Iron Man | Behind-The-Scenes An adaptation of Iron Man had been in the works for decades at various studios, in various permutations. 20th Century Fox’s version courted Tom Cruise in the late 1990s, and New Line Cinema enlisted Nick Cassavetes (The Notebook) to direct in the mid-2000s. When that iteration fell through, the rights finally landed back with Marvel Studios, and they began work from scratch. Marvel had a rough time convincing writers to take a crack at Iron Man at this time, largely

Iron Man | Behind-The-Scenes In January 1997, Nicolas Cage expressed interest in portraying the character, while in September 1998, Tom Cruise expressed interest in producing as well as starring in an Iron Man film. In June 2001, New Line Cinema entered talks with Joss Whedon, a fan of the character, to direct. New Line took a “unique” approach to writing the film’s script, hiring David Hayter, David S. Goyer, and Mark Protosevich to “sit in a room and simply talk on camera about Iron Man for a