Jon Favreau Talks 'Iron Man 2' -- Mandarin, Villains, and Alternate Starks
Filed under: Action, Comic/Superhero/Geek, Remakes and Sequels
July 16th became the new Christmas this year, when Eugene revealed the scribe for the Iron Man sequel -- Justin Theroux. Really, the actor's inclusion is a nice metaphor for why I like the first Iron Man to begin with -- it's a wonderful mixture of sexiness, smarts, and charm. (I mean, heck, I accepted him as my personal saviour.) So now we're getting more, in capable hands, and one Mr. Jon Favreau shared some details during a live web chat with LA Times readers.First off, Favreau says that he's currently working with Theroux on the first draft, and they're playing with who the villain of the next pic will be. I imagine that this decision might be influenced by visual possibilities, as Favreau is also presently working with a storyboard artist and costumers. From there, Jon has a take on Mandarin, "that allows us to incorporate the whole pantheon of villains. The whole 10 Rings thing in IM 1 was a good tease for it," muses over the possibility of a female villain, and confirms that #2 will focus on the aftermath of Tony's "I am Iron Man," statement.
Best of all, Favreau says that things are coming together smoothly with "fewer casting issues" than the first round, so I imagine we will start getting casting notices soon, and with that, an idea of what villains ol' Tony will face.
Oh wait. Here's one last piece of food for thought from Favs: "Sam Rockwell could've been a cool Tony if not RDJ." What say you, Cinematical readers, could Rockwell have pulled it off? And of course -- who do you want Iron Man to face this time around?
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(Page 1)2. Sam Rockwell as Tony Stark? Really? Rockwell's lovable-if-smarmy scruffiness would be perfect for that charismatic playboy Stark.
Or, wait... what?
Downey was such a perfect choice, so brilliantly obvious. As for villains, I dunno, the Mandarin is a natural choice, but non-idiotic take on Dr. Doom might be worthwhile as well.
Maybe.
Posted at 1:13PM on Oct 2nd 2008 by Kurt
3. I'm not familiar with Iron-Man's rogues gallery, but I came out of Iron Man 1 wanting more and with Favreau at the helm I trust it will be pretty spectacular. I have to wonder about the alcoholism storyline from the comics. Are they going to try to tackle that? I'm not sure they should.
Posted at 2:13PM on Oct 2nd 2008 by Bill
4. Absolutely not! It has to be Robert Downey Junior. Nobody could have pulled off some of those cheesy lines, and with such seriousness, like RDJ. He was superb and has made me LOVE the Iron Man comics. After watching Iron Man (I saw it the first day when prompted to leave immediately for the theatres after reading a rave review of RDJ as Stark in the local paper), I wanted to buy another ticket and sit through it again. I would have too if I hadn't had an appointment right afterward.
Posted at 9:02PM on Oct 2nd 2008 by Little Lisa
5. I want to see this guy fight Iron Man.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mandarin_(comics)
The Mandarin. One part Mad Scientist. One Part Kung Fu Grandmaster. All Bad-Ass! :-D
Posted at 5:46PM on Nov 2nd 2008 by Arnold
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1. Rockwell has some range so it wouldn't have been a disaster. For villains, The Mandarin would be cool. There was a classic Iron Man that had the Mandarin recruit like 15 other super-villains to take on Iron Man.
The best thing about it was that IM got to use nearly every gadget his armor has. That would be a visual feast. Another good classic(read:80s) story was when his armor got under the control of Justin Hammer and he killed a politician.
It would be sort of like the way the next Batman will go but it would be interesting.
Iron Man has very visual adversaries so they could just pick one. Blizzard, The Melter, etc. etc.
IM is the superhero I wanted to see anyway so it doesn't matter.
Posted at 1:04PM on Oct 2nd 2008 by Christian M. Howell