Nikki Finke’s Deadline Hollywood Daily has a hysterical piece of gossip about former New Line topper Bob Shaye’s relationship with the IRON MAN film. According to the post:
Years ago, New Line had an option on the property, but the film never got out of the planning stage because Shaye insisted that Iron Man should not fly (regardless of the fact that this was an established part of the comic book). The option lapsed, and Marvel Studios CEO Avi Arad self-financed the blockbuster movie that came out this summer.
The story does not end there, however. Shaye was so convinced that a flying IRON MAN would bomb that he tried to short sell some Marvel stock. Short selling is a process whereby you borrow and sell stock at the current price but don’t actually pay for it until later; the strategy is to sell at the current high price on the assumption that the price you pay later will be much lower.
Of course, IRON MAN became a big hit, and Marvel stock went up. Instead of cutting his loses, Shaye hung in, hoping that THE INCREDIBLE HULK would drag the stock back down. Instead, INCREDIBLE HULK became another hit.
Is all this true? The post is thinly sourced (it is supposedly a story that Shaye himself told to some “close pals”). We pass it on to you for your consideration.