[ SECRET POST #2658 ]

[case]

⌈ Secret Post #2658 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.

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Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 04 pages, 076 secrets from Secret Submission Post #380.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 1 2 - repeat ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

Comments

[kaijinscendre]

Did you know that Tom Cruise was considered for the role of Tony Stark? I expect that would have killed the MCU before it started.

[(Anonymous)]

Unpopular opinion: I bet he would have been great, actually.

[kaijinscendre]

Tom Cruise it too....clean? Also, I think him being Tom Cruise would have negatively affected how much the movie made (at least domestically).

[(Anonymous)]

Doesn't seem to have have affected the Mission: Impossible franchise.

I'm with the person above. It would have been different, yes, but I bet he would have been really good.

[kaijinscendre]

Iron Man made 300 million dollars. Tom Cruise's highest grossing film is 234 million. The MI films have all been less than that (the first one having the largest box office of 293 million adjusted for 2008).

The MI films benefited from being a franchise. Iron Man was an experiment by Marvel in a genre that was not taken very seriously. In 2008, Tom Cruise was in the middle of his Scientology controversy.

Tom Cruise may have been great in the film, but I think the film would have suffered from being associated with him at that time.

[(Anonymous)]

According to box office mojo, RDJ's highest grossing film prior to IM was "Back to School" which grossed 91mill in 1986; he also didn't have a good reputation in the world at large, what with all his scandals in his youth. The only move with any real popularity released in the several years before IM was "Kiss Kiss Bang Bang", which, although it was hilarious, wasn't really a top grosser.

I mean, I don't think I would like Tom Cruise as Iron Man; the role just seems too perfect for RDJ. But your logic doesn't work.

[kaijinscendre]

But Downey had been out of the spotlight for long enough that there were no negative connotations with his name. In 2008 Tom Cruise=that crazy ass scientologist.

[lilacsigil]

Oh no, there were lots of negative connotations with Downey's name. In fact, pretty much only negative connotations. "That drug addict who went to prison," mostly. The most positive I can think of was "He used to be really talented."

[kaijinscendre]

Yeah, but that was mostly forgotten. He laid low after all the drug troubles then started working again (with no drug problems) in smaller films like Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, A Scanner Darkly and Zodiac.

So while he had problems, he had stayed out of the limelight long enough to get clean and let all that die down. But at the time Iron Man was filming (and came out), Tom Cruise was at the height of his "SCIENTOLOGY! KATIE HOLMES! JUMP ON COUCHES!!!!!!" phase.

[(Anonymous)]

jsyk (because I'm surprised at the amount of debate you got at that comment), I absolutely agree with everything you're saying.

RDJ was in a great place in 2008 (Ally McBeal won him back the older generation that saw his drug problems unfold, and Kiss Kiss Bang Bang was adored by pretty much everyone who saw it), and is/was genuinely liked by the majority of viewers. Whereas Tom Cruise was seen as an irritating, overexposed joke - which is why his role in Tropic Thunder was such a huge surprise for so many people; no one expected to like him in anything at that time.

Tom Cruise was/is a turn off for a lot of people, and that alone would have affected ticket purchases a heck of a lot. Maybe a Tom Cruise-lead Iron Man franchise would still have profited okay and spawned the same amount of sequels, but I really doubt it would have made anywhere near the impact of the films we actually got.

[(Anonymous)]

DA

Even though in general I agree with what kaijin is saying, I remember when Iron Man came out and I know there was a lot of talk about whether RDJ was going to be able to stay clean and what a risk it was for him to be hired for such a big role. I think that even helped the success of the film a bit - I think Hollywood and audiences have a lot of good will for RDJ so there was an element of cheering for the underdog/comeback when Iron Man turned out to be so good.

[(Anonymous)]

Yeah, but M:I isn't the same kind of character you need for Iron Man. Tony Stark needs to be a guy who goes kinda crazy, but who is charming and charismatic while in his crazy mode. Cruise can do crazy, but his crazy is uncomfortable. I think people would have been uncomfortable with his Tony Stark character. Maybe maybe not enough to tank the movie, but enough to keep Tony Stark from being the "everyone knows who that is now" sort of character that RDJ made him.

[mekkio]

I doubt it. Tom Cruise has never really done any lovable bastard characters. That's what Tony Stark has to be. You want to punch him in the face one moment and be the one to take him to the ER the next because you can't bring yourself to stay mad at him. (The closest Cruise played to a lovable bastard character was being a comedic bastard in Tropic Thunder. And even then, he was just psychotic mogul and not lovable. Though he did kill it in that role.)

The Iron Man movies would have had a different tone if Cruise had taken the part.

[(Anonymous)]

Uh, excuse you (I say affectionately) - are you forgetting the wonderful bastard that was Lestat? He should play assholes more often.

I still kind of like him in movies even if Scientology, mental instability, whatever.. I just think he seems like a weirdo in real life.

[mekkio]

Lestat wasn't lovable in the way a lovable bastard can be. Lestat was just a selfish, vain guy with oodles of flair and style. (Though he still was my favorite character in that movie.)

[(Anonymous)]

Different Anon: Lestat is the only role I'll repeatedly watch Tom Cruise in. And my Brat Prince is definitely a lovable bastard.

[(Anonymous)]

Oh gods no. I would have refused to see it on principle because I cannot stand Tom Cruise. My dislike for him developed around the time he was in Top Gun and blossomed into the full on loathing it is today by the time Mission:Impossible 2 hit cinemas.

[(Anonymous)]

Oh, you're so right! Your dislike of him would automatically translate into it being a bad movie.

[(Anonymous)]

DA

That's not what they said.

[(Anonymous)]

Oh wow. I'm so glad that didn't happen. Tom Cruise is one of the very few actors out there where I cannot separate my dislike from him from the characters he plays. I don't know if it would have killed the MCU (although I suspect so - RDJ nailed Tony Stark in a way I don't think Tom Cruise ever could have come close to) but it would have killed it for me.

[kaijinscendre]

I expect it would have killed it. I can't see Cruise as such a charismatic and totally in character Tony Stark. And if Iron Man had failed, Marvel would have been reluctant to continue with anymore.

[(Anonymous)]

The rumor is that he refused to do it unless they made it so you could always see his face, like a see-through Iron Man helmet.

[(Anonymous)]

Tom Cruise would've killed it for you. Gwenyth Paltrow hobbles it for me.

[tabaqui]

I really must agree. RDJ *is* Tony Stark.