‘Iron Man 3’ was originally 3 hours and 15 minutes long — and might have included a sex tape subplot

The first cut of a movie is usually much longer than the version that audiences end up seeing. Shooting more material than is ultimately needed is pretty standard practice in Hollywood these days; it not only gives filmmakers more leeway and freedom in the editing room, but it also gives fans some nice bonus material for the Blu-ray.

This weekend’s box office champ “Iron Man 3” was once a much different movie. From script to final edit, the superhero blockbuster went through a number of major changes during its development and production – changes related to the film’s length, plot points, and language.

Warning: Plot details of 'Iron Man 3' to follow.

Speaking with Empire, “Iron Man 3” director and co-writer Shane Black and co-writer Drew Pearce revealed that the original cut of the superhero movie was over three hours long! This three-hours-and-15-minute version of the movie apparently featured an extended car chase scene, as well as several extra villains (Mallen and Simon Krieger) for Tony Stark and friends to deal with. While 75 of those minutes were ultimately cut from the film, at least some of that material is bound to surface as bonus material eventually. However, most deleted scenes usually show that they were cut for a reason – either because they don’t work or don’t add anything to the film.

See also: 'Iron Man 3' post-credits scene breakdown

According to Black and Pearce, the script for “Iron Man 3” also went through some hefty rewrites before filming started. The earliest versions of the screenplay were even a little bawdy, featuring a sex tape subplot involving Gwyneth Paltrow's Pepper Potts and Guy Pearce's genetically enhanced Aldrich Killian.

"In the second draft, Pepper slept with Killian because he was so pheromonally enhanced with Extremis that she couldn't resist him," the director said. "She was angry at Tony. Then he makes a sex tape and broadcasts it in Home Depot!"

Co-writer Pearce joked that the sex tape angle was "audacious" even for them.

See also: What Don Cheadle would like to see from the Iron Patriot

Pearce also revealed that the original script had a few more expletives than most Marvel movies usually contain.

“There were a couple of points early on where I would go, ‘I don’t think we can say that.’ Pearce recalled of the scripting process. “And [Shane] genuinely didn’t believe me when I told [him] we couldn’t say f--- in a PG-13 movie. ‘We’re allowed a couple of f---s, right?’”

All that sex and language shouldn’t really have been a surprise, given Black’s previous work on movies like “Lethal Weapon” and “Kiss Kiss Bang Bang,” but it was probably a bit of a hard sell to Marvel Studios’ mother company Walt Disney.

Still, we can’t be the only ones curious to see what a curse-filled Iron Man movie featuring a superpowered sex tape would be like.