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Q: How reticent were you to go on with a second movie(Iron man 2)? What were the choices you had to make, in order for this second movie to be better than the original one?
Kevin: Thankfully, the first film was a big enough success that nobody was reticent. Certainly, the studio was like, "Make another one! Make another one!" The fear always is to make it good and to improve upon what you did the last time. It was well received, but there were things we thought we could improve. That's always the best part of the sequels. You get a chance to do it again and maybe improve elements that you disappointed with, even if the audience wasn't. There were a few teeny, tiny things that we looked forward to redoing.
Also, when you've got 50 years of comic book stories to tell, we had all sorts of stories we hadn't gotten to yet. An origin story is great and it's pre-packaged, if you do it right. It's the sequel that frees you up. We committed ourselves to a direction. We had Tony out himself as Iron Man, in the last frame of the last movie. We were like, "Should we do this? We're locking ourselves into something." And, we said, "Yes, let's do it." It's locked us into something which has opened up the whole franchise, like in that Senate scene that we showed in Hall H. That's what the whole movie is like. Everyone knows who he is now, and he has to deal with that.
Q: When you brought the first film to Comic-Con, you just killed. How did the reaction this time around compare? How did you pick what you were going to show, to top that first presentation?
Kevin: It was very overwhelming out there. It was great. There was a standing ovation, the minute Jon walked out, so that was very different than it was last year. All that was great, but we wanted the footage to speak for itself, so we followed the method we did last time. We didn't really get a chance to do a preamble, but that's not footage we would show to any crowd. We put that together for this crowd, which is essentially bringing people into the cutting room. That Senate scene is a long, raw, rough version of that scene. But, this audience is very savvy and we give them credit for that.
Q: Was it not worth fighting and trying to make it work with Terrence Howard?
Kevin: Ultimately, we thought that we had a chance to improve the movie with Don Cheadle. For the story that we wanted to tell in the first movie, Terrence did a great job for us. I'm glad that he was in that one. In this one, the story we wanted to tell and that Jon and I started working on, which was going to be much more Jim Rhodes-centric, and have the War Machine story, we thought Don was a better way to go.
Q: Were there other things that you wanted to tweak for improvement?
Kevin: Just really little things. Our end battle this time will be slightly more epic, in scale. It's that balance of delivering the character. With these movies, we really care about the characters, but also delivering a spectacle. In the last movie, the connection between Jeff Bridges and Robert was great, but we wanted to give it a little more spectacle, this time around, for its finale.
Q: How much pressure is there on you to deliver a movie that is going to be as commercially successful as the first one?
Kevin: A tremendous amount of pressure.
Q: How do you deal with that?
Kevin: You just work hard. All that we can do is work very, very hard on the movie. I think we maybe stopped for about four weeks, after the release of the first Iron Man, and then jumped right back into it. And, that continues, for me, through Thor and Captain America and The Avengers.
Q: How is Zak Penn doing, bouncing between three films to work on The Avengers script?
Kevin: It's great. We're learning as we go. It's a new thing. Jon clearly is enthusiastic about it. Ken Branagh is enthusiastic about it. Joe Johnston is just getting into the mix now, on Captain America. The screenwriters have conference calls amongst themselves, in terms of what we're doing. Sometimes we'll change something. We're not going to lock ourselves into something. No, if it doesn't work for the movie we're making, we shuffle it. I call them and go, "Remember that thing I told you about? We're not doing it."
Q: Are you introducing ideas for The Avengers that you'll later use?
Kevin: Yeah, it's a big dialogue, back and forth. It's the bullpen. We're not re-inventing the wheel here. It's just on a much different scale.
Q: Will you introduce more supporting Avengers in that film?
Kevin: Probably a few, yeah.
Q: Is Scarlett's Black Widow going to be in it, or are you thinking of doing that as a solo?
Kevin: Maybe, yeah. She's signed up for all of those options, should we be lucky enough to have the audience want to see them.
Q: How much will Nick Fury be in these movies?
Kevin: That remains to be seen. I think you saw a good chunk of it in the Hall H footage. Sam has gone on the record as saying he hasn't busted into bad-ass action mode yet. At the end of the first one, for those people patient enough to wait through the end credits, they met this guy named Nick Fury, and Tony had no idea who he was. In this movie, he opens that door a little bit more, for Tony, and invites him to walk through it. Tony may or may not do that, in this movie, but Nick Fury is the conduit by which all the other characters will connect.
Q: How important was it to sign Sam for all the films?
Kevin: We wanted to do it for the continuity. Clearly, he had inspired the ultimate incarnation of Nick Fury, in the past 10 years, in the comics, so we were very happy when we got him involved in all the movies.
Q: Does Stan Lee cameo in Iron Man 2?
Kevin: Yes.
Q: How is Captain America shaping up?
Kevin: Captain America is going to start prep in October. We already have some concept artists working on it. Joe Johnston's finishing up Wolfman now, but we're already deep into the script and he was in the office with us, last week. He starts officially, and we open the offices officially, in October.
Q: How close are you to announcing the cast?
Kevin: I think it'll be a few months.
Q: Does Hulk factor into The Avengers?
Kevin: I think so. In the comics, he has.
Q: Are you in a good place with Edward Norton to bring him in?
Kevin: I don't know. We should ask him.
Q: How are Kenneth Branagh and your lead actor developing Thor?
Kevin: Kenneth is great. We've got Tom Hiddleston as Loki, and we've got Chris Hemsworth as Thor. I can't wait until next year, when we bring all of those guys out to Comic-Con. Natalie Portman's on board, which we've mentioned. I think we're nearing, closing in on Odin and Heindel and the Warriors Three, which we're excited about. We're about halfway through prep. We start filming in January.
Q: What sold you on Chris Hemsworth?
Kevin: It's one of those rare things that doesn't happen often, but people like me always say it, so it probably sounds cliché. We auditioned a lot of people. We did a lot of screen tests. We put a lot of people on video. And, one guy just kept popping out, and that was Chris. You realize, regardless of what he's saying or how he's saying it, that you're engaged with him. It's that movie star quality, which he has. And, thankfully, he looks like Thor, which is a good combination.
Q: How much is set present day?
Kevin: Maybe 30%.