When Iron Man blasted onto the scene in 2008, introducing the world to the Marvel Cinematic Universe, it was not only exciting but groundbreaking. The movie starring Robert Downey Jr. kicked off what is now one of the biggest franchises of all time, and as you can imagine being able to learn on that set has helped its crew go on to create even more amazing work, both inside and outside the MCU. For Jeremy Latcham, his time producing the flagship Marvel movie helped him immensely as he worked on Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves, and he told CinemaBlend all about the lessons he learned from Iron Man that helped him on the fantasy film.
Taking Risks On Iron Man
The first major way Jeremy Latcham's Iron Man experience impacted his time on the fantasy film Dungeons & Dragons has to do with taking risks. He explained that taking leaps of faith, especially when it came to hiring, has paid off in dividends for both movies, explaining:
We took a lot of risk on Iron Man one, and we did a lot of things that were unexpected, and that didn't quite make sense, and they worked out. So, I have this real guiding light of like, ‘Oh no, that's how I did it on Iron Man one, and it worked.’ So, I'm okay falling back on a weird decision.
A specific example Latcham gave me was about the cinematographer hired to shoot Iron Man. Up to that point, Matthew Libatique hadn’t shot a blockbuster, but the producer was a big fan of his work on Pi and Requiem for a Dream with Darren Aronofsky, and knew the DP was capable of killing the Marvel movie. Since then, he’s gone on to shoot other major motion pictures and is known for the phenomenal work he did on the MCU’s first movie.
On Dungeons & Dragons, the producer had a similar experience when he hired Ray Chan as the production designer. While he had worked as an art director on multiple Marvel movies, and did the production design for The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, the producer said he had never been the production designer on a major movie. With the opportunity, Chan absolutely killed it, and now he’s moved on to being the production designer on Deadpool 3.
Overall, being able to lobby for and give opportunities to artists and crewmembers is something Latchman loves. He said being willing to take the leap of faith, and hire someone who might not have the most experience but has shown they have the potential is one of his guiding lights.
Why Jeremy Latcham Never Wants To Talk About A Sequel
The second lesson from Iron Man, Latchman explained, was to never talk about Iron Man 2. There was no talk about a sequel or the future of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, they just wanted to make a good movie, and that proved to pay off big time. So, as the producer worked on his fantasy film on the 2023 movie schedule he kept that takeaway in mind, saying:
I didn't want to annoy people in the audience with a bunch of michisgosh about something that may or may not happen in a future movie. I said let's just make it good. Let's just make this movie good, because without one good movie, there's nothing. All the plans go out the window if you don't have one good movie. And so that was really my real lesson. My real takeaway from Iron Man one was: just focus on making this really good. Like I have no other job.
He explained that to do their best job, they couldn’t be thinking about the future of the MCU. And while the Samuel L. Jackson cameo at the very end alludes to the idea that they were planning the expansion of Marvel movies, that didn’t come into play until they were done with everything else. The same was true for D&D, while the movie has the potential to turn into a franchise, and hopefully, it does, there needs to be a strong foundation to build off first, and Honor Among Thieves did that.
Dungeons & Dragons was met with great reviews, and fans have been loving the complex and creative world. Hopefully, it is able to grow into a franchise, kind of like the MCU has. Clearly, on both the 2008 superhero movie and this year’s fantasy film those takeaways helped create great movies.
To stream Iron Man as well as all the Marvel movies in order, all you need is a Disney+ subscription. And to see Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves, you can buy/rent it digitally, or check it out in theaters.
