"Iron Man 2" Opens Big

Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) does every thing big and over the top at the Stark Expo. The goal of the production team for “Iron Man 2” seemed to take on that same audaciousness. The production team performed a significant amount of work at the Los Angeles Sepulveda Dam to erect the largest greens screen (600’X200’) ever used in motion picture history for the Stark Expo scenes.

To light this monstrosity that glowed for miles during production, the entire top of the screen was lined with 20Ks and PRG Bad Boys (48,000 lumens and 1200W) – For those of you who aren’t tech savvy, it took LOTS of lights.

I noticed a touch of irony in the production team taking cues from the fictional Stark, while the writer seemingly drew from Downey’s life to sketch out Stark’s personal struggles – Of course, screenplay writer Justin Theroux never admitted to it, but if you read the papers a few years back…

The hardest part of continuing a franchise is finding a way to top the debut film’s box office take of $572 million worldwide. Once the audience falls in love with the characters, the creative team finds itself working hard to find the right balance. "We always want to stay true to the characters as written in the comics, but we also don't want to be afraid to take risks occasionally with our characters," says Kevin Feige, President of Marvel Studios and producer of "Iron Man 2."

Director/Executive Producer Jon Favreau was freed to choose characters from any of the 600 Iron Man issues released over the past 42 years, but it wasn’t without concern. "When you have multiple characters in a film, it tends to get complicated, and I think many sequels fall short because they create too many layers of complication, both in character and in plot," says Favreau. "Plot is something I'm not particularly great at because I don't have a mindset for twisty, turny, maze-like stories. I'm more of a story guy."

The story was preset during the ending of “Iron Man” when Tony announced to the public that he was Iron Man – something a super hero had never done before. This set up an opportunity to explore the complexities of the stark character and how he deals with his own outing. "When you have a lead character as rich as Tony Stark, you really want to explore the trials and tribulations of his life," says Feige. “That immediately sets up the tension and the conflict for this film and that's what we wanted to continue to explore.”

The only question remaining is will this Marvel story out due the first film and rise to success. "The secret to Marvel comics is the depth and complexity of the characters, all of whom are flawed in some way," says Feige. "That's what makes our characters interesting and why they have withstood the test of time. This dynamic has also allowed us to successfully transition Marvel characters into the film medium and expose them to a large segment of the audience that has never read a comic book."