WONDERCON ‘08: IRON MAN MOVIE PANEL - NEWSARAMA

February 24th, 2008 | by admin |

Original Post here: Tales from the Longbox

WONDERCON ‘08: IRON MAN MOVIE PANEL

Report by Blake Morse
Saturday evening at WonderCon a panel for Paramount Pictures’ upcoming Iron Man movie was held with special Q&A guest, Jon Favreau (Elf) director of the film.
First off was a query into the use of the song “Iron Man” as recorded by Black Sabbath. A fan was curious as to how much interaction Favreau had with Ozzy Osbourne. He replied that they, “Had talked to Sharon Osbourne (Ozzy’s wife)…She’s very involved in his(Ozzy’s) music.

He was then asked how much he enjoyed making an action film for a change. He responded the he, “loved it, especially working with Robert (Downey Jr.)…” and hopes to do it again.
Next a fan wanted to know if they had really made Robert fly using hoverboots. While Favreau did not directly answer this question, he did use it as a clever segue into a few short clips from the film that showed Downey as Tony Stark developing the rocket shoes as well as an Iron Man prototype suit. Favreau said that he picked these clips to show because he thought you could get a better feel for the character that has not been shown thoroughly in previous trailers.

He then went on to talk about the Iron Man suit itself saying they tried to keep it close to the original comic book look but wanted to give it something unique that set it apart as well. A panelist then asked if Iron Man’s vault of armors would make an appearance. Favreau said that since toy tie-ins were a huge amount of revenue for films (sighting his son’s obsession with Spider-Man toys from the past three Spider-Man films), that he and Marvel had gone through tons of back issues looking for interesting or useful suits that they could possibly use.

A young filmmaker in the audience then asked what Favreau thought of the current state of independent films, since indie film had been Favreau’s roots. Favreau said that it was an exciting time to be independent since you did not need a lot of money for good equipment due to advances in technology or distribution thanks to the popularity of YouTube and other websites. ”If you put it out there and it’s good, it will get attention…you no longer have to go through the system.” He cited Peter Jackson’s rise in mainstream film as an example.

Favreau was next asked what made him decide to do the Iron Man film. He jokingly replied, ”The box office returns on Zathura”. He said that the Internet was a tool he had used to get opinions from the people who see his films, ”It’s like a giant water cooler” and that the audience “would be surprised what a difference they make”. He wants to make sure he’s making the films that fans want to see and the World Wide Web was the best place to make sure he was doing that.

Next he talked about what it was like working with special effects guru Stan Winston (Jurassic Park, Zathura). He described Winston as, “an icon” and said that the CGI crew would have to work around the physical suits that Winston made. One of Favreau’s major concerns was that there would be complete seamlessness transitioning from CGI and “real” shots in the film. Favreau said it takes real talent to work with CGI and that he had a new respect for Michael Bay after seeing what he did with the Transformers film last summer.

A fan than asked Favreau about the James Rhodes/War Machine character and what role he would play in the movie. He stated that they had taken some liberties with character, such as making him a General in the U.S. army and using him as a comedic foil.
Favreau then mentioned that he would hope movies like this would lead to more dynamic films that take place in the Marvel Universe. He specifically sighted the Avengers as movie he would hope to direct based off the success of the Iron Man film.

He also said that the “Demon in a Bottle” story arc was one that he was interested in for a possible Iron Man sequel.
He was next questioned about internet rumors of characters from this summer’s Hulk movie appearing in Iron Man and vice versa. Jovially he said, “Yes, it’s true, there are rumors on the Internet.” He than went on to say that some of them were true and some were not and since the premiere was still far away he wasn’t going to give up all his secrets just yet.

Favreau than talked about the difficulties of directing, saying it was like making a Macy’s day parade float. There are so many things that can go wrong.
He then took a moment to apologize for mixing up dates on the new trailer’s Lost premiere, which had been slated for last week and went on to promise that it would be on this coming week.
And since he could not show the assembled fans that trailer, since it was exclusive for Lost, he would instead show them another new trailer to end the Q&A.

The new trailer was action packed and showed off more of the films main villains. Cuts were short so it was hard to get a grasp on what was going on from one scene to the next. There was a brief glimpse of what looked like a romantic scene between Tony Stark and his assistant Pepper Potts.