We’ve been going on several times about Jon Favreau and company shooting “Iron Man” and its sequel with no script whatsoever, but it’s taken The Dude to confirm this interesting nugget, in spectacular detail. In a pretty engaging interview with In Contention about his Oscar vehicle “Crazy Heart,” Jeff Bridges opens up about the studio’s lackadaisical filmmaking methods.
Bridges says, “They had no script, man. They had an outline. We would show up for big scenes every day and we wouldn’t know what we were going to say. We would have to go into our trailer and work on this scene and call up writers on the phone, ‘You got any ideas?’ Meanwhile the crew is tapping their foot on the stage waiting for us to come on… You’ve got the suits from Marvel in the trailer with us saying, ‘No, you wouldn’t say that. You would think with a $200 million movie you’d have the shit together, but it was just the opposite. And the reason for that is because they get ahead of themselves. They have a release date before the script, ‘Oh, we’ll have the script before that time,’ and they don’t have their shit together.”
Bridges isn’t entirely that negative about the experience. Of Favreau, he says, “Jon dealt with it so well. It freaked me out. I was very anxious. I like to be prepared. I like to know my lines, man, that’s my school. Very prepared. That was very irritating, and then I just made this adjustment… So I said, ‘Oh, what we’re doing here, we’re making a $200 million student film. We’re all just fuckin’ around! We’re playin’. Oh, great!’ That took all the pressure off. ‘Oh, just jam, man, just play.’ And it turned out great!”
This confirms what most of us suspected about these movies, that Marvel is indeed flying by the seat of their pants. We know that the credit for the screenplay, shared by Mark Fergus, Hawk Ostby, Art Marcum and Matt Holloway, was tenuous, but we didn’t know it was so bad that, according to the interview, they “would literally act out sequences during primitive rehearsals, Downey taking on Bridges’s role and vice versa, to find and essentially improvise their way to full scenes.” How do you run a movie set and have no one responsible for what’s going to be coming out of Jeff Bridges’ mouth? Major movie sets are an embarrassment of excess — you should see some of the craft service set-ups we’ve seen — but how is there not a single person around who can write comic book dialogue for Iron Man and Iron Monger? Hell, if they scoured the internet, they’d find Marvel superfans who would pay Marvel for that opportunity. And they probably wouldn’t be half-bad.
At least Bridges is positive about the experience, but it really sounds like some of the handlers on these sets are imbeciles. He’s old enough to know not to badmouth the wrong people, so its hard to say if his praise for Favreau is real or not, but he does end that part of the interview by claiming Marvel execs told him, “It’s just a comic book. Maybe we’ll bring you back.” Just a comic book? We’re sorry, but are Marvel Studio executives busy producing Holocaust documentaries in their spare time? If they’re not going to view their own movies as substantial, why should we?
To end on a positive note, the interview with Bridges, which details his entire career, is really fucking great, even for an Oscar soft-sell piece. Click here to read about his thoughts on “Starman,” the possibility of reuniting with Peter Bogdanovich, and The Dude’s own pot habits.
"Bridges says, “They had no script, man. They had an outline. We would show up for big scenes every day and we wouldn’t know what we were going to say. "
Eh, what's the problem? Didn't seem to bother Sharlto Copley any…
"Eh, what's the problem? Didn't seem to bother Sharlto Copley any…"
Had to use google to find out who the f is Sharlto Copley, and to see the face of that annoying guy from that movie I walked out of. So the dialogue was improvised in that too? I wouldn't use that as a positive example.
Oooh, someone's a rebel!
I love Jeff Bridges! Plus, Iron Man REALLY felt it didn't have a script! I grew up on Marvel Comics, but I really hate this current Marvel movie empire. It's shameless, soulless commerce without a breath of art. Worst of all, comic book fanboys are lapping up stuff like Iron Man, and wholly rejecting directors like Bryan Singer and Ang Lee, who actually attempted to inject some degree of art into superhero adaptations.
I dont think its really fair to say that fanboys are rejecting Byran Singer, his xmen flicks are much loved and revered, however he was on the receiving end of nerd bitchslap for abandoning the series to make a fairly messed up superman movie. (which wasn't all that bad to be honest!)
I think they blame him (well i do!) with leaving the x-men characters in the grubby hands of brett ratner, who really F'ed them right in the A!
It was Fox who bum-rushed Singer off the X-men properties, not Marvel.
Speaking of Starman, I wrote an unsolicited script for a sequel back in 1998. It was my first script and I quit college to finish it. It’s been gathering dust ever since. I sent it to Jeff Bridges and John carpenter, although I would prefer if Carpenter didn’t direct a sequel. I wrote some good f/x sequences and some interesting characters. I’m pretty sure I’ll never be involved, but I’d to see the f/x scene from the beach being incorporated, (Jeff’s manager Neil will know the one, totally plagiarised from another movie, but it would look great on film today). If anyone has any questions, email me at [email protected] and I’ll answer them. (Although I won’t give away any plot points. And yes there is a son and indeed, I actually have the perfect casting suggestion!!
@Brad Hansen
Christopher Daniel Barnes?
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0055549/
I always get Starman confused with The Last Starfighter! Now theres a movie that needs a sequal!!
What's… going on here…?
"It’s just a comic book. Maybe we’ll bring you back.” Just a comic book? We're sorry, but are Marvel Studio executives busy producing Holocaust documentaries in their spare time? If they're not going to view their own movies as substantial, why should we?"
Maybe because it's just a movie?
Ever hear of somebody making a flippant comment? Jesus, that sort of self righteousness is straight out of the fanboy rule book.
That's all well and good for some people, but we're guessing Jeff Bridges, a serious professional who's done a few serious substantial movies, isn't going to appreciate his work being referred to so cavalierly.
For the rest of us, if we want fireworks, we can fucking buy fireworks.
I know this is just killing Favreau. The script is king in his book. What I don't understand is why they didn't have it ready in time. Any smart producers in charge of a huge franchise start writing the second script (or at least outlining the story) before the first movie comes out. This outline they're working from should've been finished on opening weekend, which gave them, what, 9-12 months to come up with a script? What professional writer can't write a script in 9 months?
Well said. When you're spending these kinds of mega-bucks on a project, don't you want to go in there as fully prepared as possible? Hollywood is a baffling place.
That said, kudos to Favreau for pulling IM1 off regardless.
Iron Man was still a better-made, better-written and smarter film than The Dark Knight, which I think says something.
If anyone has seen the Jon Favreau Iconoclasts episode he talks about prepping the new one and pretty much says the same thing. I don't recall exactly what he said but what I took away from it was that on the big effects films they have to starting designing the big sequences so far ahead of time that they end up basically writing a script around those sequences.