Kevin Feige cut so much of Iron Man that Jon Favreau asked him ‘Why do you hate movies?’
Jon Favreau fought Kevin Feige over the scenes cut from Iron Man, and says losing those arguments changed the way he makes films.
Before he became the poster boy for Marvel blockbusters, Jon Favreau apparently had to survive some fairly brutal trips to the editing suite with Kevin Feige. It turns out the birth of Iron Man back in 2008 wasn’t exactly harmonious when the cameras stopped rolling. It’s a bit odd to look back and realise that first Marvel film was a relatively scrappy, independent production. Makes all the later, polished spectacle feel even more unlikely, doesn’t it?
At an event for the Will Rogers Motion Picture Pioneers Foundation, Jon Favreau told the crowd, 'They were very nice scenes, and Kevin would just be like, “Cut this, cut this, get out there. I think you don’t even need that scene,”' while reflecting on their old editing-room standoffs.
The pair apparently locked horns over what should actually make it into the final cut. Favreau, like a lot of directors, got attached to certain scenes—thought they were too good to bin. Feige, meanwhile, was unbothered about sentimentality and just wanted things to move along. Favreau even apparently joked in exasperation, 'Why do you hate movies?' which certainly gives you a sense of how persistent the debate got.
Despite all the disagreements, Favreau says he came round in the end. After all the arguing, it turned out Feige’s ruthless edit actually worked in the finished film, with Favreau admitting the experience changed how he works forever. He reckons you just 'can’t be too indulgent' once you get to the final stages—something most directors could probably do with hearing once in a while. Anyway, that's one way the MCU's house style got set.
Favreau also described Feige as 'quality control central', singling him out for his obsession with making sure the films actually work as intended and tying the whole Marvel thing together. In short: 'He loves films and always wants it to be the best it could be,' with a 'love of storytelling and storytellers' blamed as the secret for Marvel’s ridiculous global run.
Back in 2008, Iron Man was produced as an independent film and cobbled together with far fewer resources than the later Marvel machine would have on tap.
Iron Man arrived in 2008 and marked the start of the now-massive Marvel universe.
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