andPOP » Iron Man

Walt Disney and Marvel Get Hitched

Emma Renda — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 15:09:57 +0000

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Marvel Entertainment Inc., home of famed comic book characters such as Iron Man, Spider-Man, X-Men, Captain America, Incredible Hulk and Fantastic Four, was purchased by Walt Disney Co. today.

The deal did not come cheap – Walt Disney Studios shelled out $4 billion in cash and stock to own the comic book catalogue consisting of more than 5,000 characters, some of which were created by legendary Stan Lee.

“This transaction combines Marvel’s strong global brand and world-renowned library of characters . . . with Disney’s creative skills, unparalleled global portfolio of entertainment properties, and a business structure that maximizes the value of creative properties across multiple platforms and territories,” said Robert A. Iger, President and Chief Executive Officer of the Walt Disney Company in a press release.

The full press release – and all the boggling stock statistics – is available online.

But it’s what this deal means to the comic franchise’s loyal fans that is concerning bloggers everywhere today.

The New York Daily News’ David Hinckley makes a valid point that this isn’t one rival company buying out another (think Coke buying out Pepsi). Marvel and Disney have never exactly been adversaries – rather, Disney has been at odds with Warner Bros. since the early 1900s, whereas Marvel has warred it out with DC Comics. However, DC Comics, home of Batman and Superman, is owned by Time-Warner and has admittedly been gloriously profitable since the Batman film franchise obliterated the dividing line between counter- and pop-culture.

The worry remains, as noted by The Wall Street Journal’s Steven Kurutz, of the unsettling offspring that could result from the close proximity of Marvel and Disney’s main characters.

“How about an American Idol-esque mall tour featuring pop songs by Ernst, a teenage girl suffering from the aging disease progeria, who first appeared in issue #135 of New X-Men?” Kurutz writes.

It’s a chilling thought, but Disney isn’t all bad. Sure, their reputation recently consists of little more than the photographic fare littering a teen girls bedroom walls (including Miley Cyrus and the Jonas Brothers.) But that’s because they use subdivisions of the company to release their edgier films, such as the Pirates of the Caribbean series, rather than taming the content for family audiences.

But as everyone knows, there’s nothing better for business than a little competition.

With Marvel/Disney now fiscally and commercially poised to take on DC/Time-Warner, audiences worldwide can expect even more enhancements in the comic adaptation frenzy that erupted this decade.

Of course it’s hard to imagine improving 2008′s Iron Man, and even more difficult to imagine what kind of competition would have encouraged a stronger product than The Dark Knight. But I can’t say I’m not curious.

Downey Jr. Returns As Iron Man

Ilan Mester — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 21:58:08 +0000

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Robert Downey Jr. has signed a deal with Marvel Studios that will have him playing Tony Stark and his alter ego in two more Iron Man films. According to E! Online, Downey will also star as Tony Stark in the upcoming film The Avengers, featuring an all-star cast of Marvel superheroes.

The first Iron Man earned close to $580 million worldwide, along with mostly positive reviews.

The tentative release date for the first sequel is May 7, 2010, and July 15, 2011 for The Avengers film.

In his upcoming film The Soloist Downey plays a journalist who tries to helps a schizophrenic homeless musician (Jamie Foxx) from Skid Row, Los Angeles accomplish his dream of playing at the Walt Disney Concert Hall.

Downey was recently in the summer hit Tropic Thunder along with Ben Stiller and Jack Black, and is currently in London shooting Sherlock Holmes, costarring Jude Law and Rachel McAdams. The flick will be directed by Guy Ritchie.

Paul Bettany Didn’t Know He Was In ‘Iron Man’

andPOP Staff — Tue, 20 May 2008 03:33:15 +0000

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Don’t feel bad if you didn’t realize that Paul Bettany was the voice of artificial intelligence Jarvis in “Iron Man” – he didn’t know either!

Bettany said he got a call from pal Jon Favreau, who was fuzzy on details, but convinced Bettany to do a bit of voice work for his upcoming film.

“I didn’t know I was in a superhero movie,” Bettany told SuperheroHype.com. “[Favreau] rung me up and was really funny on the phone. I said, ‘Yeah, alright.’ I genuinely didn’t know. I’m really naive, but it’s the f**king truth. I really didn’t know what I was going in for because it was two hours in a recording booth. I went in and recorded with Jon Favreau, doing all the lines, recording them and went home and now I’m a f**king hero to my children. I haven’t even seen it yet. I haven’t had time because I’ve been working for 17 hours [a day].”

Bettany is currently filming “Legion” with Dennis Quaid.

Movie Review: Iron Man

Eric Emin Wood — Sun, 11 May 2008 16:15:55 +0000

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I’d like to rub the face of anyone who dared to defend last year’s Transformers as a good movie in at least one frame of Iron Man. The first few seconds of its final battle alone are more engaging than the entirety of last year’s giant robot blockbuster. More coherent, too.

This is quality entertainment. This deserves to be a worldwide smash. Critics are not curmudgeons (not all of us anyway). We are not adverse to summer movies made primarily to sell popcorn. But there’s a difference between a good popcorn movie and a bad popcorn movie. In a bad popcorn movie, unbelievable things happen to unbelievable characters. In a good popcorn movie, unbelievable things happen to believable characters. I did not expect Transformers’ Sam Witwicky to be the second coming of Ferris Bueller. I did, however, have every right to expect a protagonist who was more than a collection of teen movie cliches.

Like the Star Wars prequel trilogy, Iron Man is technically an indie – it was financed by Marvel Comics’ new film division, which doesn’t answer to the studios. After putting it in the hands of filmmakers with actual talent (unlike George Lucas… the screenwriting half of him anyway) the company wisely took a hands-off approach, knowing that a good film would bring in more repeat business than a mediocre one.

If IMDB is to be believed (and let’s pretend it is) then Jon Favreau, a fine comic actor and the director of Iron Man, deserves a raise:

- He’s crafted a superhero movie, like Batman Begins (a conscious influence), that doesn’t feel like a superhero movie. He does this by making the first action sequence involve nothing out of the ordinary: it’s a military assault in Afghanistan.

- He establishes a character who could plausibly exist in the real world. Granted, Tony Stark, a gambling, boozing, womanizing arms dealer who also happens to be a brilliant inventor and shrewd businessman, is second only to Peter Parker in Marvel’s considerable stable of terrific protagonists. But the film wisely presents him as a character who could have easily been the villain in another movie, until he witnesses firsthand the destruction his weapons have caused.

- Favreau has created a film that is neither a message movie nor an insult to the audience – Stark’s dealings appear to be on a legitimate world stage, and while they doesn’t hold up to comparisons with Lord of War, they’re a solid introduction for viewers who don’t know the first thing about arms dealing. Yes, there are people who design weapons and profit off war, yes, those profiteers often hail from rich countries, yes, they usually profit off regions said countries are trying to protect, and yes, the enemy often gets their hands on those weapons, resulting in additional income for the profiteers.

- In a nod to Robert Altman (another influence) Favreau turns the dialogue between Stark and his long-suffering assistant, Virginia “Pepper” Potts (Gwyneth Paltrow – it’s saying something when one of Stan Lee’s trademark alliterative names is the most unrealistic thing about the movie) into flip exchanges worthy of a 1930s screwball comedy. The pair frequently talk over each other and provide some of the film’s most memorable lines (“Face it, this isn’t the worst thing you’ve caught me doing,” says Stark when Potts sees him removing his suit). While they don’t quite have a Mulder-and-Scully chemistry that doesn’t (or shouldn’t) turn into romance, you can’t exactly call Potts a love interest either. And she’s far more involved than the typical non-heroic female lead in such movies.

- And Favreau was responsible for casting Robert Downey Jr. in the lead. This simultaneously matches the perfection achieved by Kelsey Grammer as Beast in the lastX-Men movie (an otherwise execrable affair) and Jerry Bruckheimer’s genius when casting an offbeat and respected actor like Johnny Depp in the first Pirates of the Caribbean movie. Hiring Downey, a talented actor once known for his substance abuse problems more than his performances, to play a substance-abusing superhero meant the potential payoff was enormous. And yes, he is that good. Iron Man’s chief weakness is its two-dimensional supporting characters; by turning Stark into such an engaging hero Downey more than makes up for it.

In the other supporting roles, Terrence Howard and Jeff Bridges shine as usual (though Howard’s character, Jim Rhodes, doesn’t become Iron Man’s sidekick, War Machine, until the next film). If I hadn’t known Bridges played the main villain going in, I wouldn’t have known he was the main villain until halfway through (my one gripe: for no apparent reason he turns out to be involved in more of the proceedings than I would have liked).

Make no mistake, Iron Man is not groundbreaking. It’s formula done well. Anyone directing a “smart” movie would have killed for this cast, and yet I think in no way, shape or form can you call Iron Man dumb. When it was over (stick around for an extra scene), I realized something: for the first time since Spider-Man, the prospect of a sequel felt less like a punishment and more like a treat.

‘Iron Man 2′ Already Has Release Date

andPOP Staff — Tue, 06 May 2008 03:04:10 +0000

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The people behind “Iron Man” certainly are efficient. A sequel to this weekend’s box office smash already has a release date: April 30, 2010.

Not all of the details are ironed out yet, however. It’s unclear as to what members of the cast will be back and what the plot will be.

“Iron Man” isn’t the only franchise Marvel is excited about. Its film adaptation of “The Avengers” is set for a July 2011 release.

Until they, they have such heavy hitters as “The Incredible Hulk,” Punisher: War Zone,” and”X-Men Origins: Wolverine” to keep the money rolling in.

“Iron Man” has already made more than $200 million worldwide.

‘Iron Man’ Makes $100 million

Jeff Justiz — Sun, 04 May 2008 22:24:07 +0000

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Already a summer blockbuster, “Iron Man” grossed $100.8 million, per studio estimates compiled by Exhibitor Relations Co., making the film second only to “Spider-Man” for comic-book movie debuts. The estimate, however, does not include the movie’s Thursday night sneak preview which could include about another $4 million.

The Marvel comic adaptation had an opening bigger than those of “Batman Begins” ($48.7 million), “Superman Returns” ($52.5 million), the first two “X-Men” movies and “Spider-Man”.

This is quite the success for lead actor Robert Downing Jr., who has never fronted a movie that grossed $100 million during its entire run.
Among any kind of movie, “Iron Man” posted the 10th biggest and best three-day opening ever. It is the No. 2 debut of all time for a non-sequel, behind only Spiderman’s $114.8 million.