Approaching the world-wide release week, CBM.com and the world is being flooded with Iron Man 2 related info and thoughts from the cast, director, producers, and the writers. One writer in particular, Justin Theroux, who helped Marvel and Director, Jon Favreau create the said-to-be masterpiece, has been giving brief tidbits.
But now, Theroux talking with UGO, he gives more enlightenment on writing a film of this level, re-writing process, Iron Man 3, and his announced Zoolander sequel.
On writing a superhero sequel
On the one hand, we're taking the reality of where the first film left off. That's the starting point...What does that mean for Tony Stark's world, his company? What are the new pressures? Also, there's this brand new proprietary technology that's out there, as if somebody had invented the atom bomb. Who wants it? Who's gonna try and get it? Who's gonna claim they already own it? And Marvel's great about not coming in with any agenda. We all sit in a room and unpack our trunks, put everything out there, pretend that everything is possible. We get all the past issues out and pour over the villains. We dog-ear the people we like - Justin Hammer, Whiplash, Black Widow. Then we start to stitch those things together. It's a surprisingly organic way of working.
On the much-discussed re-writing process
It's unique to the talent that we have in this movie. There are certain things that I've worked on where you want to script it as tightly as possible and try and box an actor in...What makes Robert so wonderful is that he's this fountain of creativity. There's so much electricity flying off him that the best you can do is throw a wedge in and divert some of that energy so that it hits the screen. And my job as a writer isn't to come in and say, "Hey, it's Iron Man, but let's make it MY Iron Man." I just try to sing in the same key as Robert and Jon...I was having to come in with several different options so that Robert could vibe which option falls into what he wants to do, and also so that Jon can graft one thing onto another to steer the story in some way. It's more labor-intensive, but at the same time, it's much more gratifying.
On the absence of the Demon in the Bottle storyline
Demon in the Bottle...That works really well in the comics. It's just a great, gritty storyline. It doesn't transfer to film. We didn't want to be the Leaving Las Vegas version of Iron Man 2. Even just a little bit of that can completely dominate the story. We have him drinking in the movie; we have him out of control. We have the self-destructive ticking clock...That's how we landed on his illness, that it's the metaphor for a man who's running out of steam and needs his friends to step up. Whereas, if we ran right toward the Demon in the Bottle story, nobody wants to see Tony like that...We realized that in a comic book you can have one key-frame where it's a guy, drunk, but in a movie, that's gotta be a big scene and it's gotta be addressed. A thirteen year old kid does not want to see drunken Tony.
On Iron Man 3
Definitely, Iron Man 3 is going to be a topic of conversation at some point. At this moment, we're enjoying Iron Man 2. Kevin and those guys are really smart about waiting to see what the fans gravitate towards. We knew they loved Tony being all bing-bang-boom, so we added more Tony speech moments; they loved Tony and Pepper. I think they'll wait for Iron Man 2 to come out, see what bits resonate and then capitalize on those.
Head over to
UGO to find out what Justin Theroux had to say about his Zoolander sequel. In the meantime, see how much improvised Theroux's Iron Man 2 script is, translated to the big screen, when the film hits theaters May 7th.