Iron Man 1-3 Mash-Up Fan Edit (* unfinished project *)

Hey all,

Long time visitor, recent member, and rare poster here.  I’ve never attempted an entire fan edit, but I often find myself tinkering with scenes of my favorite films (and sometimes least favorite) for personal gratification.  With the release of Iron Man 3 this year, I’ve had the idea to create a mash-up of all three movies.  My main goal for this project is to create a single standalone Iron Man story that really strengthens the connection between the events of IM1 and IM3.  I don’t foresee much, if any, cosmetic work.  And as my first real full length edit, I think limiting the degree of work to mostly editing, will help me keep my wits about me.

I will be removing all direct connections to the Marvel Cinematic Universe.  On a related note, I plan on cutting out most of IM2; using only scenes that might strengthen the narrative between 1 and 3.  The inevitable problem here is that I will unfortunately create slight inconsistencies such as Tony’s switch to a new arc reactor, amongst others.  Another blatant inconsistency will be the change from Terrance Howard to Don Cheadle as Rhodey.  I will do my best though, to minimize the inconsistencies, provided they don’t break my biggest rule of keeping this independent of the MCU.

Ultimately, I would like to see the Mandarin & Aldrich Killian’s schemes connect more directly to Tony’s initial Ten Rings kidnapping.  I have been endlessly skimming through the movies over the past few days, and although it will be tough, I think it can be done.

The last thing I want to address, I will refer to as THE BIG QUESTION:  Can the Mandarin twist be removed effectively?  No doubt this will be an enormous challenge to overcome, but I do have an idea.  If some of the Mandarin scenes can be effectively connected (and relocated) closer to the Ten Rings fiasco of IM1, then I might be able to make him an enemy that simply escapes the film without resolution.  If, at the end of the day, this change doesn’t seem to work well, I have no problem leaving it the way it is.  I will however do everything I can to make it feel like less of a cop out.

I would love to hear any of your thoughts on this project, and any issues you think I may run into.  I’ll do my best to keep things updated even if the thread falls into obscurity.  Thanks for any/all of your input!

~Humby

EDIT:  So one of the reasons I wanted to remove the MCU references was because many of them seemed contrived and out of place in IM2.  I have been thinking though, that I want to somehow incorporate Tony’s reactor poisoning and his creation of the new reactor.  Not to mention I LOVE the Howard Stark scenes.  If I want to use this material though, it might be necessary for me to use the Nick Fury footage.  If I can do so without ruining the flow, I may renege on my no MCU rule.  This would certainly add to the run time, but right now I’m aiming for a total of 3.5 hours.  Long for a movie, but the more I start moving things around the more confident I feel that I can construct an enjoyable narrative.

I’ll try and post some videos within the next week.

I was only half paying attention but I think I remember seeing a deleted scene or two from IM3 of Kingsley's Mandarin in character with nobody else around. That might be useful, if i'm not just imagining it..

It might also be worth checking through other Marvel stuff ie: The avengers just in case there is stuff that you could re-purpose.

So despite the clear lack of interest here, I am still working on this project haha.  I just started new job and I've been a little distracted recently, but I get a couple hours of work in every week.

I'm reconsidering releasing any sort of clip or trailer, because there isn't really a short enough clip that emphasizes the point of this edit.  It would come off too simply as two clips from two movies juxtaposed right next to each other.  But we'll see.  And a trailer would just slow down work on the final project anyways, so I've kinda ruled that out.

There is however going to be a "Marvel one-shot" released sometime in the next few months that supposedly will feature Ben Kingsley in some form or another.  Some people claim it will be about the Trevor character, others think it will dismiss Trevor as a look alike and introduce the real Ben Kingsley Mandarin.  Either way, I want to wait until this is released before I finish my edit, as it may provide me with some good footage to use.

Oh, and Happy Belated New Years, OT-ers!

So the Trevor Slattery One Shot "All Hail the King" has been released.

*SPOILER*
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It follows what we are led to believe as a documentary maker, who is chronicling Trevor's masquerade as the Mandarin, and the real history of the Ten Rings in the MCU.  It is quickly revealed that the Mandarin was once a real historical figure, likely supernatural, due to the fact that he is still alive.
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*END SPOILER*

Luckily this One-Shot doesn't effect too much of the narrative, so what I've done so far doesn't need any fixing.  This short will be tightened up, lots of it cut out, and what remains will be worked into the end of the edit.

I'm still debating how much of Iron Man 2 and the MCU references will be in this edit, but I can confidently say that I have figured out a way that makes the Mandarin plot run better throughout the whole edit.  Cheers! 

Hi. 

Quite funny...only this weekend I was thinking of doing the exact same project you're up to. I got as far as having an idea of seauging the bit where Tony admits he's Iron Man to the press with the big charity gala he attends in armor at the start of Two. I'm excited about your approach with the Mandarin as a real entity rather than as an actor, I havent seen the recent one-shot yet, but I look forward to how it's used.

I wouldnt be too fussed about the perceived 'lack of interest', more often than not some people need to be shown the intent of your project in order to properly gauge an opinion. I'm sure when you start posting clips you'll get more traction in here.

It'd also help if you could establish a timeline for your edit listing the changes

I am interested.

If you turn Trevor Slattery into the Mandarin...you might hit a wall later if/when Marvel reveals the actual Mandarin.

I actually liked what they did with IM3 but I guess it was a bit much for some people.

will you be keeping Terrence Howard AND Don Cheadle?

ZariusTwo said:

I got as far as having an idea of seauging the bit where Tony admits he's Iron Man to the press with the big charity gala he attends in armor at the start of Two. I'm excited about your approach with the Mandarin as a real entity rather than as an actor, I havent seen the recent one-shot yet, but I look forward to how it's used.

That's actually a great idea, but in all honesty, I loathe the party scene.  It's funny, but it's so over the top that it takes me out of the movie.  But I'll keep it in mind if I can't get my idea to work.  I actually think I've figured out a way to make it seem as though Tony gives Rhodey the suit, which works, because Tony's mindset and illness.  And this would help me cut out the party scene.

Regarding the Mandarin, I'm still torn, but luckily I have some time to figure it out.  I'm editing under the mindset that he is the real deal.  And if I can figure out a way to keep it like that, then great.  If I can't, then he will remain an actor, and I will just edit the reveal to be a little less silly.  And I will somehow insert parts of the one shot, to at least remind the audience that the Ten Rings are real, and there is a real Mandarin out there somewhere.

ZariusTwo said:

It'd also help if you could establish a timeline for your edit listing the changes

Well to be honest, I'm kind of figuring out the timeline as I go.  I admit that that's probably the wrong way to go about things, but for some reason everytime I try to sit and map things out, I get anxious and just jump back into editing as I go. 

And I didn't think I was going to be able to effectively post clips that represent the film as whole, but maybe I'll try and release one in the next week or so, just to garner some interest.  I can probably show how I've edited some of the Mandarin scenes into IM1.

Johnny Ringo said:

I am interested.

If you turn Trevor Slattery into the Mandarin...you might hit a wall later if/when Marvel reveals the actual Mandarin.

I actually liked what they did with IM3 but I guess it was a bit much for some people.

The more and more I look at it, I think it's likely that I will leave him as an actor, and just cut out some of the more slapstick humor of the reveal.  And don't get me wrong, I loved IM3.  I just enjoy tinkering even more, to test my editing ability, I guess.

Johnny Ringo said:

will you be keeping Terrence Howard AND Don Cheadle?

For the time being, yes.  I'm having trouble finding a way around it, but I am constantly keeping my eye open for a fix.  Obviously if one of them has to go, it's Howard.  But the events around Tony's kidnapping in IM1 are so Rhodey-heavy, that I'm still unsure.  I'm editing under the assumption that there is no fix, but if I find one, I can always retrofit my previous work.

I'd love to see Howard cut just for consistency sake. -maybe Cheadle footage from elsewhere could work? His character on House of Lies spends a lot of time on the phone which might work...but also spends a lot of time swearing which wouldvbe out of character for Rhodey.

Are you keeping Jeff Bridges as an antagonist?

If you can imply that Tony gave the suit to Rhodes then go with it. It never sat right with me the way he took it, and the party scene in general was pretty weak.

in terms of timeline - just go with what is interesting. IM1 jumped around a bit and deleted scenes show that Avengers was going to start by showing the aftermath of the battle.

That's a great idea regarding House of Cards, I've been meaning to watch that and haven't gotten around to it.  Even if I can't find any scenes to use, at least now I have an excuse to catch up on it haha.  Ideally though, I would love to cut out Howard (although I actually prefer his version of the character).

Jeff Bridges, so far, remains.  Although I'm striving to turn him into more of a secondary antagonist:  A distraction from the overarching Ten Rings/Mandarin plot.  Some of his scenes will be cut for the sake of brevity, for instance, he will less involved in Tony's personal life.

Here's my idea regarding Rhodey getting the suit:  There is a scene in IM2 where he confronts Tony about not having to "do this whole gunslinger act on [his] own."  I will cut the remainder of the scene, fade to black, and follow that scene with Rhodey arriving at the Air Force base in the Mark 2.  Since most of main Iron Man 2 plot will be excised, we can skip all of the animosity that occurs between the two later.

Hi there Humby, did you get a version finished?

Did you complete your edit? I am interested and would like to see it also.