Tom Cruise as Iron Man?

[Sinclair]

Granted this is not official, but it looks like it's very possible that Tom Cruise may be cast as Iron Man when and if this thing ever gets into production.

I never really read Iron Man and don't know a whole lot about him, but I just can't see Cruise portraying him. But what do I know?

 

[GKarsEye]

Meh.

Nothing against Tom Cruise, per say, but I just don't jibe to the Hollywood mentality that every big movie needs to star some Big Name.

I enjoyed Last Samurai, but had to overcome the Big Name factor (with Cruise, no less) to see it and suspend disbelief. He did a good job, but he is way too pretty to play that role.

Cold Mountain is a film that interests me, but less so because if its stars. Again, decent enough actors, but too pretty and too famous.

 

[admiraldave]

I don't really know the Iron Man source material that well, but I'd be concerned with Cruise in the role. Simply because instead of an Iron Man movie, you'd get a "Tom Cruise in a metal suit movie". The really famous actors like Cruise and Ford don't really play a new character, the name might be different, but the general persona is the same.

 

[PillowRock]

The really famous actors like Cruise and Ford don't really play a new character, the name might be different, but the general persona is the same.

That's a bit of an over-generalization, isn't it?

I don't object to applying that to Cruise in particular, because he does tend to that to a fair degree. However, applying all "really famous actors" is being unfair. It certainly isn't true of people like Dustin Hoffman and Meryl Streep, who I would *definitely* count as "really famous actors" (even if their profiles in the marketplace aren't currently quite what they once were).

 

[Joseph DeMartino]

Cruise is a movie star. Ford is an actor who happens to do a lot of very popular movies. There's a difference. No one who saw The Mosquito Coast, Presumed Innocent or Regarding Henry could possibly think they were seeing Han Solo or Indiana Jones. (Who are different enough from one another that Ford could play them both in the same film and the same wardrobe and I doubt anyone would have trouble telling them apart.)

Iron Man? To pull off the role Cruise would mostly have to make a convincing Tony Stark, since Iron Man himself will no doubt be a combination of the actor in a suit, a stuntman in a suit and CGI (much like Spiderman was.) And I'm not sure about Cruise as Stark, the billionaire (there's been a lot of inflation since the 1960s) industrialist and international playboy.

Regards,

Joe

 

[phoenixrising]

Yet another comic book movie ruined by the suits insisting on a big name star.

Cruise can act when he wants to (Born On The 4th Of July, Interview With The Vampire), but I can not see him as Tony Stark/Iron Man. I can not think of anyone to cast in this part, so I would go with an unknown that can act! They have killed enough comic book movies with bad casting.

 

[Jade Jaguar]

I don't think that Cruise would have any trouble playing a billionaire international playboy, but he'd have to work on the industrialist bit.

 

[Joseph DeMartino]

I don't think that Cruise would have any trouble playing a billionaire international playboy, but he'd have to work on the industrialist bit.

He'd also have to work on being taller. Stark was intended to be the kind of big, impressive industrialist who raced his own race cars and flew his own racing planes. Granted Cruise played a race car driver and a fighter jock, but not very believably. He's just too much of a pretty boy to play the Tony Stark of the comics - a guy who assists in performing his own frickin' open heart surgery, for Pete's sake.

Regards,

Joe

 

[SwiftBiscuit]

I think Cruise has grown a lot lately as an actor though. Working with Kubrick seems to have a deep effect on him. He characters in Days of Thunder and Top Gun were just about identical, he seems to be acting more nowadays. I've yet to see The Last Samurai though.

 

[LondosHair]

I dunno, while he's shorter than I might like for the part, Cruise has really impressed me lately. "The Last Samurai" was freakin EXCELLENT. I watched Cruise on "Inside the Actors' Studio" last night and was pretty well riveted. The guy took an entire year just building up the character and learning to become this character. He described a lot of his philosophies & methods in acting, and mentioned that he was really influenced by Kubrick during the 2 years it took to shoot "Eyes Wide Shut."

If he can bring the same kind of dedication to the role of Tony Stark (while "Iron Man" wouldn't necessarily be the same epic as "Samurai"), I think he could do it well.

 

[Kaleb]

"The Last Samurai" was freakin EXCELLENT.

I doubt Ive ever agreed with you more dear fellow.