Robert Downey Jr. speaks: Iron Man version 2.0 massively upgraded

21 April 2009

John Howell

"I've never been in a sequel, and it's very daunting,” said Robert Downey Jr., speaking to Collier.com about Iron Man 2 at a recent press conference for his new movie The Soloist. “I feel the expectation of the millions of people who watched it and enjoyed it and told me that it was a little different than your usual genre picture and that they expected us to not screw it up. So I actually have taken Iron Man 2 probably more seriously than any movie I've ever done, which is appropriately ridiculous for Hollywood."

Robert Downey Jr. reprises his role as the brilliant but eccentric billionaire Tony Stark from the first Iron Man movie, again wearing his ingenious robotic suit that gives him extraordinary superhuman powers.

This time round Mickey Rourke will play the villain.

"I’ve seen his stuff,” said Downey, “and it is literally remarkable. Literally remarkable. He’s so good."

He promised that the Iron Man suit and movie have all been enhanced:

“Everything has been improved. Everything is ergonomic and the story is incredibly risky and artistic for a big genre movie.”

Along with Mickey Rourke, Robert Downey Jr. is joined in Iron Man 2 by an impressive line up, including Gwyneth Paltrow, Scarlett Johansson, Gary Shandling, Sam Rockwell (look out for him in Moon!) and Don Cheadle.

"The set pieces have to do with things that aren't your typical, like, bad-guy conflict," Downey claims. "The relationships are very complex and hilarious. The motivations Tony has, and why he turns around and does things, has completely to do with his own internal processes, and it really is, I think, as much as we tried to in the first one really see behind the façade of this kind of storytelling. We really, I think, leaving ourselves open to ... We're kind of trying to tell a story about how a dysfunctional family saves life on Earth as we know it."

Just like the first Iron Man movie, Jon Favreau is in the director’s chair.

Iron Man 2 is now shooting in Los Angeles and is expected in theatres May 7, 2010.

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