It shouldn’t surprise anyone that Robert Downey Jr. is like a kid in a candy shop when it comes to the number of high quality scripts and projects that he’s choosing from. He’s currently making the media rounds ahead of the debut of his latest film, The Judge, at the Toronto International Film Festival, and it’s a serious, star-studded drama that tells the story of a “big city lawyer” returning home to investigate the murder charges against his father, the titular judge (Robert Duvall). Meanwhile, his production company, Team Downey, is not only working on a third Sherlock Holmes film, but also a live-action version of Pinocchio (“I must play Geppetto”) and “a Perry Mason-style thriller series set in the 1930s,” according to the Toronto Sun.
But this is Robert-F*cking-Downey Jr. we’re talking about, so he can’t say five words without someone asking him about Iron Man, the Avengers and his future in the Marvel Universe. And as he’s promoting The Judge, Guardians of the Galaxy has crossed the $500 million mark at the worldwide box office, and its $255 million domestic take has pushed it past Transformers: Age of Extinction to make it the biggest movie of the summer. Naturally, the Toronto Sun couldn’t let RDJ get away without getting his take on the enormous success of the Marvel movie with the talking raccoon and a cast of heroes a lot of people had never heard of.
“Galaxy in some ways is the best Marvel movie ever,” Downey says with admiration. “And it’s odd for someone with — on occasion — an ego the size of mine to actually say that!”
“We’re talking about how the Iron Mans and the Thors and the Captain Americas and the Avengers movies have afforded Marvel the opportunity to essentially take what was a third-tier, minor, kind of upstart bit of potential from one of their comic books series and say: ‘Look!’ ”
Downey offers a metaphor invoking football and the NFL and the Mannings. “It’s like you have a great quarterback, and his brother plays for another team, and then you say: ‘Look, this is their second cousin and we think he has a great arm and he should start.’ And then he goes and wins the Superbowl!” (Via the Toronto Sun)
Unfortunately, nobody tied Downey to a chair and held a blowtorch to his nards to make him spill the beans on when we’ll actually get to see Tony Stark and Peter Quill share a scene. But I guess that we’ll just have to be patient and wait to find out. Unless someone has some rope handy.
[Vince’s Note: What’s that? Oh, just Robert Downey Jr. agreeing with me. He’s handsome and smart and famous, so I assume he’s a big FilmDrunk reader.]