Diego Comic-Con featured someone in the Iron Monger suit. Whatever happens, Favreau’s refusing to comment on either character’s role.

“With these movies, everyone is watching,” admits the director. “So we try to put enough twists and turns in there to keep you guys in the dark. But by the same token, I want to stay as true to what the broad strokes of the comic books are. So if you’ve done the homework on the books, it’s going to serve you well as you go into the movies.”

Comic homework teaches that the Mandarin, a powerful Chinese government official, commanded 10 alien rings on his fingers that performed various mystical functions. And although he never teamed with Stane on the comics page, Stane did corral a coalition of questionable businessmen from Europe and Asia, so it looks like the Mandarin may be added to the film’s story as one of those members.

Also up in the air are reports that actor Samuel L. Jackson (“Snakes on a Plane”) may appear in the movie as S.H.I.E.L.D. Director Nick Fury. Portrayed as a Caucasian in traditional Marvel comics, the company’s “continuity-free” Ultimate imprint depicted Fury as an African American, and the character’s look was based on Jackson.

“I used to be a huge Nick Fury fan back when I was a kid, and it never occurred to me that not only would Nick Fury change races, but he would be me,” the actor, an avid comics fan, told Wizard during a 2006 interview. “I kind of like the idea. I’m available.”

Speculation also hit online that Oscar winner Hilary Swank (“Million Dollar Baby”) was seen on set as an unidentified S.H.I.E.L.D. agent. Favreau only added fuel to the fire when he dropped hints about it on his MySpace blog by thanking the Las Vegas casino Caesars Palace, where filming for the movie wrapped, “for their hospitality, generosity and Swank accommodations.” “Iron Man” producer Avi Arad claimed both rumors were true, but Favreau still denies them as of press time.

“[With] Sam Jackson, as far as I’m concerned, there’s only one Nick Fury, and that’s David Hasselhoff,” the director says with a straight face in reference to Hasselhoff’s role in the critically panned 1998 “Nick Fury” TV movie. Iron Man co-creator Stan Lee, who has made cameos in all the Marvel films based on his creations, will allegedly appear in a scene with two young women on his arm when Stark mistakes him for Playboy founder Hugh Hefner, an early, real-world contemporary of Stark’s.

In a mid-July blog, Favreau cleared the air by writing, “I’ve read that Sam Jackson and Hilary Swank are S.H.I.E.L.D. agents, and that I myself play a Vegas security guard. There is no truth to any of these rumors,” before adding, “(Well, maybe one is true.)” San Diego Comic-Con footage featured Favreau as the security guard, so where does that leave the other reports?

Considering the quality of the definite casting announcements, none of the gossip would need to be accurate to make “Iron Man” a hit. But Marvel wants to pull out all the stops to make sure it is one.


MARVEL’S GAMBLE

From “Spider-Man” to “X-Men” to “Fantastic Four,” Marvel Studios’ franchises rank among the top-grossing films of all time. Up until now, though, partner companies, including Fox and Sony, licensed those properties for feature film production, a trend that ends with “Iron Man,” which some are calling Marvel’s first independent film.

“We’ve had great partnerships, but it’s nice having the final say,” relates Feige, whose Marvel Studios tapped Paramount Pictures to distribute “Iron Man” in the U.S. “The pressure now is if there’s something people don’t like, there’s no one else to point to. You know you’re at the end of the line.”

That cautious apprehension echoes early concerns when Marvel announced Downey for the lead role. Naysayers pointed to his past problems as an indication of possible turmoil. For a role this large on a picture with this much importance to a single studio to be handed to a person with a history of issues, concerns were valid. But Downey sheds that stigma with a sincere desire to do well. “You have to keep your head right,” Downey says. “It’s so easy to get spun out. You see people come in who have no challenges outside of their Hollywood problems, 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.”

Marvel Studios knows exactly what Downey is—a bankable actor. And with one of the strongest casts in comic movie history behind him, it looks like “Iron Man” could take a repulsor ray to the comic movie mold and rebuild the genre with smart adventure in mind.

“I asked Robert what he wanted to do in his career now,” Favreau reveals. “He said he wanted to make movies that were good and that people were going to see. That seems very simple, but it’s a pretty profound statement. Actors want to be in movies that are good and that they’re proud of. You want to do a movie that’s going to be part of the culture. ‘Pirates of the Caribbean,’ ‘The Sopranos.’ Everyone knows what you’re talking about, and you’ve seen it and it’s impacted lives and has created a cultural ripple.” Come May 2008, if Favreau’s novel vision of a smart, action-packed comic film rolls off the assembly line as planned, expect more than just a ripple—it could be a revolutionary genre splash.



Robert Downey Jr IS Tony Stark.

You will believe a man can invent a suit of hi-tech armour and look super suave in it.

The best build-a-figures

For the toy enthusiasts in us...doubly so if they like Legos or building toys from the ground up!

FIVE FOR FRIDAY: THE BEST BUILD-A-FIGURES
Aug. 31, 2007: As Marvel Toys’ Legendary Comic Book Heroes explode onto the scene, we rank the greatest build-a-figures ever made

By Zach Oat

Posted August 31, 2007 3:00 PM

A few years ago, if someone had told us that one day there’d be Marvel Legends-style figures based on such obscure (but cool) comic book characters like Ripclaw, Madman and the Savage Dragon, we would have told them they were crazy. But we would have dreamed about those figures when we went to sleep. Well, sometimes dreams do come true, because Marvel Toys (formerly Toy Biz) has created detailed, super-poseable figures of independent comics characters, complete with a giant figure of Pitt that you can put together if you buy the entire first series! (Series 2 builds Monkeyman, of Monkeyman and O’Brien.) To celebrate, we’re calling out the greatest build-a-figures of all time!

5. Sentinel
Marvel Legends Series 10, Toy Biz
Sure, there had been Sentinel figures before, but with their stiff arms and pop-out feet, they were little more than jungle gyms for the old X-Men toys to climb on and knock over. Not only did Toy Biz manage to make the Marvel Legends version of this mutant-hunting robot even taller, it also made him super-poseable, with articulated fingers and bendy mutant-grabbing tentacles. Plus, he’s one of the evilest-looking robots we’ve ever seen.

4. Galactus
Marvel Legends Series 9, Toy Biz
Remember what we said about the old Sentinel? Well, the old Galactus wasn’t much better. That one actually had a voice chip in it that growled “I hunger,” and played some sound effects, but the Devourer of Worlds was still stiff as a board. Toy Biz’s Galactus not only had an amazing head sculpt (complete with square pupils!), it was just as articulated as the company’s Sentinel—if you don’t count the constraining skirt. Bonus points for being so shiny.

3. Devastator
Transformers: Generation 1, Hasbro
You remember this guy—he was the dreadnought of destruction who fought for the Decepticons…which is ironic, since he was made out of construction vehicles. What kind of racket is that? Knock stuff down, then rebuild it for cash? Anyway, while the figure was a little rickety, the six poison-green trucks that merged to form Devastator could each transform into a small robot on their own, making this build-a-figure 13 toys in one!

2. Giant-Man
Marvel Legends Wal-Mart Wave, Toy Biz
As cool as it was to get a big Sentinel and Galactus to fight, nothing beats a big hero. Giant-Man has been a staple of the Avengers since the early 1960s, and none of his previous toys ever passed muster. They were all too small! This bad boy is more than twice the height of any of his teammates, making him the guy you want on your team when you have to face the combined forces of Galactus, a dinosaur and the family dog. Have at thee, Sparky!

1. Voltron Masterpiece Edition
Voltron, Toynami
He may have technically been the third Voltron, but he was No. 1 in our hearts. Made up of five robotic lions, this giant robot was way cooler than his vehicle and gladiator counterparts, and he could split up into his component cats with ease. But it was in his combined robot form that he could form blazing sword and slice giant monsters to pieces! Well, not really, since it was just a cartoon, but the original, hefty die-cast toy sometimes made you feel that way, and Toynami’s more-poseable remake takes the lions to a whole new level.

Justice League movie poll

Holy cow...there's going to be a Justice League movie!? That beats the pants of a Superman/Batman team-up on the big screen.

I'd so love to see an Avengers movie though. Guess that can happen after Cap, Iron Man and Thor make their big screen solo-movie debuts!

JLA: THE MOVIE
What should and shouldn’t be in the Justice League movie? We asked, you answered!

Posted August 31, 2007 9:40 AM

Way back in February, Warner Bros. commissioned the husband-and-wife team of Kieran and Michele Mulroney to write a script for a “Justice League of America” movie. (The Mulroneys did a rewrite of “Mr. & Mrs. Smith” that impressed many Hollywood bigwigs.) Insiders say their first draft is finished and has been well received by the top brass.

But no first draft is perfect, so we asked readers of wizarduniverse.com to make some suggestions for the second draft. Here's how they voted:

Assuming that Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman are already on the team, which other hero MUST also be included above all the rest?

Green Lantern
40%
Flash 34%, Martian Manhunter 12%, Green Arrow 4%, Aquaman 3%, Black Canary 4%, Red Tornado 2%, Plastic Man 1%


What comic book storyline should serve as the basis for the movie?

AN ALL-NEW STORY
60%
JLA: Year One 18%, Grant Morrison’s first storyarc 15%, Brad Meltzer’s first storyarc 5%, Mark Waid’s “Midsummer’s Nightmare” 2%

Who should be the main villain?

DARKSEID
49%
Injustice League 25%, Amazo 10%, Despero 9%, Lex Luthor 5%, Ra’s Al Ghul 2%


Of the following, who should direct the film?

BRYAN SINGER
28%
Christopher Nolan 22%, James Cameron 15%, Michael Bay 19%, Zack Snyder 12%, Brett Ratner 4%

I honestly would have preferred for the movie to be based on an existing story-arc. But hey, whatever works. This is just a fan's poll, not the be-all-and-end-all info site of the movie anyway.

Alex Ross' upcoming Marvel project

Alex Ross is coming back to Marvel soon! I so can't wait:

From Wizard Universe:

FIRST LOOK: ALEX ROSS
We put the spotlight on the superstar painter’s new ‘Avengers’ book and his ‘Escapists’ cover!

By Andy Serwin

Posted August 31, 2007 9:20 AM

What’s this deal with this new Avengers book, and who’s involved?

It’s a 12-issue Avengers/Invaders project. I’m painting covers and co-plotting, Jim Krueger’s writing it and Steve Sadowski (JSA) is drawing it. It’s meant to be in continuity, with the world as it is post Civil War, and the timing of how the Invaders come into the modern day is meant to be for the shock value of seeing the young Namor, Captain America and Bucky together in the their prime, and maybe some culture shock reaction to the modern age of superheroes. This kind of event would have to poise the opposing groups of Avengers against each other to manage [the Invaders] in their timeline. If in fact that’s what these guys are, if they’re not Skrulls or something! [Laughs]

It’s been almost four years since Paradise X, your last project for Marvel; why hook up with them now?

This is in every way shape and form due to Dynamic Forces. Nick Barrucci has been my olive branch to mend fences and open new relationships. He has created this idea himself, and he’s brought in myself and Jim Krueger and is making a future for us back at our alma mater of sorts.

How did this Escapists cover come about for Dark Horse?

I’ve collected all of the Escapists comics, and I have respect for what [Michael] Chabon accomplished. I had a reaction to the simplistic archetype that he created in the Escapist. When I first heard the name, I thought, “That’s an awesome comic character name.”