Iron Man 2 director Jon Favreau on secret weapon for a successful franchise
There are so many superheroes in Hollywood these days that they're tripping over each other's capes, but director Jon Favreau has a secret weapon that will set the "Iron Man" franchise apart from the masked masses. Or perhaps it's better to think of it a not-so-secret weapon.
"The fact that our hero has no secret identity -- that opens up a lot of things for us creatively," says Favreau, whose Marvel Comics character returns to the big screen on May 7. The high-flying franchise from Marvel Studios and Paramount Pictures picks up right where the 2008 hit film left off: with billionaire Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) revealing his secret identity to the world in open defiance of every municipal code in Gotham City and Metropolis. It was a bit jolting but Iron Man is the first major Hollywood superhero to soar over Los Angeles and, well, the laws of publicity are different here.
"Usually the hero is forced to live an even more bifurcated existence between the esteemed persona of the superhero version of himself and the humble or disguised existences of his secret-identity self," Favreau said. "Those twin stories deviate more and more as the hero becomes more established. The hero starts to leave behind the secret identity. All of these franchises struggle to find their different angle on all of that as they move forward but the thing is it's all fairly limited and limiting. There are only so many stories there. We're flying in a different direction."
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