IRON MAN 3 (Downey Speaks)

• IRON MAN 3

Speaking during the The Cinefamily telethon (via CBM), Downey Jr. spoke to Black’s screenwriting history as paving the way for buddy cop/action films to be taken seriously, but he’s no stranger to the Iron Man series either.

Robert Downey Jr. as Iron Man 

“I adore him. I’ve been a fan of Shane Black since I saw ‘Lethal Weapon.’ When we were doing the first Iron Man, Jon Favreau and I used to call up Shane Black. We had two lifeline calls; one was to J.J. Abrams, which was about the third act. And for the other call, we went to Shane’s house.

For instance, in the ‘Iron Man’ scene where Tony Stark comes back from captivity and calls a press conference, and then asked everybody to sit down, the speech Stark gives all came from Shane Black. So to get him to do ‘Iron Man 3,’ it has just been this awesome experience and one of my favorite working experiences. Iron Man 3 is going to be a very, very bold genre film, from the storytelling.”

Many have speculated that Pepper might be kidnapped in this latest film, something seems to be substantiated by Downey Jr.’s description of a shocking plot.

When people think of Downey Jr. and Black, their past collaboration on Kiss Kiss Bang Bang must be brought up. One of the actor’s most underrated performances and Black’s directorial debut, the unconventional detective story was overflowing with quirk. That same unique approach applied to the superhero formula won’t just offer something new, but for the man sporting the armor, promises big things for Stark’s saga going forward:

Iron Patriot

“Shane Black really knows the superhero genre, but I think the main thing is that he’s always looking at complexities within complexities [and so on]. And he always likes it when a film kind of stops for a reason you can’t understand, and then picks up and goes in a direction you’ve never imagined. Usually when you have a straight-forward narrative, if at act 1, 2 or 3, ‘There’s Tony, Tony’s in trouble, where’s Pepper, Tony wins.’ By the time we were doing the 2nd one, I was like ‘where’s Pepper.’ Shane is just a genius!”

With a return to Tony Stark’s roots, buddy cop comedy between Tony and Rhodey, and now rumors of an introduction to Wasp, Black’s got his hands full.

Happy Hogan

Downey didn’t even mention those plot lines in his praise for the cast. Its former-director Jon Favreau’s turn as Happy Hogan that is most impressing the leading man:

“Happy has an amazing arc in this movie. In fact, probably the best two bits of acting in the movie, so far from what I can tell…which sucks because I’m in every frame, are Favreau as Happy Hogan…I can’t give away much, but it’s ridiculous. And also Sir Ben Kingsley. Kingsley is amazing. And a lot of that had to do with the way that Shane crafted the role for Sir Ben. I think that people are going to be not [totally] surprised, but they’re going to be just reinvested in what a brilliant actor Kingsley is.”

Shane Black directs Iron Man 3, based on a screenplay he co-wrote with Drew Pearce. It stars Robert Downey Jr., Ben Kingsley, Don Cheadle, Gwyneth Paltrow, Guy Pearce, Jon Favreau, Rebecca Hall, William Sadler, James Badge Dale, Xueqi Wang and the voice of Paul Bettany.