10 Mind-Blowing Iron Man Facts
7. Tom Cruise Was Close To Playing Tony Stark
Tom Cruise seems like the type to play a superhero, but for some reason, he never has. That almost changed in the 1990s, when he was strongly linked with Iron Man while the rights to the character were at Fox.
Cruise expressed interest in producing the film and starring as Tony Stark, but eventually dropped out because he wasn't keen on the script, which at this point depicted Howard Stark becoming War Machine, serving as the story's villain too.
A revised version of the screenplay was turned in by Jeff Vintar and Stan Lee, and this incarnation had Modok as its villain and was stuffed with heavier science fiction elements, but Cruise had lost interest by this point.
Fox approached Quentin Tarantino to direct, and when the studio failed to land him, the project stalled and the rights to Iron Man were later sold to New Line Cinema.