I read the Empire magazine article about IM3 (scans
here on sendspace) and then I had like a lot of feelings?
“Tony Stark - billionaire, genius, playboy, philanthropist, Iron Man - walks into a Santa Monica hotel room and flumps into a sofa, where he starts regaling Empire with jet lag fixes and casual mentions of how he had ‘Sting and Trudie’ over at the weekend. Except that this isn’t Tony Stark. We know that, you know that, even he knows that. We think.” Welp, most accurate article opening ever.
RDJ: I know where Tony ends, and I begin.
Shane Black: He doesn’t know where that statement ends and the truth begins.
Drew Pearce, co-writer. “He started off as Tony Stark, he went into a cave, he came out as Iron Man. Where did Tony go? That’s what we’re dealing with in this film.”
Oooh! The rebranding of War Machine as Iron Patriot is a PR move enacted by a president facing backlash for the military not stepping up during the Battle of New York. That is a super cool touch, because superhero movies never really deal with the fact that Americans would be pissed if, for example, the New York City police department just left the stopping of dangerous criminals up to a high schooler with radiation poisoning.
There’s a rundown of all the suits and what they can do. I think because Tony activates the entire Iron Army against the Mandarin.
So, after the bit where Tony lands in the field, out of power and unable to contact anyone, he breaks into someone’s garage and is happened upon by a ten year old. Pearce says, “We loved the idea of doing something classically Spielbergian - a kid finds a superhero in a shed. Their relationship is not something you would traditionally see in Spielberg, though; it’s bawdier, more fractious.” All of the apprentice fic, GIVE IT TO ME.
Shane on RDJ: “He’s a misguided, pompous genius, at one time a drunk, and currently a little kid inside. America is that.”
RDJ regarding re-upping as Tony Stark: “The only thing I ever let go of had claw marks in it.” He says other stuff too, but I’m refusing to give any airtime to the idea that he might stop being Tony. Nope nope nope.
Also, mark your calendars. Avengers 3 comes out in 2018. (I'm worried that Kevin Feige has that kind of OCD where everything has to be planned out in advance.)