The film Robert Downey Jr refused to make unless Mel Gibson directed it: “That movie would be bananas”
Ever since they first crossed paths, Robert Downey Jr and Mel Gibson have remained close friends, and it would be an understatement to say that both of the Academy Award winners have endured their share of personal and professional ups and downs since then.
When they worked together on the 1990 action comedy Air America, Gibson was one of the biggest stars in Hollywood, and Downey Jr was still trying to establish himself after several minor hits and more than one false start, most notably his disastrously short-lived tenure as a Saturday Night Live cast member.
By the end of the decade, Gibson was an A-list superstar as both a performer and a filmmaker, whereas Downey Jr had fallen on hard times after his well-publicised personal problems threatened to destroy everything he’d worked so hard to build. Of course, the latter eventually reinvented himself as the hottest commodity in the business, which couldn’t have happened without the former’s help.
When Downey Jr was at his lowest ebb and couldn’t get insured to play any kind of notable part in a major production, Gibson paid for the insurance bond out of his own pocket so he could headline the cast of The Singing Detective, which was his first leading role in a movie for years.
With his foot back in the door, Downey moved onto the dismal supernatural thriller Gothika, which inadvertently toppled the first domino on his road to salvation. At around the same time, Gibson torpedoed his own position in the industry during his infamous arrest, where he let rip with a tirade of shocking verbal abuse.
They’ve always had each other’s backs, and they’ve both got extensive first-hand experience of how quickly a career can rise and fall, but they’ve yet to put their heads together and reunite for another project since 2003. However, after he rounded out his superhero trilogy with Shane Black’s Iron Man 3, Downey Jr suggested Gibson was the only person who could convince him to return for a fourth.
There were still six years between Downey Jr’s last solo film for Marvel Studios and his eventual departure in Avengers: Endgame, and he didn’t seem too fussed by that. That said, when it was suggested that the only way a hypothetical Iron Man 4 would happen was with Gibson behind the camera, the franchise’s flagship star answered with a concrete, “Correct.”
Downey wouldn’t elaborate, although he did offer “that movie would be bananas,” which probably isn’t too wide of the mark. After all, Gibson has the Oscars and accolades to prove that he’s a gifted filmmaker, and the prospect of the staunchly family-friendly Disney drafting in someone with his track record to take the reins on one of its prized assets would certainly get people talking.
Of course, it never amounted to much more than spitballing on Downey Jr’s part, even if Gibson did admit, “I think I can do it” when word of his first detour into mainstream blockbuster territory as a director reached his ears.
