10 Movies Made Under INSANE Conditions
9. Without A Finished Script - Iron Man
The original 2008 Iron Man may seem positively quaint compared to where the Marvel Cinematic Universe has gone over the last 15 years, but it still stands to reason that every $150 million blockbuster doesn't start shooting without a completed and finessed final script, right?
Except Iron Man instead went into production with only a skeletal outline of a script, forcing director Jon Favreau and stars Robert Downey Jr. and Jeff Bridges to effectively wing it day-to-day.
In a recent interview with Vanity Fair, Bridges revealed that the trio spent a few weeks before shooting fleshing out the script, only for Marvel to throw all of their ideas out on the very first day of filming.
Bridges said it initially drove him "absolutely crazy," until he decided to look at the project like a "$200 million student film" and embrace the unconventional, improv-heavy nature of the shoot.
It goes without saying that the pressure of making a mega-budget tentpole without a finished script is enormous, and all the more so given that its failure would've ended the Marvel Cinematic Universe before it even got started.
Incredibly, though, the end result bears no hallmarks whatsoever of a roughshod, slung-together production, and over 30 movies later, it remains one of the franchise's standout entries.