That would bring it full circle from when the first Raimi spider-Man chickened out, and edited out a WTC scene, because 9/11 was fresh.
Spider-Drone, Spider-Drone, Spidey flies it With his smartphone, Flies around In the skies, Mary Jane's cleavage spies! Look up! There goes a Spider-Drone...
Btw, isn't Robert Downey Jr. the most expensive actor in the set? Why would they give him an extra appearance?
I'm sure the contract he negotiated a few years back calls for a few of these "extended cameos" in exchange for a freakishly large amount of money.
That and this is coming off of Sony's failure, so just to make sure, they put RDJ to cover all bases.
The true test will be if this film does better at the box office than the prior two. I'm sure Marvel's in a much better position to keep using the character if that happens. And, though we might call Sony's Amazing Spider-Man films failures, they had worldwide takes of $758 million and $709 million, which ain't bad (though a bit below what the Sam Raimi/Tobey Maguire films did).
Actually, given that this is a Sony picture, it might not have been in RDJ's contract. I think he negotiated it before Sony got pwn3d by Lil' Lil' Kim. However, RDJ reportedly got $40 million, plus a cut of the profits for Civil War. Assuming the filming for the movie lasted 100 days, and RDJ was there for 40 days, he got $1 million a day, plus a percentage of the profits (and a bonus if the film did above X amount at the box office). Presumably, he's got a smaller amount of screen time in this, let's say he's only got 10 days worth of filming, they could cut him a check for $15 million, plus a percentage of the profits, and it'd still come out to the kind of pay day he had for CW. Or, they could offer him a larger percentage of the profits, with a smaller upfront paycheck, and could come out better than he did for CW, with far less work on his part. There's other things that Marvel could do, like bigger royalties for Tony Stark merch, or giving him that role as compensation for him not getting as large a role as he might wanted in some other Marvel franchise movie.
You may be right. Don't know how the deal works, but since RDJ is appearing as Tony Stark/Iron Man, clearly this could only come about with Marvel's permission. The question is how much is Marvel driving the Sony films creatively? There has to be significant input (if not control) by Marvel here, because the new movie has to fit within the confines of the past, present, and future MCU.
Good question. One thing I can say was certainly in RDJ's contract, now that I think about it, is that he'd be prohibited from appearing in any Marvel film produced by either Sony, Fox, (or anybody besides Disney), even if his character wasn't called "Tony Stark" or "Iron Man," without their permission. There was debate about how much input Marvel had in Fox's FF debacle. It may be that Fox didn't pay attention to Marvel, and this is Marvel's way of getting back at Fox. If they went to Sony and said, "Look, you give us real creative control, and we'll let you use RDJ in the film," Sony probably would have jumped at the deal, since RDJ is pretty much a guaranteed payday for them. Even if the movie's garbage, hordes of people will go see it, just because they're fans of RDJ as Iron Man. It bombs at the box office, or with critics, Sony can lay the blame at Marvel's feet. It hits big, and Marvel can look at Fox and go "Jingly keys, muthafuckas! Give us more control over the films, and we'll let you have RDJ for them."
What I've heard is that Marvel largely has creative control, but Sony gets to meticulously approve and give notes on everything from script to final footage. Same for any scenes in a Marvel/Disney film involving Spidey. It's like The Defiant having to have the Romulan onboard approving usage of the cloak.
Aaaaaand Sony might be even bigger idiots than we thought. Or, to put it another way: Because what she's saying doesn't make any sense.