Iron Man director Jon Favreau made his name in independent film, but even now he still seems like an odd choice to join the ranks of Nolan, Raimi, or Jackson. Maybe because, having scripted Swingers, it was perceived that if Favreau were behind-the-scenes, he'd be a writer. Or maybe because Favreau had also attained considerable success as an actor, forever remembered as BFF to Vince Vaughn or as Monica's crazy UFC-obsessed boyfriend during some of Friends' best episodes. But eventually winding up with the keys to one of Marvel's most beloved franchises? Not even Spider-Man could've seen that coming. Perhaps because of this, Jon Favreau the director talks about his movies not with pretension, but unflagging enthusiasm, humility, and a earnest curiosity about the process of filmmaking. Rotten Tomatoes sat down with Favreau during WonderCon for a roundtable chat, discussing Robert Downey Jr. as Tony Stark, the Avengers movie, and worthy cause of entertaining as many people as possible.

What can the audience expect? What can fans expect?

Jon Favreau: For this thing to work -- when I mean work, I mean to make sense for Marvel, to me, to the movie business -- it has to attract people who don't know anything about the film or about the character. And so, we walk everybody through everything that happens. We don't assume any reality because it's in books. I think we also limit things a little bit, and make them a little bit more plausible in this chapter so that people will get it and don't feel like, "Oh, it's just a comic book movie, anything can happen."

Also, we have a cast that's a little bit more broadly appealing, so that people might give us a chance who wouldn't normally come to a Marvel film. But for the fans, we wanted to have enough stuff happening in there that it seems like we were either staying true to [the character] or making a choice to go against what their expectations might be based on. We always said, "Here's a suit. How can we tip a hat to the suit [and also make it something new]?" Or, in the books [Stark] was in Vietnam. "Let's make it Afghanistan now. That seems consistent as an adaptation."

I'm sure there are certain things that we'll be crucified for and there are certain things that we'll be celebrated for. In the casting of Downey, in the way we handled it and the tone of it; it sort of has that reverence that I always associated with the Marvel brand. It was a reaction to the very earnest, black-and-white, iconic, flawless heroes of the day. We tried to maintain that without ever undermining the stakes or the reality of the situation. We never joke about the danger, but we do treat things in an unexpected way.
 

 

There have been reports that various Marvel movie characters will link together in a film.

JF: I don't want to blow anything. And I don't honestly know where it's all going to land. I know things have been discussed and tried and talked about. I know on the horizon is the Avengers. The idea is to have chapters of all of the characters that would contribute to being the Avengers. That might get you over, like, the third movie hump of "what do you do differently without creating something that's completely arbitrary to keep it interesting?" Hopefully, we're all going towards the Avengers.

I think number two is always the fun one. For the people who've worked on Spider-Man 2 and X-Men 2 that's where you have your cast, you have your tone, you've got your success under your belt. If you're lucky enough to make a number two, you just play and really have fun. As you get deeper into the franchise, inevitably there will be disappointment somewhere. Hopefully the Avengers will be the way it sort of adds momentum.

Do you have Nick Fury in this?

JF: I'm not going to talk about who's, what's...

For the fans there's definitely enough to keep you leaning forward and paying attention and your girlfriend's not going to know why you're so interested in certain scenes. It's just going to fly by certain people. I think we threw enough breadcrumbs around to reward you for giving a shit.

Will this film be a vehicle to explore Tony Stark's alcoholism?

JF: There's the alcoholism with the "Demon in the Bottle" [storyline] -- [that] sort of feels a little like Spider-Man 3. There's definitely a part [for alcoholism]. We're not, like, running from it. You could see that this movie could lead to that; we definitely put that in there. I think once people accept him in this role and accept Tony Stark and Iron Man, you have a lot of latitude tonally as to what you can do. If you look at Dark Knight, it looks very dark but people accept it. If you look at Revenge of the Sith, it was very dark but people brought their kids. This film is about teaching [the audience] who these characters are. Based on where it goes, we'll figure out tonally what's appropriate.

"Demon in the Bottle" is one of the strongest storylines of the series. Iron Man is not a comic book character who is known for having wonderful storylines. He's known for having great suits, great characters, but the villains get thin at times and it's also very dated when you look at the communism and the metaphor politically. Much of it doesn't hold up well. We have challenges ahead of us but "Demon in the Bottle" from the storytelling perspective is compelling to all of us.

How does it feel to be on the other side? This is probably your biggest project to date.

JF: I feel like there's never enough money no matter now much money you have because you're always trying to put more on the screen than you've got. I feel like there should be another name for a director of these movies. When you direct a comedy, you come in and you work on a script, you write the script, everybody goes on stage and you discover a few things. You make a few jokes and then you edit it together, pick a composer, you lay the music down, you mix it and then you walk away. Maybe it's a year of your life.

Here you are literally inventing a world or defining a world based on a world that someone else invented, but you are creating rules for it. And then that's informed by the cast you have to get approved and make a deal with. You have to convince that cast that you're not just putting them in a piece of crap and that you're actually aspiring to something that they're going to be proud of. Fortunately for my generation, there's enough people who love Marvel that it doesn't just feel like what it must have felt like when Alec Guinness was offered Obi-Wan Kenobi. Like, "What is this?" You don't trust it until it's over.

In the case of Marvel, there's an affinity and a connection to the brand. But there are certain movies that people would have been proud to be in and others that people wouldn't want to be in. And, it's not just the success at the box office, which is something I had to explain to the people who are my bosses.

I said [to Downey], what do you want to do now in your career? He's been through so many trials, tribulations, and chapters of his life. I love him and I love his work and I was like, "What do you want to do?" He's like, "I want to make movies that I'm proud of and that people see." That may sound like the most obvious, self-evident statement but it really isn't because I think actors go through a stage where they want to make movies that they're proud of. Like with Zathura, I was very proud of it but nobody saw it. It was heartbreaking, it really was. I was involved with Elf, which I was very proud of and everybody got to see. It's a very different feeling. It shouldn't feel different if you make a painting. You don't care, right? Or, you shouldn't. But with a movie it's not [a painting]. It's a medium, it's not a piece of art. A medium requires you to communicate with someone else to fulfill what you did that for. It's like recording an answering machine message that no one is ever going to hear. It's the response of the fans; it's winning over new people who've never heard of it. It's an emotional, cultural relevance that your stuff has that is a real high that you get as a moviemaker. And you work so hard to do that. Marvel at least affords you that audience.

Talk about Robert and why he's your guy?

JF: He's my guy because he's going to make the movie that I'm proud of. He's going to make it a good movie and that's what I want. He doesn't do a bad job, really. I mean, I haven't seen all of his work, but he certainly does something interesting all the time. And, I like that kind of likable asshole that he can play. I gravitate to that in my writing, in my voice as a filmmaker. I like the guy that on paper you don't like but somehow you do; that's a very fascinating dynamic to me. There's something about that style of humor that is every appealing to me.

Robert is one of the few actors that can really be likable and you can really load him up, you can load his saddlebags up with a lot of shit. I love Robert because he brings an authenticity. He's an artist and he's a bit of geek. He loves it, he embraces it, he really wanted to be here but he's filming another movie. The first thing I had to do when I got off [the panel] was text him and tell him how it went.

I think that he's a guy who's been given a new lease on life and hit reset on his career. To be accepted in the most mainstream of roles that you can get, I think is a real victory for him on a lot of levels and it adds an emotional satisfaction for me as a friend of his. It just makes it a worthwhile experience for me.