Iron Man is a
American superhero film based on the
Marvel Comics character
of the same name. Directed by
Jon Favreau, the film stars
Robert Downey Jr. as Tony Stark, a billionaire industrialist and master engineer who builds a
powered exoskeleton and becomes the technologically advanced
superhero,
Iron Man.
Gwyneth Paltrow plays his personal assistant
Pepper Potts,
Terrence Howard plays military liaison
James Rhodes and
Jeff Bridges plays Stark Industries executive
Obadiah Stane.
The film was in development since 1990 at
Universal Studios,
20th Century Fox, and
New Line Cinema, before
Marvel Studios reacquired the rights in 2006. Marvel put the project in production as its first self-financed film. Favreau signed on as director, aiming for a naturalistic feel, and he chose to shoot the film primarily in
California, rejecting the
East Coast setting of the comics to differentiate the film from numerous superhero films set in
New York City-esque environments. During filming, the actors were free to create their own dialogue because pre-production was focused on the story and action. Rubber and metal versions of the armors, created by
Stan Winston's company, were mixed with
computer-generated imagery to create the title character.
