 Screenplay drafts were written by Alfred Gough, Miles Millar, and David Hayter, and pitted Iron Man against his father Howard Stark, who becomes War Machine.After two years of unsuccessful development, the deal with Cassavetes fell through, and New Line Cinema returned the film rights to Marvel.In November 2005, Marvel Studios worked to start development from scratch, and announced "Iron Man" as their first independent feature, because the character was their only major one not already depicted in live action.