Marvel Takes Iron Man Back

After many false starts and stops at New Line, Marvel is taking back the film rights to Iron Man. It isn’t part of the 10 film deal they got financing for a month or so ago, so it will need to be financed seperately. Looks like they are going to wait and get a good script and a director signed before attempting to finance.

5 replies on “Marvel Takes Iron Man Back”

  1. IRON MAN…YAY!
    Iron Man was my all time fav as a kid. A full blown CGI Iron man vs Ultimo with War Machine thrown in would be cool!

    • Re: IRON MAN…YAY!
      Yeah Iron Man could be a great movie with enough money behind it. Here’s hoping they don’t pull a Punisher with it.

    • Re: IRON MAN…YAY!

      Iron Man was my all time fav as a kid. A full blown CGI Iron man vs Ultimo with War Machine thrown in would be cool!

      I actually favor the SFX style used in AVP. For those of you have have AVP on DVD and have listen to the commentary tracks sorry, if you haven’t, listen to the track with Tom Woodruff et al and cue up to the fight with the “Grid” alien. For those of you who don’t have access, here’s the short version: Paul Anderson generally likes to work with practical effects rather than digital. But to get the best results, they used a very tight mix. With one or two exceptions, every time you see a Predator’s weapon extend or retract, that is digital. Then there is usually a cut, at which point a prop guy runs over and gives the actor the extended version of the weapon. A lot of the little details were added, like the little puff of smoke wheneve the alien blood was melting something, that was digital.

      Another benefit to Anderson’s technique can be seen in a fight where an alien and pred are grappling on the ground. Anderson switched between digital Alien, costume Alien, and anamatronic Alien so many times in that one fight that even the special effects guys who did it all couldn’t narrate it.

      Now this may sound like a pointlessly complex and expensive technique, but it has a hidden advantage. Every visual effects style and technique has its own flaws. Every model builder has their own quirks. Every costume house has a method, that will lead to a flavor. Every CGI system has its own. If a movie is heavily dependant on a character that is either CG or costume, you will spend a lot of time looking at them. And after a while you will start to see the flaws.

      Take League of Extraordinary Gentlemen’s Mr. Hyde. Other than transformations, that was all costume. The suit was actually composed of foam blocks in the shape of the various shoulder muscles so that when the actor or stunt man moved, the foam would give the impression of muscles rippling under the skin. That worked very well, but to do that, they had to limit his range of motion. Hyde couldn’t raise his arms to shoulder level.

      Lets go the other way and look at something thats all CGI, Final Flight of the Osiris. In a lot of places, it is almost photo-realistic. Aside from some palette choices, the yellow tone of the dojo, the grey of the real world and the green of the Matrix and a few other consious bits, it is damn good. But by the end of even that short, you’ve learned to see the flaws, you can see the imperfections in the skin tones, or how hair and fabric don’t quite rustle naturally.

      Back to my original point, Anderson’s mixed style keeps going back and forth so often and so fast that you can’t keep track of what you are looking at. They physical prop doesn’t have the same flaws as the digital or the anamatronic, but if you look for say, the limited range of motion in a costume, but the character is digital in that particular take, the flaw your looking for isn’t there.

      I hope they take an approach draws on multiple fields of experience, and works to hide the flaws of each individual field. I don’t know what you think, but the Thing looked pretty good.

      And for the love of all that is holy, if you do motion capture, don’t let the director be the subject just because he’s the director. The movements of a a 5’7″, DO NOT just scale up to a 12 or 14 foot gamma power berzerker.

  2. Iron Man
    That’s another character with so much history that somebody is going to be chafed about which story they pick for the movie. Me, I want to see the Iron Man movie where Tony Stark finally realizes he’s an alcoholic and give the armor to Rhodes and then wanders around in the snow. I think it’s more likely to be an origin story, and then I hope it incorporates some elements from the Ultimates universe, maybe a conflict with SHIELD. I bet that the Mandarin is nowhere to be seen, anyway.

    • Re: Iron Man

      I bet that the Mandarin is nowhere to be seen, anyway.

      Yes, the Mandarin and the Yellow Claw, 2 of the most un-PC villians in the Marvel universe!

      Dave

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