Iron Man 3, the latest film in the Marvel Studios superhero franchise, seems poised for a huge opening weekend after breaking worldwide box office records with its international release. With anticipation for the film running high, director Shane Black and cast members Robert Downey Jr., Gwyneth Paltrow, Don Cheadle, Ben Kingsley, Don Cheadle, Guy Pearce and Rebecca Hall took questions at a recent press conference about the latest film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, whether the recent bombings in Boston affected their perceptions of the terrorism in the film, and what the future holds for the Iron Man franchise.
The movie, which opens in the U.S. at midnight tonight, follows last summer’s blockbuster Avengers film, a super-hero teamup that linked together many Marvel super-heroes with successful films of their own, including the Hulk, Thor, Captain America and yes, Iron Man. Downey, who plays Tony Stark, described the film as taking place in a “post-Avengersworld” where Tony is still dealing with the fallout from the Chitauri invasion of Manhattan.
"It's weird when one movie that's connected to another doesn't reference that movie at all. I think it would lack confidence [in the larger universe] if we didn't," said Downey. "We looked at the bigger picture of this continuance of stories, and you just kind of plug things in like an operator… It's a complex thing. [Marvel Studios head] Kevin [Feige] and Shane [Black] are the ones who really have to hammer out where all these strings go and how everything moves something when you pull it."
>'We do live in an unsafe world. That's a true thing. I'm dealing with this now with my seven-year-old... I don't think there's anything wrong with presenting that idea. We can't lie to our children and pretend that the world is perfect.'
Gwyneth Paltrow
Black, who previously directed Downey in the film Kiss Kiss Bang Bang and also co-wrote Iron Man 3, takes over as director from former Iron Man and Iron Man 2 director Jon Favreau, a change that initially unnerved some fans—and members of the cast. "I can only speak for myself, but when I started Iron Man 3 I was very uncomfortable with the fact that Jon wasn't there directing," said Paltrow. "Jon cast the movies, and he's responsible in part for The Avengers. It was just weird that he wasn't there directing. But as we went on I really warmed to Shane and his terrible outfits. He is so sharp, so smart and his dialogue is incredible."
Like many of Black’s other films--including Lethal Weapon, which he scripted--parts of Iron Man 3 are set during Christmas, though Black says he initially resisted the idea and had to be talked into it by co-writer Drew Pearce. “If I was going to see a Shane Black Iron Man movie, it had to be at Christmas,” said Pearce. “But there's always a reason for it as well. When you're telling a story where you're taking characters apart, it almost has more resonance if you put it at Christmas. And if you're also telling the stories of kind of lonelier characters as well, that loneliness is heightened at Christmas.”
Black suggested that there were elements of A Christmas Carol in the film, and that Tony’s Ghost of Christmas Past comes in the form of a child named Harley who's "kind of [Tony] as a young boy. [Tony]’s just encountering all these things like in a fever dream, when he's at his lowest point."
The cast also addressed questions about how the content of the film—particularly the violent acts of terrorism committed by an Iron Man foe called The Mandarin—might be viewed in the aftermath of the recent real-life violence and terror of the Boston Marathon bombing.
"Especially in light of the events of [the Boston Marathon bombing], we've been asked if there are any allusions between what is happening in the real world and what's happening in the film," said Cheadle, who plays Col. James Rhodes (aka Rhodey). "Clearly this movie was in the can before anything transpired... We're really trying to give people the ability to go into a darkened room and have a couple of hours of pure enjoyment. If anything else affects them outside of that, it's an unintended consequence."
Paltrow agreed that recent events reflected the fact that "we do live in an unsafe world. That's a true thing. I'm dealing with this now with my seven-year-old. He's learning that the world is unsafe and there are people who do harmful things. I don't think there's anything wrong with presenting that idea. We can't lie to our children and pretend that the world is perfect and everybody's happy and everybody's out there to do good. It's part of a bigger conversation. I know that after my children saw the movie, I had a conversation with my son about it. It's a good, contained place to have a conversation."
She also lauded Downey’s work, saying that the reason the Iron Man movies work is “because Robert plays Tony Stark. Not only because of the similarities in their own lives and his specific brand of vulnerability and strength and humor and all of those things, but because Robert has a really big picture creative mind about what these movies should feel like… He's always asking, what is the big picture here? How can we make it feel real? How can we make it feel like something we care about and want to watch? I think that's why the movies keep working and why they're not a weaker carbon copy of the one before.”
Interestingly, the actress referred to the Iron Man films as a “trilogy,” a semantic distinction that seems notable as fans and critics debate the future of the Iron Man film franchise, and particularly whether Downey will return to the role he defined on the big screen. "The future, as usual, is uncertain," said Downey. "I think the great thing is that we never could have known what and who was going to come together for the third Iron Man and usually the third of anything struggles to meet the second one, let alone the first one, in all earnestness things are very much in flux right now. Marvel has their plans and we're all living and growing. We'll see what happens."
