WHAT IF...? WHAT IF YOU DIRECTED THE BIG 3 MOVIES?

[Doctor Bong Crosby]

I was thinking these days that it would be an interesting excercise of the imagination to ask my fellow board surfers this: if you were chosen to direct 3 Thor movies, 3 Iron Man movies and 3 Captain America movies, how would you go about it...? (Assuming an alternate reality where "our" IM, IM2 and Thor didn't exist yet.).

[humanbelly]

Sweet Fancy Moses, you don't ask for much, do you Doc??
One might say you're seriously stretching the boundary between "interesting exercise of the imagination" and "crushingly overwhelming thesis project". . . eh?

But--- let me try one with almost no thought at all---

Thor 1: Draw from the original JiM story more heavily-- or at least for a framework. Starts as Don Blake's story-- with him unaware of his "true" identity (but troubled by it, regardless). Blossoming relationship with Jane should be there, everything. Finds the hammer and has access to Thor's might and powers-- but memory is still fogged. Is he Don Blake? Is he someone else? Almost like a heroic version of Jekyll & Hyde, maybe? Entire movie is Earth-bound, as Thor is still in exile. External Antagonist should be someone powerful, but mortal-- Absorbing Man, maybe? Or perhaps an equally-exiled troll, like Ulik? Oh!-- who could provide a key to unlocking Thor's memories-! I like that. Jane has a relationship with both identities-- is he one person? Is he two? Climactic moment of the film would be the Don "identity" somehow sacrificing himself in order to defeat the antagonist--- leaving only a now clear-minded Thunder God-- who is ready to return to Asgard in part 2 and see what the heck gives.

Okay-- there's film #1.

HB

[humanbelly]

Okay, so Thor #2--

Odin appears to the now clear-minded, earth-bound Thor. They have a heated exchange (has he learned humility or not?-- and so on). Odin summons Thor back to Asgard for judgment via some big transport vortex-- Jane hops in as well at the very last moment.
However, as a final petulant "lesson" in humility, Odin dumps Thor (& Jane) in the very outermost boonies of Asgard w/out his hammer, forcing Thor (& Jane) to hoof it all the way back to the city itself. A full Act of the film could flesh this journey out.
A Loki scheme wants to be woven through all of this, of course, w/ him putting the Realm Eternal in peril somehow. Sif would also enter the picture as Thor's former lover. It would be good to have actual scenes between Sif & Jane, rather than traditional action-film shorthand.
There is ultimately a huge battle/fight, where Loki is defeated-- but Odin (Or Sif? Or even Loki??) is deeply, physically wounded in a manner that magic can't fix. What's needed is--- ta-dah!-- a brilliant surgeon and his trusted brilliant assistant. Oh, this is awfully contrived, yes? Don Blake's identity is resurrected (possibly w/ some caveats), they save the patient, and then discover that Loki's machinations have inadvertently put Earth in peril (Trolls? Frost Giants? Cask of Ancient Winters? Elves?? Hmm- the Destroyer?), and Thor must choose which realm holds his heart.
He & Jane return to earth.

HB

[kidcage]

As a guy who got his degree in Literature, Writing, and Film and writes screenplays for fun... this would be an amazing opportunity.

But it also scares the bejeezes outta me, lol.

But... I'll at least give it a bit of a shot...


Iron Man
#1: Obligatory movie origin story, not too much unlike what we saw in the made-for movie. However, I would bring in the Mandarin as an international criminal who Tony becomes aware of. We SEE the Mandarin, but Tony never gets to him. Instead, he has to deal with one of Mandarin's bodyguards: Crimson Dynamo.

#2: After the battle of movie one, we find that Tony is beginning to become an alcoholic due to the fact the stress of being the countries "only superhero" is taking on him. This could be shown in a series of montages where he's rescuing people from burning buildings, dealing with international criminals, etc. Mandarin has learned his secret identity (Black Widow as a double agent?) and is now breaking Stark's business. As Tony fights to remain somewhat sober, during a battle with small-time scientific villain Blizzard, innocent people are hurt. While Stark struggles to keep his business afloat, he must now try and resurrect the image of Iron Man.

#3: Finally, Stark learns who the Mandarin is and knows that the Mandarin has plans not only for Stark's business, but also a plan to murder several government entities who are on to his organization. While still not liked by the public, with the help of Pepper and friends, he works his way into a sober state of mind to do battle with Mandarin, who he learns has certain rings that make his life hell. He rides in to save the day, where being the businessman he is, he makes sure the press is tipped off about Mandarin, and the country sees Iron Man put himself against Mandarin to save government officials and bring down an international terrorist/crime leader.

This also catches the eye of Nick Fury, who makes Iron Man an offer.