IRON MAN 3 - Robert Downey Jr. on Ben Kingsley and China

Robert Downey Jr. continues to talk about certain aspects of Iron Man 3 with EW revealing fun little tidbits of information, and sharing his thoughts on certain aspects of the film. For anyone who's a fan of the Iron Man franchise, and looking forward to Iron Man 3, it's been a fun read. In parts three and four of the interview the actor talks about Ben Kingsley, how he's going to steel the show, shooting the film and China, bringing on Shane Black to direct the film, and also discusses the flaws of Iron Man 2. When it comes to Kingsley as The Mandarin he says,

Sir Ben is probably going to steal the movie. There are a lot of contenders who may, but right now he’s probably at the top of that list. He came in as, obviously – speaking of training – as such a technically proficient instrument. And then what proceeded to happen was the release of more vintage, old-school Favreau [improv] stuff with a Shane Black twist on it. It was kind of frightening to witness, I’ll tell you that much.

Downey Jr. played a big part in getting Black on board to direct the third Iron Man film, he goes on to talk about the director, and what his talents bring to the movie,

The first six months of pre-pre-production when you get hired to a Marvel movie is like taking a four-year college course in humility. The strongest ones survive and they move into prep and then they shoot the movie and they still look like a human being. The great thing about Shane is the same thing that’s great about Shane’s movie is that all the moving parts within the frame of his story are so poetic and inherently entertaining and then thought out and rethought out. And then everyone all the way through really put their nose to the grindstone this time and I really felt like we were in a much safer playground [than we were with Iron Man 2] just because it was Shane’s vision. And he had a lot, lot, lot of time to figure out just one thing, which was to figure what the story would be.

When making Iron Man 2 Jon Favreau and Downey Jr. were coming up with story elements as they were making the movie, which is why it didn't turn out as good as the first one. He kind of explains what happened with all that saying,

Jon and I were still kind of recovering from our lives changing so much [with the success of the first Iron Man] and then next thing we were back in the saddle again. We made do.

I still enjoyed the movie, it just wasn't as tight as it could have been. Seems like Marvel just wanted to rush that one out. As you know Iron Man 3 was also shot in China, and here's what the actor had to say about that...

Truth be told, we [did shoot in China for about a week in December] after finishing principal photography and there will be some action there in the film. My main interplay through the whole thing was that China figures in as a destination spot for Tony for a reason but I can’t explain [more because it would reveal] one of the ongoing themes of the movie. It’s tied-in to that theme in much the same way the 10 rings [mentioned in the first Iron Man film] are tied-in to Mandarin — and always have been tied-in to the Mandarin.

I've been trying to think of what that ongoing theme could be, and I can't help but think it might tie into some of the future Marvel films. But I could be wrong, it's just fun to speculate. What do you think it could be? 

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