Robert Downey Jr. is ready to become one serious metalhead--the
actor has signed on to play the title role in Iron Man, Paramount
Pictures' feature film based on the famed Marvel superhero.
Downey will play Tony Stark, a billionaire industrialist
and brilliant inventor, who, after a near-fatal accident, builds a
high-tech, nearly impenetrable suit of armor that gives him superhuman
strength and other powers, which he uses to fight the baddies.
Jon Favreau, a longtime comic buff (and costar of another
Marvel adaption, Daredevil), will helm Iron Man. Marvel
Entertainment is producing the $100 million action-adventure, the first
time the company is fully financing a film based on one of its
characters. Paramount will serve as distributor.
The
idea for a screen version of Iron Man has been kicking around
Hollywood for nearly a decade, but despite the interest of Tom Cruise
and Nicolas Cage to don the armor, the project never got off the
drawing board until now.
Iron Man was created by Larry
Lieber, Stan Lee, Don Lee and Jack Kirby and premiered in Marvel Comics'
Tales of Suspense #39 in March 1963. Stark's red-and-gold-hued
metallic alter ego originally battled Communists during the early years
of the Vietnam War, often appearing alongside Captain America.
But Stark evolved into a more complicated comic book
figure, whose fought crime and personal demons, including
alcoholism--something to which Downey can no doubt relate.
The actor's well documented battles with booze and drug addiction
landed him behind bars and nearly wrecked a career that includes a Best
Actor Oscar nominee for 1992's Chaplin.
Downey
reportedly lobbied hard for the role, working out and growing a goatee
styled like the one Stark sports in the comic book. Iron Man will
mark the actor's first big-budget action flick.
"In
every casting announcement we've done, people in their mind's eye have
their own view of it and let us know about it. We're used to it," Kevin
Feige, Marvel's president of production, told the Hollywood
Reporter. "The point is, we looked at everybody, and we found the
best person for the role. It's as confident a casting move as we've ever
done. The proof will be in the pudding, but he is Tony Stark."
According to trade reports, Iron Man's initial outing
won't focus on Stark's drinking problem, but producers say those issues
may be covered in sequels, should the franchise take off. Instead,
Iron Man's plot is expected to contemporize the storyline and
likely include the hero battling terrorists.
Downey
most appeared in a quartet of 2005 releases: George Clooney's
Oscar-nominated Good Night, and Good Luck, Shane Black's
off-kilter indie thriller Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang, Disney's remake
of The Shaggy Dog, and Richard Linklater's trippy sci-fi flick,
A Scanner Darkly.
The actor's upcoming
projects include the indie caper A Guide to Recognizing Your
Saints; Lucky You, a drama which reunites him with Wonder
Boys director Curtis Hanson; David Fincher's crime caper
Zodiac, starring opposite Jake Gyllenhaal; and the Diane Arbus
biopic Fur, starring Nicole Kidman and due out Nov. 10.
Downey also recently inked a deal with HarperCollins to
publish a memoir.
Iron Man starts shooting in
February and is scheduled to hit in theaters in May 2008.
In Theaters 
