This past weekend in San Diego, lucky Comic-Con goers got a sneak peek at the first publicly viewed "Iron Man 2" footage, fueling the fervor for the hotly anticipated sequel. We'll keep those fires burning bright by bringing you inside "Iron Man 2" -- all from a series of stories about our set visit a few weeks back. Wednesday we opened with an overview, yesterday we got insight from Marvel Studios President, Kevin Feige. Today, you get to hear from Jon Favreau, director of "Iron Man 2," in theaters, May 7, 2010.
by Randy Ma
As the director of “Iron Man 2,” Jon Favreau serves as the guiding force behind the film. Watching him on set wearing a
Hulk t-shirt, blue jeans, and moccasins, it becomes evident that the franchise is in good hands—those of a true a fan.
Favreau proved a major factor in "Iron Man's" blockbuster success and learned a lot from the previous film; he knows the stakes have been raised for its upcoming sequel. “Iron Man 2” takes place six months after the events of the first movie. Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) has revealed his identity as Iron Man to the world, a major development that must be dealt with.
“What would really happen if you do that?” Favreau asked rhetorically. “How do your enemies and friends react? How much attention do you draw to yourself? Fame in general has a good side and bad side…You get tremendous adulation and you become bigger than life in some sort of ways; and in other ways, you become John Lennon. He’s definitely living under pressure but he’s not introverted.”
Tony has dark days ahead of him. “Demon in a Bottle,” the seminal tale of Tony Stark’s battle with alcohol abuse told in the comics by David Michelinie, Bob Layton and John Romita Jr. in 1979, remains the quintessential Iron Man saga for many fans. Since plans for “Iron Man 2” were announced, there has been speculation whether Tony’s alcoholism would make an appearance in the sequel.
“We do our own version of it,” Favreau explained. “There’s a lot of ways to deal with it.”
Favreau made it imperative that “Iron Man 2” keep with the first movie’s lighter tone, retaining Tony’s playboy antics and sharp sarcasm. This time around there’s a Cold War angle to the story and Favreau plans to integrate a tone of entertainment that harkens back to the James Bond films of the 1960’s.
“There’s lightness to Robert’s heaviness,” the director noted. “All that tension relief stuff was not written into the first film. When Tony says he wants a burger after he crashes into the desert and they find him, those were all opportunities we find and don’t pass up because that’s how we roll. We like to maintain the tone we’ve grown comfortable with.”
In an exciting piece of news, Favreau revealed that famed “Samurai Jack” creator and “Star Wars: Clone Wars” director Genndy Tartakovsky had consulted on “Iron Man 2.”
“When this thing started up I engaged him to come on board,” Favreau said. “He’s been working on this movie, mostly starting off putting together some storyboards, and then expanding to animatics, which expanded into pre-visualization and actually being a big collaborator with me.
“It’s been a really nice collaboration because we come from two separate ends of it. I learned from the first [film that] there is so much animation in a super hero film…It lets you be decisive early and organically get to the action sequence instead of filling holes, which traditional filming in CGI tends to be. [Tartakovsky] really impressed me every step of the way. Now he’s moving into territory he hasn’t worked on before, and that’s bringing a lot of action to the movie.”
When asked what fans could expect from the then upcoming presentation of “Iron Man 2” at the San Diego Comic-Con this year, Favreau said he realized expectations are high.
“This year 'Iron Man 2' will have just wrapped production by Comic-Con,” he noted. “Last time was our chance to really introduce Iron Man and now that that’s done hopefully this time we can concentrate more on the story.”
Stay tuned for Marvel.com’s final "Iron Man 2" set visit story as we get the scoop from Tony Stark himself, Robert Downey Jr. on Monday, August 3!
Check out Iron Man 2 Set Visit: Part One here and Part Two here.
For all things "Iron Man 2" check out our hub page.
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