Robert Downey Jr has been talking about his surprising choice to play Iron Man in Jon Favreau's upcoming film of the comic superhero.

He talks a little about the suit and the requirements for motion capture, and to be quite honest he doesn't really give that much enthusiasm for the whole motion capture full CGI piece, much as you would expect a very strong character actor to feel.

"The suit for 'Iron Man' is so complex and does so much stuff that except for once or twice or from the chest up, I'm not required to do all that much...I said I want to do all the motion capture work, which is like eight months after finishing shooting, but as much as it as I can do, I will."

I quite agree with him, but although he sounds like he doesn't really feel for much of it, I do think that an actor can give a lot to a CGI characters performance, much more than just a body double or straight CGI could. You just have to look at Gollum, King Kong or Abe Sapien for examples.

Over at Coming Soon, he also reveals that he really wanted to play Sgt. Rock from Hogan's Heroes, but he just wasn't the build for it, he's a much better fit for Tony Stark...

Tony's a perfect fit for me, and if I was ever going to do this type of thing, I thought, you know, like early '40's. Great, because when you hang up your 'macho hat' and start directing or doing other stuff, it's not an embarrassment to be doing this in your late '40s still if we wind up doing three of them.

Well you have to admire Downey. Just look at where his career and life have taken him and the wider diversity of films, he's even played Charlie Chaplin, and now he's going to play a superhero. Or if you will more of a reality based superhero.

I'm pretty excited for this film, regardless of the genre and the history of bringing comic books and characters to the screen. I think this one will work well. He's a real man, grounded, with huge human flaws. Plus it's Downey and Terrence Howard. What could go wrong?