FILM: Iron Man Shooting in One Month

Jon Favreau's stab at a the superhero genre will start shooting principal photography in one month. Cast and details revealed!

Well, apparently Marvel plans to start shooting on their attempt at an Iron Man movie in a month or so. The film, which is being done by director/actor Jon Favreau (Zathura and produced independently by Marvel Studios, Elf), is set for a summer 2008 release and will most likely go head to head with Batman Begins for superhero flick of the summer.

Recently the cast of the film was announced and, to my surprise, it's actually quite a good one. Robert Downey Jr. (A Scanner Darkly, Kiss Kiss Bang Bang) will play Tony Stark/Iron Man and the brilliant Terrence Howard (Crash, Hustle & Flow)will play alongside as Jim Rhodes. Gwyneth Paltrow has also been cast as Virginia "Pepper" Potts, secretary to Tony Stark, and Jeff Bridges has been hired and will portray a business associate of Stark Industries.



Now, while the cast is quite good, I'm not sure how well this movie is going to turn out. Marvel's recent superhero films, for the most part, have really dropped the ball. Fantastic Four was bad (the sequel doesn't look much better), X-Men 3 was a bit of a disappointment, and Ghost Rider looks like complete garbage. In fact, I'll go out on a limb to say that Marvel's only license that hasn't yet decayed into misery is Spider-Man, but even I have doubts that the third installment won't live up to the first two. Hopefully Iron Man can reverse this recent trend, but I have a feeling that, with it being the first film produced independently by Marvel Studios, it will not.

Also, I'm not sure how much I trust director Jon Favreau. He does seem to have a strong visual style and a good grasp when it comes to directing CGI and working with animation, but I'm not sure his storytelling is strong enough to keep the film afloat. Maybe I'm just being too critical.

Well, we'll see how Marvel's Iron Man turns out come summer 2008. What do you guys think? Will Iron Man be a hit or miss? Let me know.

Cheers.

 Subscribe in a reader