Chapter 556: Ultimate Version

Time slipped into June. On June 1, Marvel Pictures teamed up with Warner Brothers to host a massive press conference in Burbank, officially announcing that Iron Man—a superhero film truly belonging to Marvel—had entered pre-production.

Rumors had long circulated that Duke's next film would be Iron Man. His presence in the Warner press hall officially confirmed it.

Hundreds of reporters packed the hall. Marvel Pictures CEO Kevin Feige hosted the event, flanked by heavyweights including Duke, Warner Brothers CEO Doug Walter, the father of Marvel superheroes Stan Lee, and Marvel Comics CEO Avi Arad.

Their attendance demonstrated that both the production company and the distributor had high hopes for Iron Man.

However, the media remained focused on Duke. After all, he was the most famous person in the room, serving as both the film's director and producer.

When the press conference entered the open Q&A session, the reporters immediately directed a barrage of questions at Duke.

A reporter from the New York Times stood up first and asked, "Duke, Marvel has a vast roster of superheroes. According to reliable sources, Marvel Pictures is preparing Iron Man first based on your recommendation. Why did you choose Tony Stark first?"

"In the comic book world, the Iron Man series is just as famous as Spider-Man, X-Men, and Fantastic Four," Duke said. "The comic has been popular for decades and has always retained its readers' interest."

Tony Stark was arguably the most popular character Marvel could currently utilize. After losing the film rights to Spider-Man, they didn't have many options for their first step. Duke didn't bother explaining that. He organized his thoughts for a moment and continued.

"Because he isn't a biological mutant, and he wasn't bitten by some insect," he said. "He's just an ordinary man who uses his own intelligence to create the Iron Suit—one of humanity's greatest inventions."

"Tony Stark is a superhero with weaknesses. He also lives a dazzling playboy lifestyle, which is exactly why I chose this story to be the first film from the all-new Marvel Pictures."

Duke paused for a half-second before adding, "We think Iron Man is a fascinating character. Spider-Man and X-Men have already given audiences heroes with god-like powers. This story is perfect for an adaptation because it touches on social issues and the world we live in. It's a story about redemption, about an ordinary man who can transform into a hero—but only after suffering misfortune to unlock his potential."

The film was just entering pre-production, so it wasn't time for the promotional campaign to kick into high gear. When subsequent questions shifted to Tony Stark's specific settings and details, Duke deferred them to Avi Arad and Stan Lee of Marvel Comics.

The press conference lasted nearly the entire morning. After a simple lunch together at noon, Duke left the Warner Building and returned to Duke Studio to begin preparations for the film.

The primary requirement for preparing any film was capital. While the press conference was still underway, Marvel Pictures had already allocated the 40 million dollars needed for initial pre-production.

Without money, even Duke would be powerless.

Iron Man had an estimated production budget of 130 million dollars. The bulk of that expense went to Duke's 15-million-dollar base salary as director and producer, along with the absolute top priority: visual effects production.

To put it bluntly, Duke's Iron Man would still be a film with visual effects as its main selling point.

Of course, the charm of Tony Stark's character couldn't be ignored. The fact that Iron Man eventually became the most successful franchise among Marvel's superhero films was inextricably linked to the male lead's characterization. Even later, in The Avengers, Tony Stark remained the pivotal figure for wisecracks and banter.

Robert Downey Jr.'s portrayal of the character was undeniably successful. Perhaps due to his own personality and life experiences, he was practically playing himself.

Therefore, Duke's primary candidate for the male lead remained Robert Downey Jr. Charles Roven was currently in contact with the actor and his agent. For Robert Downey Jr., who was bogged down in a mire of drug addiction controversies, refusing the role was simply impossible. The biggest point of contention between the two parties was a special drug-related clause Duke demanded he sign.

However, none of this would be an issue; with his career at rock bottom, Robert Downey Jr. essentially had no other choices.

Let alone an A-list commercial blockbuster like this, Robert Downey Jr. was desperate enough to take roles in obscure television series just to earn a living. The problem was that those productions were too intimidated by his notorious track record to cast him.

Taking a step back, even if Robert Downey Jr.'s head was so clouded that he refused the role, Duke already had backups prepared. This was his consistent working style: there was always a primary candidate, but no actor was ever irreplaceable.

Ever since word leaked that Duke might direct Iron Man, both Nicolas Cage and Tom Cruise had expressed immense interest in playing the superhero. Cruise had even wanted to serve as a producer for the film at one point.

But the film already had Duke on board, a director taking a substantial cut of the budget. Given Marvel's consistently frugal operating style, there was no way they would bring in someone as expensive as Tom Cruise. Furthermore, Cruise soon acquired a project called Assassinating Hitler, and his interest immediately shifted away from Iron Man.

As for the remaining backup, Nicolas Cage, his asking price aligned perfectly with Marvel's appetite.

This Oscar Best Actor winner, who was already showing signs of becoming the king of bad movies, was currently facing a financial crisis. Following the Christophe Rocancourt incident, Duke had subtly used Sofia Coppola to warn him. Clearly, however, Nicolas Cage hadn't taken the advice to heart and had stumbled right back down his old path.

Cage had once been an actor Duke liked very much, but this was all Duke could do. After all, he was close friends with Sofia Coppola, but he had little to no relationship with Nicolas Cage. Moreover, in a country that highly prized personal freedom and strictly guarded privacy, offering too much unsolicited advice would absolutely do more harm than good.

Although Nicolas Cage's bitter and deeply aggrieved face was a major problem, he was only one of the backups. Besides, realistically speaking, it was the role of Iron Man that had made Robert Downey Jr., not the other way around.

Then there were the film's two most important female characters: Pepper Potts and Natasha Romanoff. Scarlett Johansson had already been confirmed for the latter, while the former would be decided through auditions.

Recently, well-informed agents had been using every available channel to pass their actresses' portfolios to Duke and his deputies. Knowing full well the deep history between Duke and Scarlett Johansson, they all aimed their sights firmly at the leading role.

Even though Pepper Potts was a standard eye-candy role, countless actresses had become extremely popular playing such roles in Duke's films. Even someone like Charlize Theron had vaulted into the ranks of A-list superstars off the back of an eye-candy part.

Duke quickly narrowed down the scope of the auditions. The shortlist featured many familiar names, such as Rosamund Pike, Rachel McAdams, and Amy Adams. Their current fame might not rival that of Gwyneth Paltrow, but their looks, acting skills, and fashion sense weren't necessarily far behind.

In short, with Duke's current box office pull, finding the right actress wasn't difficult in the slightest. To exaggerate a little, he only had to crook his finger, and the line of actresses wanting to star in his film would stretch all the way from Warner Studios to Beverly Hills.

Following the project's green light and multiple rounds of revisions, the script was finally locked in.

The script had been penned by Marvel Comics' writing team—the people who understood Marvel's characters better than anyone. They then integrated feedback from Stan Lee and Duke. Finally, to meet the overarching needs of the grand franchise, they shifted the era of Iron Man's existence to modern society.

It was widely known that Iron Man had been created in the 1960s, with Tony Stark's characterization modeled after the legendary American entertainment mogul Howard Hughes.

In Stan Lee's words, Howard Hughes was one of the most fascinating figures of his time—an inventor, adventurer, millionaire, ladies' man, and an absolute madman.

The reason Marvel Comics had created a character like Iron Man was precisely to forge a hero entirely different from the standard mold.

Among all Marvel comic characters at the time, Iron Man received the most fan mail from female readers. Readers of all ages cared about the character's human side.

In Duke's eyes, the figure of Iron Man wasn't just wildly popular; he was also the only self-made superhero in the Marvel Series, as all his superpowers stemmed from the Iron Suit forged by Tony Stark himself.

In the original comics, Tony Stark had participated in the Vietnam War, which was later updated to the Gulf War. Now that it was being adapted into a film, the battlefield had to be shifted once again. Duke placed it in the highly topical Afghanistan. Firstly, this suited the overarching needs of the Marvel Universe plan; secondly, as a film aimed at young audiences, the story couldn't feel too dated. It had to be grounded in a realistic, contemporary setting.

Once the script was finalized, Marvel Comics, incorporating Duke's input, officially named the overarching cinematic space the Ultimate Version. The entire Avengers initiative, as well as future plans to expand into the cosmos, would all unfold within this universe.

At the same time, as long as the first film became a hit, various comics revolving around the Ultimate Version would also be published—even incorporating some superheroes whose film rights were no longer in Marvel's hands.

For properties like Spider-Man and X-Men, although they couldn't reclaim the film rights, the comic rights remained firmly theirs. Marvel naturally wasn't going to let any money-making opportunity slip away.

Aside from all this, Duke personally contacted the Pentagon. The film required a substantial amount of military hardware, and having the military's backing would undoubtedly save them significant time, effort, and money. Ever since The Rock, he had maintained a strong relationship with the Pentagon.

The Pentagon responded enthusiastically, even dispatching a dedicated team of liaison officers to Los Angeles. They wanted to leverage Duke's movie to drum up publicity for a new, advanced weapon they were preparing to deploy.