'Iron Man 3' co-writer hopes Bollywood will be embraced globally

New Delhi, April 20 (IANS) Drew Pearce, co-writer of forthcoming action movie "Iron Man 3", hopes English-speaking markets will increasingly embrace Bollywood, which offers superhero movies like "Krrish" that boast "different tones".

"I hope traditional English-speaking markets grow more and more to embrace Bollywood and maybe work together more often too," Pearce told IANS in an e-mail interview.

Appreciating the efforts of Indian filmmakers in exploring the sci-fi and superhero genres, he said: "I love how different the tones of 'Ra.One' and 'Krrish' are to other superhero movies."

Then he added a caveat: "As the genre gets more and more crowded, it's new influences and styles that directors and writers should be looking at and they should be working with new people to keep the stories fresh."

Although not too familiar with Indian cinema, he admitted to "really enjoying 'Rang De Basanti', and I loved the concept behind 'A Wednesday'. Oh, and the 'Gangs of Wasseypur' movies were really good too."

The 37-year-old, known for writing sitcom "No Heroics", has co-written "Iron Man 3" with director Shane Black. The third instalment will once again see Robert Downey Jr. as Tony Stark.

Asked how easy or difficult it is to write for the superhero genre, Pearce said: "The toughest part of a superhero movie or a TV show is definitely how to give your main character the flaws that lead to drama and jeopardy, whilst at the same time keeping them heroic and exciting enough that you're on their side the whole time."

"Luckily, we have a secret weapon, and his name is Robert Downey Jr. If you're going to model any character on a brilliant, flawed man who has triumphed over himself to become a hero of the world, well, he's definitely a good start," added the author whose "No Heroics", about failed heroes, was a hit sitcom.

What about the challenges of portraying a comic book hero on the silver screen?

"Truly, we never really thought about it that way, because we already had these flesh-and-blood characters, Robert Downey Jr and Gwyneth Paltrow."

"The greater question for us was how do we stop these real people from sounding like they're in a comic book, or from doing the kind of things the audience expects characters to do in a superhero movie? We want everything in the movie to surprise the audience, and keep the characters fresh and real," he added.

"Iron Man" and "Iron Man 2" were directed by Jon Favreau and were instant hits. Pearce says they were careful about not ruining the reputation of the franchise.

"Well, the first thing to keep in mind was 'let's not make this rubbish'! Honestly, we came into this with the mandate from Marvel to take Tony Stark to the places he'd never been before, both emotionally and physically, and that was the task that Shane Black and I tried to live up to. There aren't many great threequels - our mission was to make a movie at least as good as the others in the series, and hopefully... even better," he said.

"Iron Man 3", which also features Guy Pearce, Ben Kingsley, Don Cheadle and Rebecca Hall, among others, is set to release April 26.

(Yashika Mathur can be contacted at yashika.m@ians.in)