Hey folks, Harry here… I just finished writing about Mark Steven Johnson’s perfect, let’s start filming this instant… come on hurry up, hurry up… draft of DAREDEVIL. And I’ll now move onto the week old draft of IRON MAN by Tim McCanlies (screenwriter for THE IRON GIANT).

Both DAREDEVIL and IRON MAN are wonderful superhero scripts… the only reason that I rate DAREDEVIL higher is that frankly… Daredevil is based upon one of the greatest comic stories ever told… and IRON MAN, much to my regret, as a character has never had one of those stories.

IRON MAN, for all his whiz-bang armor and gadgets… Iron Man for me has never had the epic great character defining three part series… or multi-series.

That being said, I began reading IRON MAN in his old TALES OF SUSPENSE days… and continued through the silver and red armor of the late eighties – early nineties. Then my interest waned as other characters took over inside the armor… and that whole Armor Wars thing just bored the piss out of me. I was a big fan through the Bob Layton years, but overall… I’ve only wanted out of an Iron Man movie… Cool Iron Man Armor Stuff.

Now, I’ve been on a couple of COMICS-2-FILM panels with Tim McCanlies in the past, and he’s alluded to having to bring Iron Man’s origin up to date and out of Vietnam. That Tony Stark would be a parallel to a Bill Gates/Thomas Edison/Hugh Hefner type… But having spoken with Tim about it, I could tell he wanted to preserve the spirit and fun of the comic.

Like the X-MEN movie, this is a bold re-imagination of the Marvel Universe that these characters inhabit. This is an origin story and concerns no major IRON MAN villain. (Ok, it is Justin Hammer, but I always prefered folks like Modok or Mandarin or A.I.M.)

Instead the basic story is one of intrigue, international spy and battle… The film features many Iron Man regulars plus NICK FURY! He goes through a Grey Iron Man costume a red & yellow (gold?) outfit and a new superduper armor that… well I won’t spoil.

The basic story is this:

Tony Stark, multi-quadrillionaire, has decided to retire from the world of weapons manufacturing… instead he begins work on three devices that will change the world as we know it… Sort of like that "IT" that we heard so much about recently.

A competitor (think Slugworth with blood on his hands) decides to kill Stark, steal his inventions and reap a fortune.

After a terrible turn of fate for Mr Stark, he must create a suit of armor to keep him alive and Iron Man is born. Once able to move around, Tony Stark must retrieve his 3 nearly magical inventions lest they fall into EVIL HANDS and thereby clear his name from the list of terrorist conspirators in the U.S. Government’s eyes. Now, I know… that sounds boiled down and a bit unexciting… well this movie is anything but that… We have Iron Man fighting an entire tank army… his various suits get more and more powerful, agile and cool.

The first suit can’t fly, has limited mobility due to lag time between thought and movement. It has low battery power and in the end… it is just iron and isn’t all that invincible… It has lasers but no repulsors.

The second suit, far sleeker than the old Grey Armor above, is the classic armor. It’s made out of some polymer-extraordinaire material… it is agile and quick and powerful as all hell. Very very very cool.

And the final armor does everything that Iron Man can do in the comics and then some.

He rips off a tank turret and uses it as a fly swatter… he fights a small unit of Power Armor Wearing Badasses… He has to out maneuver a mass of U.S. jet planes intent on shooting him down… He does everything that IRON MAN can do and should do in an IRON MAN army. Not only that but McCanlies infuses a bit of background to Tony Stark that helps make him a 3 dimensional character (thank god).

My only disappointment was in the handling of Nick Fury. Nick does not start off working for SHIELD… SHIELD does not yet exist. Nick is not in charge of any howling commandos… Instead he handles things for the President, of the covert variety in the field of terrorism.

The problem is Nick just doesn’t do or accomplish much of anything. Sure he isn’t the star… but according to the rules of the MARVEL TEAM-UP… when you have a guest star in an issue or two… while your title character does do most of the great work… the co-star… the special guest must come into play and do some really really cool stuff that the lead character doesn’t have the ability to pull off.

If Tim can do a polish on this script that toughens up Nick Fury a tad… then New Line has got one helluva winner on their hands… Hell… even if he doesn’t toughen Nick Fury… The last 2/3rds of this script is just chockfull of badass Iron Man action! Give Nick some toys and let him join in a bit more and then we have a great superhero flick here too.

Now excuse me folks… I have to see if I can finish reading this draft of the HULK… ugh… tough… must finish before writing… ugh…

To The Idiot Talk Backer Known As Frater 210:

Ok, I don't know for certain who you are, but it seems like you didn't get the script AT ALL... Toasters do not control Stark's armor, Stark is ALWAYS IN CONTROL of his armor. ALWAYS! Stark Enterprises has succeeded in robotic household devices, but really if you had any sense of design or imagination, you would see that these are the first logical step for domestic robots... Mechanical beings that could cook, clean and serve all at once. Stark's are not the typical models and are controled by an A.I. system that Stark works with in the creating of his devices... It's how he can do so much as an inventor without gigantic support staffs. Part of what makes Stark such a mystery man.

Second... the "insane shit that brings Iron Man into Outer Space?" Um, excuse me... did you READ AND COMPREHEND the script or are you one of these sad development execs or pot-headed producers that casually speed reads while retaining NOTHING? Because that sequence... a 3-times the speed of sound chase, where to get away Iron Man decides he has to go UP... well, first we've never seen that sort of action with a superhero... two the results of the scene really showcases the type of man in the armor... a humanist and not a maniacal egotist like Fury is being lead to believe he is...

As for Avi Arad reading the script and having Tim replaced the next day... Well, Avi failed to mention that when he talked with me TODAY, but frankly Avi is not the end all creative vision of Marvel. He is simply the suit running Marvel and anyone that would look at Avi as anything more than the suit running Marvel and a great toy-salesman would be seriously deluded. As for New Line dropping the thing... that isn't what I've heard.

As for your second letter Mr Frater 210... If Avi Arad flipped over Nick Fury being in the movie more than Iron Man... then he probably should've read past page 30... because the last 90 pages are EXTREMELY HEAVY IRON MAN ACTION!!!! So much so that I feel Nick Fury isn't being aggressive enough. As for Rhodey Rhodes... Who the hell cares about Rhodey Rhodes when you have IRON MAN, TONY STARK, NICK FURY and JUSTIN HAMMER? Rhodey should be a minimal supporting character in this film. To take a more aggressive role in the sequel.

As for the fella insinuating my 'great friendship' with Tim McCanlies... I see Tim about 4 times a year... SXSW film festival... Heart of Texas Film Festival... Tarantino's Film Festival and My Butt-Numb-A-Thon.... And at those 4 events I see Tim for perhaps 3 hours over the course of the entire event. We don't do dinner... I've never been to his house, he's never been to mine. We're friendly in the casual acquantance sort of way. Paul does work with Tim, but 99% of the time I never hear about it, because that is Paul's business not mine, and is the reason why he isn't allowed to write about any Tim McCanlies projects. And if you read my intro... I did mention that I've been on several panels with McCanlies about Comics-2-Film... and literally that's about the only place we've ever talked comics... and he's been extremely hesitant to talk about IRON MAN because he hadn't finished it... and is guarded about the details of his work with me.

The fact of the matter though is the above review is my opinion only. Ultimately if the executives at New Line decide not to pursue it, that will be a shame as this is the best IRON MAN script written to date... It's weak on the Nick Fury front, but then this is only a first draft... and should be treated as a first draft with constructive criticism after reading it in its complete form.