Iron Man (New Line sets 2005 release date)

David Rogers · 02-13-2003, 01:55 PM

From Dark Horizons:
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Iron Man: Variety reports that New Line has set a Summer 2005 release for the comic adaptation being penned by Alfred Gough and Miles Millar ("Smallville").
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All I have to say is hells yeah. Here's hoping the film gets made, gets released, and looks good. My personal favorite super hero coming to the screen. Finally the possibility of quality FX being used to create powered armor sequences on screen.

I'm almost as excited as I am about Matrix R/R.

Jason Seaver · 02-13-2003, 02:27 PM

Could be fun; I dropped "Iron Man" from my pull list yesterday because it's just gone steadily downhill since Kurt Busiek left the book (and my dropping it means Marvel will do something really great with it, like giving it to Christopher Priest), but this could be a really entertaining movie. There's a certain whimsical fun to how Tony Stark's secret identity is supposedly his own bodyguard (yes, I'm ignoring the past year), and if Gough & Millar make him more James Bond than Bruce Wayne, this should be a real ride.

The only problem is, Iron Man doesn't really have a great nemesis. I'm pretty sure G&M will rewrite history a little so that The Mandarin is the guy who captures Stark and forces him to build weapons (leading to the armor), but The Mandarin is... well, let's just say he falls a little short of Lex Luthor.

Tim RH · 02-13-2003, 03:11 PM

Okay, who should play Tony Stark? Although they don't really look like him, I'd go for vote CHRISTIAN BALE or JUDE LAW in the lead.

JustinCleveland · 02-13-2003, 03:15 PM

Jason,

I've not read Iron Man in years, since the Marvel split and the "new avengers" etc.

What's the new story with Iron Man?

Jason Seaver · 02-13-2003, 03:42 PM

Well, he came back from "Heroes Reborn" back-to-normal (apparently there was some sort of Teen Tony thing which they're pretneding never happened), and because a Japanese company had purchased Stark Enterprises in his absense, he founded a consulting firm - Stark Solutions - and during the Busiek run things were good.

Since then, the stories have gotten less interesting - there was this thing with his armor becoming sentient that Would Not End - and the biggest disaster, IMHO, was Tony outing himself as Iron Man to save a dog from getting run over by a car.

That doesn't count the version of Iron Man in "The Ultimates", who is a complete oaf. Most galling was that while the regular book was going downhill, Priest did a great arc in "Black Panther" with Ol' Shellhead as a guest star. Really nailed the character as a hero, engineer, and businessman.

As to who plays Stark - if Tom Cruise is still interested, he could be perfect, as could Russell Crowe in one of his lighter modes. For someone less expensive, I'd kind of be interested in Christian Slater in the part, with the breezy playboy thing going on.

Actually, now that I think of it... David Duchovny. Carefree as Stark, authoritative as Iron Man, he could be a lot of fun in the role.

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James T · 02-13-2003, 03:54 PM

Does anyone remember Tom Cruise wanting to do Iron Man?

I'm not an Iron Man fan, but I think Tom Selleck looks like Tony Stark. But then again, I've never picked up an Iron Man comic and only based this off his guest appearence on the Spider-Man cartoon.

Andy Sheets · 02-13-2003, 03:59 PM

My favorite choice for Iron Man the last few years has been Dylan McDermott, from The Practice. Admittedly, I got the idea after Iron Man artist Sean Chen claimed that was who his version of Tony Stark was visually based on, but after thinking about it I think McDermott would fit the part perfectly.

Scott Weinberg · 02-13-2003, 04:27 PM

I read an article on a random movie site about a week ago. Avi Arad said something to the effect of "Tom Cruise. I'd sign him tomorrow. I want him as Iron Man."

Plus I think there was some buzz way back when that he was interested. I think he'd be great, though I imagine that choice would incense a lot of comic book fans.

Glad to see New Line's got the ball on this one. I'm not a huge fan of the Blade flicks, but it's clear this studio knows how to handle the comics stuff. And trilogies.

Jason Seaver · 02-13-2003, 04:34 PM

For a while, Cruise-Wagner Productions actually had Iron Man optioned, and were setting it up at Paramount. I think, though, that it was around the time that Cruise was really trying to find a franchise that he could use to occasionally have a no-brainer hit that funded smaller films or would rescue him if his star started to lose its luster. He had Mandrake The Magician optioned, too, but it was Mission Impossible that wound up being made.