The summer movie season kicks off this Thursday when Iron Man rockets into a theater near you. As anticipation for the summer blockbuster continues, a number of the movies stars and participants are out, talking to the press and promoting the film.
As if we needed any more reason to look forward to the film. But here a few tidbits about Iron Man to help sustain you until the movie opens this weekend.
Favreau: Downey is “perfect” Stark
When news broke that Robert Downey, Jr. had been cast to play Iron Man’s alter ego, Tony Stark, fans across the world praised the choice. In many ways, it felt like Downey, who has faced struggles in his personal life, was born to play Tony Stark, the fictional man who faces struggles in his personal life.
Director Jon Favreau felt the same way, saying that Downey was the perfect choice to play Stark because the two share so much in common.
“Downey had a lot in common with Tony Stark,” Favreau said. “Stark was a guy who lived in the public eye and had succeeded and failed in a very public way, and Robert was able to just really own the idea of being this very intelligent, very public figure who’s known by everybody whenever he walks into a room. Robert has lived that.”
“You just know that he gets it,” Favreau said. “When he walks up a red carpet in the movie or is helped into a limo or walks through a casino floor, you know that this is a guy who has lived with this kind of fame and exposure, and I think that adds dimension to an otherwise two-dimensional genre, when you have a guy who can bring that type of depth and experience to a role.”
Howard talks about Rhodey
Actor Terrance Howard revealed this weekend that he took the role as James “Rhodey” Rhodes in the upcoming Iron Man movie because of the potential for sequels in which he’d get to play War Machine.
The new superhero movie, which opens Friday, contains a hint about future storylines that could feature the popular character. For those who don’t know, in the comics Rhodes donned an Iron Man suit to help his friend Tony Stark when Stark was battling alcoholism. Eventually, Rhodes joined his friend in fighting alongside Iron Man as War Machine.
“Robin might get to ride in the Batmobile one day,” Howard told reporters. “No, I’m pretty sure we’re gonna go there. The response to even that one little statement, the roar in the audience. … I didn’t know that War Machine was so beloved or anticipated until sitting in an audience and hearing that.”
Howard went on to say that part of his reason for wanting a sequel was to have more on-screen time for Rhodey. Because the upcoming film is an origin story for Iron Man, a lot of scenes with Rhodey ended up on the cutting room floor.
“There was a lot more of me before.” Howard said. “In the film that we shot, there was a whole lot of me, and then I got a call from [director] Jon [Favreau], I guess, mid-February, late-January. He was like, ‘How you doing?’ I was like, ‘Cool.’ He said, ‘Yeah, so, we’re working on the film.’ I was like, ‘Yeah, how’s it coming out?’ He said, ‘It’s great. It’s great. It’s great. But we had to make some cuts. Everybody took a hit, but Rhodey took a big hit. Rhodey took a real big hit.’ I was like, ‘How big of a hit? If I was 6 feet tall at the beginning, how tall am I now?’ He said, ‘You’re about an action figure size. You’ll fit right on the shelf.'”
Iron Man villian not “black and white”
One of the things that attracted actor Faran Tahir to the role of Raza is that while the character is a villain in the story, he’s not necessarily evil.
“What I love about the movie is that it doesn’t try to paint the characters as black and white,” Tahir said. “The movie plays with the shades of gray, and that’s what is interesting to me. Tony Stark is not just a good guy. He has his own problems, and you get to see this man dealing with all of that.”
Tahir will be getting a lot of screen time in genre-related films in the next few months. Earlier this week, news broke that he has been cast as a fellow starship captain in J.J. Abrahm’s Star Trek movie that opens in April 2009. The casting of Tahir is a first for the Trek franchise as Tahir will be the first Trek captain of Middle Eastern ethnicity.