As well as being the first feature from Marvel Studios and the genesis of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Jon Favreau's Iron Man was also instrumental in establishing the general tone of the studio's output. Wisely going in the completely opposite direction from Christopher Nolan's grounded and serious Batman movies, Favreau established Iron Man as a more light-hearted and humorous kind of blockbuster, which has greatly informed the way the rest of Marvel's movies balance laughs alongside the action. However, before Favreau officially signed on to direct in April 2006 the studio had entertained the notion of handing the reins to Len Wiseman, director of the two generic and soulless Underworld movies. Wiseman revealed in an interview that he was involved with the project for about seven months but the dark and violent nature of his work had deterred Marvel from continuing negotiations, with the studio looking to make their movies more family-friendly. With the studio now known for picking their directors from slightly out of left-field, Wiseman would have been a massively uninspired choice; since dropping out of the running for Iron Man the director has delivered Live Free or Die Hard and Total Recall; two bland, generic and ultimately forgettable blockbusters. While the director of Elf and Zathura may have seemed like an unlikely choice to direct a $140m comic book movie, Favreau delivered a stylish and entertaining blockbuster that got the Marvel Cinematic Universe off to a strong start. Even more importantly, Favreau was instrumental in getting Robert Downey Jr cast as Tony Stark and fought for the actor to land the part despite the wariness of the studio executives given his well-publicized personal struggles. If Marvel had given the job to Len Wiseman, then Robert Downey Jr would likely never have gotten the chance to create one of the most iconic movie characters in recent memory and the makeup of the Marvel Cinematic Universe would be completely unrecognizable from what it is today.
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