Trivia for Ironman

• dams was Jon Favreau's first choice to play Pepper Potts, but she turned the role down.
  
  
• During pre-production, Robert Downey Jr. set up an office next to Jon Favreau's office, to discuss his role with Favreau and to be more involved in the film's screen writing.
  
  
• Jon Favreau was originally going to direct Captain America (2009) in the manner of a superhero comedy adventure, but he instead chose to direct this film and give it a more serious tone. Ironically, Nick Cassavetes, who was chosen to direct that film, had been filled in to direct this film in December 2004.
  
  

• Jon Favreau describes the film as "a kind of independent film-espionage thriller crossbreed; a Robert Altman-directed Superman (1978), with shades of Tom Clancy novels, James Bond films, RoboCop (1987), and Batman Begins (2005)."
  
  
• In the comics, Tony Stark participated (and became Iron Man) in the Vietnam War; later this was retconned to the Gulf War. In this film, the character's origin was retconned to Afghanistan, as Jon Favreau did not wish to make the film a period piece but instead give it a realistic contemporary look.
  
  
• During shooting, Jon Favreau preferred improvisation in dialogue scenes, calling back to his Robert Altman influence.
  
  
• Tony Stark drives an Audi R8 in the film, as part of a promotion deal Marvel Studios made with the Audi Automobile Company. Two other vehicles, the Audi A6 sedan and the Audi Q7 SUV, also make an appearance in the film.
  
  
• An Aaton 35mm camera was accidentally run over by a tank during a shoot.
  
  
• In October 1999, Quentin Tarantino was approached to write and direct the film. Later, Joss Whedon, a big fan of the comic book, was in negotiations to direct the film in June 2001. In December 2004, Nick Cassavetes was hired as a director, with the film to release in 2006, but everything fell through. Finally, Jon Favreau was hired as director.
  
  
• Nicolas Cage and Tom Cruise were interested in playing Iron Man. Cruise in particular was going to act in and produce the film.
  
  
• Robert Downey Jr., Terrence Howard's father, composer Ramin Djawadi and Stan Winston are among the film's crew who are fans of Iron Man. Downey himself is such a big fan of Iron Man he swears to make 15 films if possible about him. Jeff Bridges and Faran Tahir have also read some of the comics.
  
  
• Stan Lee, the creator of Iron Man, had originally based Tony Stark on Howard Hughes, whom he felt was "one of the most colourful men of our time: an inventor, an adventurer, a multimillionaire, a ladies man and finally a nutcase." Robert Downey Jr. further described his portrayal of Stark as "a challenge of making a wealthy, establishmentarian, weapons-manufacturing, hard-drinking, womanizing prick into a character who is likable and a hero."
  
  
• According to Ramin Djawadi, Tony Stark's different moods, as performed by Robert Downey Jr., was the inspiration the Iron Man scores in the film.
  
  
• To prepare for his role as Iron Man, Robert Downey Jr. spent five days a week weight training and practiced martial arts to get into shape.
  
  
• The rapper Ghostface Killah, who has been a long-time fan of Iron Man (he took the names of Iron Man and Tony Stark; he also titled his 1996 album "Ironman" and uses lyrics and images related to Iron Man comics/animated series), makes an appearance in this film as a Dubai tycoon.
  
  
• All three sets of Iron Man's armour was designed by Phil Saunders and Adi Granov (a comic book artist from the "Iron Man" comic). They were then constructed by Stan Winston Studios.
  
  
• The Iron Man Mark I armour weighed 90 pounds.
  
  
• An animatronic puppet of the Iron Monger was built for the film by Stan Winston Studios. It stood 10 feet tall and weighed 800 pounds, and was built on a set of gimbals to simulate walking. It required five operators to run it.
  
  
• When Robert Downey Jr. was carrying out motion-capture work on the film, he would sometimes wear the helmet, sleeves and chest of the Iron Man armour over the motion-capture suit to realistically portray Iron Man's movements.
  
  
• Terrence Howard was cast as James Rhodes, as Jon Favreau felt he could also portray War Machine admirably. To prepare for his role, Howard visited the Nellis Air Force Base on March 16 2007, where he ate with the Base's airmen and observed the routines of HH-60 Pave Hawk rescue helicopters and F-22 Raptor jets.
  
  
• To prepare for his role as Obadiah Stane, Jeff Bridges read some of the "Iron Man" comic books that featured Stane, and grew a goatee and shaved his head (which he said was something he always wanted to do).
  
  
• Comic book writer Stan Lee, as always, has a cameo in the live-action film of his creation Iron Man. He plays the man with three blondes whom Tony Stark mistakes for Hugh M. Hefner. He later mentioned that it was his most fun cameo.
  
  
• In the Ultimate Marvel Comics series, the character of Nick Fury is portrayed as African-American, with his look and personality tailored after actor Samuel L. Jackson, all carried out with the actor's explicit permission. Jackson, himself a comic book fan, plays Fury in this film.
  
  
• Jon Favreau shot the film in California, as he felt that too many superhero films had been set on the East Coast, particularly in New York City.
  
  
• An early draft of the script revealed Tony Stark to be the creator of Dr. Otto Octavius's tentacles from Spider-Man 2 (2004).
  
  
• 400 extras were meant to be filmed standing at Tony Stark's press conference, but Robert Downey Jr. suggested they ought to sit down, as that would be more realistic and comfortable.
  
  
• According to Jon Favreau, it was difficult to find a proper opponent for Iron Man to face, since he wanted the film to remain grounded in reality as much as possible. It was decided to have a foe in the film who would serve as a parallel of Stark (i.e. an armoured opponent). Well-known enemies like the Titanium Man and the Crimson Dynamo were considered, but finally the lesser-known Iron Monger, Obadiah Stane, was chosen as Iron Man's adversary (Stane, as well as possessing his own armour, is also a business contemporary of Stark).
  
  
• Marvel Studios' first self-financed movie.
  
  
• As a tribute to Howard Hughes, who inspired Iron Man, production was mainly based in the former Hughes Company soundstages in Playa Vista. The scene where the Iron Man Mark III armour was created was filmed in the area where Hughes assembled the H-4 Hercules airplane (which holds the record for being the largest plane ever built).
  
  
• Marvel and Paramount approached the CMT show 'Trick My Truck' to select a Truck driver and trick his rig with the Ultimate Ironman makeover. Lance Burk was the lucky driver to be selected. When finished the exterior of the truck was painted to look like Iron Man's armor, led lights were put everywhere, the engine compartment was tricked out, jet thrusters (not real ones obviously) were attached to the back, and a copy of Iron Man's chest plate was attached to the back under a crafted sign that said Iron Man. The inside of the truck was refurnished to look like Tony Stark's lab, complete with a monster sound and video system.
  
  
• The cave that imprisons Tony Stark was a 150-200 yard-long set, which had built-in movable forks to allow greater freedom for the film's crew. It also had an air conditioning system installed, as production designer J. Michael Riva had learnt that remote caves are actually very cold.
  
  
• Production designer J. Michael Riva researched on objects found in prison which could be improvised and used for other purposes (for instance a sock used to make tea), to provide more verisimilitude to the film.
  
  
• Jon Favreau chose Industrial Light & Magic to provide the film's VFX after watching Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End (2007) and Transformers (2007).
  
  
• The film's composer Ramin Djawadi's favourite musical score is the "Kickass" theme, because he composed it according to "a rhythm very much like a machine."
  
  
• Most of the exterior scenes set in Afghanistan were filmed at Olancha Sand Dunes. There, the crew had to endure two days of 40-60 mph winds.
  
  
• Jon Favreau advised composer Ramin Djawadi to keep the core of the music on heavy guitar, which he felt suited Iron Man best. Djiwadi composed the music on a heavy guitar before arranging it for the orchestra to perform.
  
  
• According to Terrence Howard, he and Robert Downey Jr. competed physically on the set: "I'm 40-50 pounds heavier than him, so I'm lifting and I push up about 225 and knocked it out ten times. Robert wanted to go about 235, and he did it, so I push it up to about 245... Robert and his competitive *ss almost tore my shoulder trying to keep up with him!"
  
  
• An early draft of the script had Howard Stark, Iron Man's father, be a ruthless industrialist who becomes the War Machine, with the two having to fight it out.
  
  
• An early draft of the script had the Mandarin appear in the film, re-imagined as an Indonesian terrorist.
  
  
• Gwyneth Paltrow only needed to travel 15 minutes to get to the studio. She claimed that this is a part of the reason she took the role, as she could be home with her two children during the entire shoot.