20 Things You Didn’t Know About Iron Man 2
12. Shane Black Consulted On The Script
Though the film's screenplay was written by the brilliant Justin Theroux - with some of those aforementioned executive revisions, of course - Lethal Weapon screenwriter Shane Black also served as an uncredited consultant on the film.
Black, who had previously worked with Robert Downey Jr. on his terrific neo-noir Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, made the key suggestion to Downey Jr. and Favreau that they model Stark's character on that of J. Robert Oppenheimer, the scientist who helped develop the atomic bomb and later sank into depression after seeing its destructive potential.
Black clearly made an impression, then, given that he went on to co-write and direct Iron Man 3.