‘Iron Man' inspired by Howard Hughes

The "Iron Man" film, starring Robert Downey Jr., was a huge box-office and critical success earlier this year, yet a lot of moviegoers probably didn't realize that the Marvel comic book series on which the movie was based was inspired by none other than Howard Hughes.

Stan Lee, creator of "Iron Man," said he was thinking of Hughes when he invented the character Tony Stark in the early 1960s. "I kind of had Howard Hughes in mind when I was thinking of Tony Stark," Lee says in the DVD extras to the film. "Without being crazy, he was kind of Howard Hughes and he became very popular."

Director Jon Favreau, reportedly a Hughes fan, added another connection: Portions of the movie were filmed in the Southern California hangar where Hughes built Hercules, aka the Spruce Goose.