As I discovered via Mr. Fanboy, Robert Downey Jr. will play billionaire Tony Stark -- also the superhero known as Iron Man.
The news broke last night, and hit the trades this morning β Robert Downey Jr. will play Tony Stark/Iron Man in the upcoming film version of the Marvel comic series.At his MySpace Iron Man Movie Group, director Jon Favreau wrote as the news was breaking:
βIt is true. Robert Downey Jr. is Tony Stark. I am about as excited as I can be. I saw what he can do and he is extremely enthusiastic about playing Stark. I can say with absolute certainty that there is no better choice. The humor and emotional dimension he brings truly raises the bar on this project. Get ready.β� (Link.)
Yeesh, I dunno about this. I sort of concur with the commentary of Mr. Fanboy:
Really, we hate to rain on someone's parade but this doesn't make sense to us. We just don't see him as a superhero. But then again, Iron Man will be directed by Jon Favreau and will feature the oh-so-culturally-insensitive Mandarin character so who knows what we will get. Every time we think of Downey we get flashbacks to him giving blow jobs for blow in Less Than Zero. Not a great visual, let us be honest with you.
Which sort of connects with his real life dealings with drugs, huh? That image or that of the silly sidekick of Rodney Dangerfield's character's son in "Back to School" is another unappealing visual.
Tom Cruise had been mentioned on and off as a possible Tony Stark. Even with all his current personal-professional hassles, I'd rather have him than Downey Jr. Personally, I'd like to see Edward Norton.