Iron Man 2′s Justin Hammer will Differ from the Comics
Posted by Rodneyon 06. 05. 2009in News Chat
In what might seem very minor change in the Iron Man 2 film version, Justin Hammer will not be seen as a stodgy old coniving buisnessman but a young snappy business rival every bit as charming and powerful as Tony Stark.
Fused Film tells us Rockwell’s Justin Hammer will be different than his Comic Book counterpart:
“They wanted to go with a rival for Tony Stark who is closer to his age, and make him American,” Rockwell told MTV. Rockwell went on to say that his character would serve as a rival in terms of influence, prestige and social power, but wouldn’t be fighting against Tony Stark, decked out in his own suit of battle armor. “My character is the brains, not the brawn,” Rockwell said.”
It doesn’t bother me that they are changing Justin Hammer to be a younger less british version than the comics. Frankly if they gave him a new name and just had Rockwell play the role of a business rival that threatens his company with a hostile takeover people would just complain that he should have just been Hammer all along. So they flipped a coin.
A strong overall theme of the comics has always been that Iron Man had his battles in his world, while Tony Stark had his battles in his world. The stress of this leads up to the most notable storyline EVER in his comic, Demon in a Bottle. We all want to see it get there, and people were upset it didn’t happen in the first movie, and then even more that looks like it wont happen yet.
But this excites me because they are not ignoring it. It is a YET thing. Build up the origin, now build up the character and his struggle with his duality and the massive stress it brings THEN unleash the demon.
A good story is wasted if there is no foundation. Like returning Megatron to Transformers after one movie? Wasted opportunity. The fans are chomping at the bit for this story so why blow your wad and waste the chance to make it monumental.
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doesnt matter if hes different from the comics, either way this movie is gonna be awesome
Im not particularly keen to see the alcoholism come in, but Im cool if it does in a few films. If it was crammed in the first one it would have muddied it up and confused things. You need to establish a characters prestige before you can have a dramatic fall from grace. Also Im glad Hammer wont be a cliche brit villian at least.
Actually Rodney I think there is hope for the demon in the bottle story storyline here. I work down in Los Angeles and a few weeks ago the second unit production for Iron Man 2 was filming for an action scene supposed to take place at night. They had a swanky courtyard party set-up for night shoots and pyro ready for explosions. I talked to one of the guys involved in the production and I asked whats the scene for? He told me that it is an action scene where iron man is in a fight and he is causing a lot of damage because he is “drunk”. It got me pumped. I know this is second hand knowledge and may not be legit, but it still gives me hope for the demon in a bottle to surface.
Its likely they are leading up to it. In the comics Tony turns to drinking after he feels responsible for the death of a politician due to his suit malfunctioning. He has always been seen with a drink in hand, so this might be a lead up to that.
doesn’t bother me, as long as they don’t F him up too much
Well… their are many ways to interpt this, on one hand it makes little differance if the character is young or old and from a certain country. But, the other thing to mention here is how diffrently the rivalry would play out in the film if he was old and from Europe. In the end hollywood wins again and all the fans will have to wait and see how it turns out.
This film should end with Tony handing the suite over to Rhodey. That would be a great lead up to Demon in a Bottle for the third film. The only problem I see is if Avengers is planned for release prior to IM3 the continuity they’ve worked so hard to create would be all screwed up. I really don’t remember the release scedule of the movies though and I’m far too lazy to look it up.
I haven’t read the Iron Man series, and am not too familiar with the Demon storyline, but I do agree with you Rodney, that development is key for such a harsh, dark theme. It has to be developed properly to showcase the problem is poses for Tony.
As to the Hammer character. I’m not sure I like Rockwell playing him. Sam has always struck a cord with me, I’m not sure why. Maybe that’s a good thing for this role, but for some reason, I just don’t think I want to see him in it. I find him bothersome. Kind of like seeing Jonah Hill everywhere. I want to punch him! LOL
Sam Rockwell? Awesome.
Sounds good to me. Still can’t wait for next year. WOOT!
just name him something else. so they can use Hammer in the future. I still hate what they did to Trask in the X-Men movies.
This looks like a bad choice for me.
Pretty much like Rockwell in anything so good choice. He should be a bigger name but since he somehow isn’t…I’m happy as long as he keeps working.