Posted in: Comics, Current News, Ike Perlmutter, Marvel Comics, Marvel Studios, Movies | Tagged: Art Marcum, iron man, Marvel Studios, Matt Holloway, mcu, Sarah finn, Wall Street journal

Iron Man Writers On A Movie About An "Alcoholic Weapons Manufacturer"

Art Marcum and Matt Holloway who wrote the Iron Man screenplay observed, "My goodness, this is a sort of alcoholic weapons manufacturer".

Art Marcum and Matt Holloway are a screenwriting duo best known for writing the scripts of Iron Man and Punisher: War Zone in the same year. More recently, they wrote the movies Men In Black: International and Uncharted and provided rewrites on Morbius and Kraven the Hunter. Before Iron Man, the only movie they had written that had gone to production was the James Spader movie Shadow Of Fear, which bombed. Basically… they were cheap.

Back in July, The Wall Street Journal's podcast, The Journal, hosted by Kate Linebaugh and Ryan Knutson, ran a series of episodes by Ben Fritz looking at the rise of Marvel Studios from comic book publisher to film studio to Disney purchase and the executive and creator battles within. It made a few headlines, but there are lots of gems that seemed to be missed, such as Marvel's initial relationship with Sony Pictures, led by our favourite Marvel executives, Avi Arad, and Ike Perlmutter, two toy manufacturers who took over the comic book company and made it profitable again. Catch up on more of our coverage with this tag.

And they talked to the movie's writers, who had been invited to pitch an Iron Man movie. Art Marcum says, "We were newbies. We hadn't done a million pitches. But I mean, thank God we didn't realize what we were pitching for in the grand scheme of things. Right?"

Matt Holloway recalled, "This had to succeed, meaning Iron Man or The Hulk both really needed to succeed, and Iron Man really needed to succeed because it was also the question of, he doesn't seem like a second tier character anymore, but it's like, "Who's Iron Man?" Tony Stark's not a teenage boy who gets bitten by a spider, right? He's a grown adult. He's a genius, but that genius has been used to do things that have hurt a lot of people. That's serious."

Art Marcum observed, "When we sort of dove into the source material, and you started of realize like, "My goodness, this is a sort of alcoholic weapons manufacturer," what an amazing character."

Iron Man's most famous comic book story is probably Demon In A Bottle, which detailed his descent into alcoholism, but Matt Holloway brought his own shadow of fear… "It so intrigued us. But when you say that, it sounds like a very serious adult movie, right? It doesn't sound like a kid's comic book movie. So, I think there was fear. I mean, there was fear like, "Is this going to work?"

Marvel Casting Director Sarah Finn was also new, working on Iron Man and then on basically every Marvel Studios movie and TV show since, except Hulk. But also the Star Wars TV shows, Extraction, Everything Everywhere All At Once, The Lion King, Pokémon Detective Pikachu, Pacific Rim, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, Dredd, Tron: Legacy, Kick-Ass, and the Fast & Furious films. And she was there when Robert Downy Jr. walked in. "Downey came in absolutely ready to go. I believe he was singing, God, I Hope I Get It from Chorus Line as he walked in the doors. And we were in a big sound stage, a kind of cavernous, empty space. But he walked in and just really filled the space, and he was on fire. He was ready to go claim this part."

Matt and Art were still watching the fear from director Jon Favreau. Matt: "Jon was sitting behind his desk, and he was worried every single day, and he was like, "We'll make a hundred million, right? Right?" Like with-" Art: "And that was not false modesty." Matt: "That was fear. That was a fear-based question." Art: "And I'm like, "Oh my God, this is way more tenuous than I thought." So yes, there was absolutely nobody, from my experience, pointing to the fences saying, 'This thing's going to be amazing." It was like, "I hope we can make it. I hope it makes $100 million, and I hope we all get to work in this town again when it's all said and done."

Well, Jon and Sarah did. Matt and Art, it took a little longer.

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