Hollywood has a lot of new digital 3D projects on deck, most notably James Cameron's highly-anticipated film, Avatar. While films like Avatar are being shot in digital 3D from the start, older films are also entering the third dimension - case in point being Disney's upcoming Toy Story/Toy Story 2 double feature, which will be showing in limited engagement this Fall.

Well, AICN is exclusively reporting that Iron Man 2 has landed somewhere in the middle ground of old/new 3D: a new movie shot with regular film that is being considered for 3D conversion before its release.

Oh, and did I mention that Iron Man 1 might be getting the 3D treatment as well?

So before we get into the details of Iron Man 2 possibly being converted to 3D, we need to rewind the clocks a bit, back to almost exactly a year ago, when we first reported that Iron Man 2 might be filmed in 3D/Imax. Our own Vic Holtreman (a serious Iron Man fanboy) was pretty psyched about the notion...which unfortunately didn't pan out by the time IM2 started its principal shoot.

Reasons for Favreau foregoing the 3D/IMAX approach reportedly included the fact that his cinematographer, Matthew Libatique, prefers to shoot on film (modern 3D uses digital filming techniques) and the fact that the process would add too much expense to the budget. Rather than try an force the issue, Favreau opted to look ahead, planning for Iron Man 3 to get the 3D/IMAX treatment.

Jump back to the here and now, and AICN is reporting that Marvel and Paramount (and now Disney?) are going bananas over a one-minute demo clip of Iron Man 2 that has been converted into 3D. The clip was apparently so impressive that the studio has allegedly reached out to three different companies specializing in 3D conversion, to see if it isn't worth their time and money to convert all of IM2 into a 3D format. AICN's same source on this is also reporting that the studio is simultaneously mulling over whether or not to convert the original Iron Man into 3D as well, to serve as a 3D theatrical pre-release/promo for Iron Man 2 in 3D.

Personally, I think getting BOTH Iron Man films in 3D would be awesome, and I know that Vic would probably curse my name forever if I were to say anything less. But why would I? This WOULD be pretty awesome - especially if they offered moviegoers the one-two punch of heading back to the theater to enjoy Iron Man all over again, followed closely by the sublime experience of Iron Man 2 in 3D. I would happily shell-out (get it?) for that experience, and I'm pretty certain a lot of you would, too.

And if the returns are good (pretty bloody likely) and Iron Man 3 is shot from the get-go in 3D / IMAX, you Blu-ray fans would end up with an "Ultimate Collector's Edition" Iron Man Trilogy that you could enjoy in HD 3D from start to finish. Imagine THAT movie marathon on a rainy weekend afternoon...

Iron Man & Iron Man 2

As AICN also points out: if Marvel sees big returns from this venture, will we see forthcoming films like Captain America and Thor in 3D as well? Because seeing Cap jump from a plane over a hellish WWII battlefield or Thor raining down thunder in 3D would make for a pretty epic experience. Here's hoping it all comes to pass.

What about you: would you like to see your Iron Man films get the 3D treatment?

Iron Man 2 hits theaters on May 7, 2010. We'll keep you updated on when/if you can catch Iron Man re-released in digital 3D.

Source: Ain't It Cool News