Makes you wanna do cartwheels anytime a studio takes a welcome gamble like this.
Referring of course to news that the-one-and-only Robert Downey Jr – yes, Downey Jr! Not some sloppy CW regular or fresh-faced musician cum artiste – has signed to play Tony Stark, or rather, “Iron Man”.
Whoever thought Paramount would cast someone of Downey Jr’s calibre – or type – in the role? Sure, it fits him like a glove – alcoholic billionaire that gets about in a superhero outfit after hours – but its almost unheard of. Obviously someone’s taking a page out of Chris Nolan’s “Batman” book and casting ‘actors’ before ‘faces’. Nice example to follow though – “Batman Begins” won a mint, and some major merit.
Interestingly enough, Tom Cruise was initially linked to the project – granted, this was before his transformation into couch-jumping preacher boy – so seems the film has always been circling, in some ways, a big name to headline.
But lets admit it, Cruise is a movie star, Downey Jr is an actor – and “Iron Man” will be all the more better for having Morton’s boy wearing the ensemble.
Downey Jr has made a real comeback the past coupla years. It’s funny to think that many of us assumed he had ruined himself when he went and got himself fired from TV comeback gig “Ally McBeal” – but then he bounced back a couple of years later with big roles in big films, movies like “Kiss, Kiss, Bang, Bang”, “The Singing Detective” and “Good Night and Good Luck”.
Glad he did clean up his act though – it’ll be interesting to see him playing an alcoholic on screen though, temptation is a bitch – because we’ve now got one of today’s best actors back on our screens. There’s not many like RDJ.
Another fab actor, Terrence Howard (“Hustle & Flow”), is believed to be in talks for the role of Jim Rhodes, the former CEO of Stark Industries, in the film. Comic book fans will know that Rhodes has an alter ego too – War Machine (and later, he takes the guise of “Iron Man”).
“Iron Man” starts filming in January, under the guidance of Jon Favreau – who, by the way, has a new baby; congrats mate! – and the Paramount troops.
The pic, based on the classic Marvel comic book of the same name, fixes on a troubled billionaire who creates a life support suit to assist him after a life threatening accident and ultimately decides to use its technology to fight evil and crime.
