Sophomore Slump or Comeback of the Year: An Alternate Superhero Craze

Hey everybody! This is my first TL, so tell me what you think, please! Hopefully it doesn't completely suck...

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NOTEBOOK director picked up by Marvel Studios to direct IRON MAN!
Published at: Feb. 6, 2006, 12:45 PM by headgeek

Marvel Studios has announced today the director who is to helm their IRON MAN movie: Nick Cassavetes. Last year, Cassavetes reneged on his deal with New Line Cinema to direct their attempt at an IRON MAN adaptation due (allegedly, although I have it on very good authority) to payment disputes, only to accept the same job when offered it by Marvel Studios. One wonders how much more Marvel was willing to pay him...

-From Ain’t It Cool News, February 6, 2006.​
 
Well, as people (well, person) seem to be paying at least a little attention to this TL, time for post #2!

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Casting Iron Man: An Overview

Marvel Studios had long lived and worked in the shadow of the, for lack of a better phrase, real studios with whom they worked to produce Marvel-licensed movies. Much like any big-budget Hollywood product, the proposed casts of these movies were up for review after the fact by higher-up studio executives, who, of course, could always be counted on to veto any casting decisions they believed might have a negative effect on the movie’s eventual box office performance. So, when Cassavetes and his casting director Sarah Finn submitted to Marvel Studios their proposed cast list as they neared the end of auditions in early June of 2006, said executives shit their proverbial pants. Where was the star power? Tom Cruise and Robert Downey Jr. had both auditioned (with Downey even sobering up, supposedly for the express purpose of being in the movie), and both could certainly be counted on to give the role their all. Why, then, was the proposed leading man a complete nobody? Why had the only truly recognizable actor in the movie been cast as the villain? And for God’s sake, who in the hell was Kristen Bell? Before any of their vetoes were final, however, they would encounter a rather large impediment to their plans: Avi Arad. Arad, being the studio head, had the final say on all Iron Man-related decisions, and he was absolutely insistent that Cassavetes be allowed freedom on this project. You see, Arad had seen the utterly awful public reaction to X-Men: The Last Stand (on which he had been an executive producer), and understood that many of that movie’s problems had been a result of excessive meddling by the Fox execs. In an attempt to avoid a possible reoccurrence of similar problems with Iron Man, Arad spent several weeks meeting with nearly every executive at Marvel Studios in an attempt to convince them that what was needed to ensure the success of this movie was for the studio to grant Cassavetes greater-than-normal freedom in casting, directing, and editing, similar to the freedom he had been given while filming smash-hit success The Notebook for New Line. Whether these execs were actually convinced or were simply forced into agreement with Arad is unimportant; in the end, they all agreed, and Cassavetes and Finn were allowed to keep their proposed cast.
 
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Where was the star power? Tom Cruise and Robert Downey Jr. had both auditioned (with Downey even sobering up, supposedly for the express purpose of being in the movie),​

RDJ sobered up somewhat earlier than this, lol.

Avi Arad. Arad, being the studio head, had the final say on all
Iron Man-related decisions, and he was absolutely insistent that Cassavetes be allowed freedom on this project.

Arad quit in May 2006. So any protection he could offer would be short lived. Unless of course him staying is the POD, but even then there's a reason he quit.
 
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