Tangled Magazine

‘Iron Man’ Australian Premiere Report

Interview by Jamie Evangelista and Laura Hartley

Written by Laura Hartley

Iron Man premiered on April 14 in Sydney, with director Jon Favreau and star Robert Downey Jr walking the red carpet.  Based on the 1960’s comic, Iron Man revolves around a multi billionaire businessman/inventor, Tony Stark, who, whilst during weapons test, is gravely injured, taken hostage and forced to build devastating weapons. 

Courageously, he instead builds a suit of armour that allows him survive and escape.  Once back in America, Tony becomes obsessed with the suit, and refines its powers giving him superhuman strength, the ability to fly and physical protection.  Helped by his assistant Pepper Potts (Gwenyth Paltrow), he takes to the streets to fight evil, as Iron Man. 

Robert Downey Jr (Tony Stark/Iron Man) stopped to talk to Tangled Magazine about what attracted him to the role of Iron Man, “The more I found out about it it [became] a fairly engaging way to do a super hero story, I get burned out pretty quick and by the time [studio’s] have got number 2 and 3 out on these things I am really pissed off that they are just raking in the dough and not providing really interesting entertainment.  I hope we did a little better, we certainly worked out asses off to do that.”

Jon Favreau, who also directed the films Elf and Zathura, spent some time with us.  “It’s a big movie and its always fun to play with the big toys.  I’m a bit of a geek so I like this kind of movie and I always felt that Tony Stark is a character that I, as a grown up,  could really relate to more than most heores, as the hero is usually a bit younger.  I [felt] that CGI (computer generated imagary) could really help tell the story of how the suit works for the first time and [Iron Man is] also one of the original heroes from the Marvel pantheon that had never been adapted so I was working with a fresh slate.

“[Robert Downey Jr] is the best, when he was cast it totally opened up all the possibilities for this film, for it to be something that exceeded the expectations of a normal superhero film.  When he was hired I breathed a sigh of relief because I knew he’d do something special with it.”

Guests on the red carpet included Michael Keaton, Naomi Watts, Liev Schreiber, and Rove McManus, who was particularly excited to be seeing the film.  “I’ve seen the trailer and it looks really cool, and I’m a fan of Robert Downey Jr and Jon Favreau from back in the days when he made Swingers.  I think the two of them together in the first Marvel funded comic book film will be really cool.  I feel like I worked on this film!”

Favreau also went on to talk about his time in Australia, “I love Australia.  I know Naomi [Watts] from years ago and I would always meet all of her friends at BBQ’s and stuff and they seemed like a lot of fun and pretty wild, and I thought if that’s where they are all from it must be a great place.  It’s pretty mellow though based on what I expected from hanging out with her friends and stuff.”

Iron Man opens Australia wide on May 1.