Checking back in with next summer’s most anticipated movie, Iron Man 2, we have some new updates about War Machine, the armored battle suit worn by Jim “Rhodey” Rhodes, who will be played by Don Cheadle in the sequel, taking over the role from Iron Man’s Terrence Howard.

The first update comes from Cheadle himself, talking about his performance as Rhodey/War Machine armor and hinting at how much screen time the actual armor will get. The second update comes our way via Sam Rockwell, who stars as Iron Man 2’s evil mastermind industrialist Justin Hammer, the man who (we now know) will be responsible for creating the War Machine armor and sticking Rhodey in the cockpit.

Both of these updates come our way via MTV Splash Page, who have been diligent about keeping up on all things Iron Man 2.

Over the last several months, we’ve heard many industry folk chime in the Marvel Studio’s plan of bringing together their superstar superheroes into one shared project, the most ambitious project in comic book movie history: The Avengers.

From Matthew Vaughn (the original director attached to Thor) admitting his desire to helm The Avengers, Incredible Hulk director Louis Leterrier’s idea of a four-part series of Avengers films to writer Zak Penn’s fear that the epic team-up project is so complicated that it may “suck.” There’s been plenty of talk from the folks behind the cameras about Marvel’s on-screen future, but what about the characters?

One question for the filmmakers has been to figure out how Jon Favreau’s tech-based Iron Man can work together with the mystical Asgardian God of Thunder, Thor? It’s easy in the comic books, but how will they adapt it into live-action and have it make sense? Marvel comic writer Brian Michael Bendis knows it can work – check out his thoughts on The Avengers after the jump.

Is there anybody that doesn’t know or respect Stan “The Man” Lee, the official godfather of comics? The octogenarian artist is responsible to bringing many of the comic superheroes that readers have come to love and that movie audiences are now becoming familiar with as well. One of the fun points in the each of the Marvel films is a “Where’s Waldo?” style game that is played with Stan Lee standing in for Waldo.

Starting way back in 2000 with X-Men, he’s appeared in majority of the Marvel Comics-based movies. The one he was most notably missing from is this summer’s blockbuster (financially) X-Men Origins: Wolverine. Steve at Collider had a great interview with him at Scream Fest, where Stan explains that he likes doing the cameos but that they weren’t his idea and doesn’t do them if he has to travel far. Since Wolverine was filmed in Australia, that would explain his absence.

In the upcoming Iron Man sequel, Lee says director Jon Favreau called him up and said “put on these thick black glasses and these suspenders; you’re playing Larry King.” Watch the entire interview after the jump.

“When I was a child I spoke as a child I understood as a child I thought as a child; but when I became a man I put away childish things.” I Corinthians 13:11 – Paul

I would like to think that Paul, the author from the Bible who many think wrote the above quote, would have modified the end of that sentence to read, “…unless it’s a comic book movie toy, especially from Iron Man 2, because those are awesome!” Readers and followers of movie news find some of the most interesting things about upcoming films through their toys and other marketing aimed at children.

The folks over at Geek Tyrant dug up a wonderful seven minute behind-the-scenes look at Iron Man 2. The video, which comes from the French movie channel Canal Plus includes enough behind-the-scenes tidbits to calm even the most rabid of Iron Man fans (for 7 minutes, at least).

Now, I know you’re thinking that because this video is from France that it’ll be in another language and you’ll just have to watch it and pretend to understand what they’re saying. No need to worry as the language in this video and how I like my salads have a lot in common: Not very much French.

MTV News recently spoke to Iron Man 2 director Jon Favreau about his involvement in the super sequel and where he fits in the larger scheme of Marvel movies.

In that interview (which we have for you below), Favreau dropped a bomb on the collective heads of fanboys everywhere: he will NOT be directing Marvel’s 2012 superhero team-up event, The Avengers! In addition to that bit of Donald-Downer info, Favreau also threw another jab of bad news: We shouldn’t get our hopes up about seeing a cameo from The Hulk in Iron Man 2.

Entertainment Tonight has posted a few more videos from their Iron Man 2 set visit. If you didn’t see the first video, it offered a behind-the-scenes look at the race track scene where Mickey Rourke’s Whiplash ambushes our hero Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.), and even dropped some hints (or SPOILERS, depending on how nitpicky you are) about the details of Iron Man’s newest suit.

So what do these new videos offer? Well, the first one is pretty much a love note to Mickey Rourke from the rest of the Iron Man 2 cast, while the second video features Black Widow herself, Scarlett Johansson, describing what it’s like to be a hot superheroine in the fanboys club.

Game Revolution posted an early preview for the upcoming Iron Man 2 video game tie-in, which is trying to distance itself from the awful Iron Man 1 tie-in game. The Iron Man 2 game will supposedly act as a companion piece with the movie, rather than a re-hashed playthrough of the film’s story.

In their report, the developers would only discuss and confirm one villain from the game: The Crimson Dynamo.

What’s so special about that? Well, when news of Mickey Rourke’s possible involvement with Iron Man 2 first starting spreading, there was a lot of talk and speculation that he would be playing a Russian villain, whose description seemingly pointed towards The Crimson Dynamo as Iron Man’s next dance partner.

Edward Norton sure knows how to keep fans guessing and anticipating. Now he’s saying his involvement in The Avengers just boils down to scheduling…

Ever since Mr. Norton played the part of Bruce Banner in The Incredible Hulk,  a film that featured and marketed a cameo by Robert Downey Jr. as Tony Stark, fans have been eagerly anticipating the moment when they will share screen time together as part of The Avengers team.

Rumors surfaced at the beginning of August that both Norton’s Bruce Banner and his large green counterpart, Hulk, would appear in a cameo role in Iron Man 2, repaying the favor for RDJ doing the same in his solo affair.

The most anticipated movie of 2010 is, without a doubt, Iron Man 2. Come May of next year, James Cameron’s Avatar will be a distant memory and the only thing fans boys and girls want to see is Iron Man(Robert Downey Jr), Whiplash (Mickey Rourke), War Machine (Don Cheadle) and the Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson).

Last night Entertainment Tonight aired a six minute segment that included new behind the scenes footage from the set of Iron Man 2 which included some spectacular crash scenes, a little more information on the Tony Stark/Pepper Potts/Natasha Romanoff love triangle and a never before scene of Whiplash cutting a car in half.

Edward Norton spoke exclusively with MTV at the Toronto International Film Festival where the actor is promoting his film, Leaves of Grass, and without surprise the topic of Hulk came up yet again.

The last we heard from Norton was a few days ago when he Hulk-Smashed the Iron Man 2 rumors about him appearing in the film in a cameo role to much disappointment of fans. Now he’s back on the positive band-wagon discussing the role of Hulk in The Avengers and what that may entail…

Will he appear in The Avengers? Will Hulk be a villain or hero? Read on for the details…

People magazine is reporting that the premiere of Iron Man 2 next year will be particularly memorable for two lucky fans – two premiere tickets are being auctioned off by star Scarlett Johannson, in aid of Oxfam.

Along with the two Iron Man 2 premiere tickets, the winning bidder of the charity auction will also get a meet-and-greet with Johannson, herself an Ambassador of Oxfam. The auction begins tonight on, September 17th, at 10:00pm EST on Ebay.com/Oxfam, and will run for a week, until Thursday, September 24th. 100% of the proceeds from the auction will go to Oxfam America, an organization long dedicated to finding lasting solutions to poverty, hunger, and social injustice around the world.

At the beginning of August, rumors surfaced about Ed Norton that said he might be making one wish of many Marvel fans come true in having an appearance in Iron Man 2 as Bruce Banner and possibly The Hulk.

This would have confirmed Norton’s involvement in Marvel’s upcoming slate of films and Hulk’s position on the roster of heroes in The Avengers.

Unfortunately, Norton doesn’t seem to know much about that nor does he have that much to say about it…

One of the only reasons I still go to YouTube is to watch videos from ItsJustSomeRandomGuy, the mastermind behind the “I’m a Marvel…and I’m a DC” web series where he uses DC, Marvel and other action figures to touch on current happenings in the comics/movie/tv universe and poke fun at the characters through well-written all-audience parodies.

With that said, of course there had to be a parody made on the Disney-Marvel merger… and of course it had to something special. So what did he do? He made a musical!

The recent Disney/Marvel partnership is still sending ripples out across the blogosphere. How will it affect the current state of comics? What impact will it have on Marvel Studios’ production schedule? So much was already happening at Marvel Studios with their epic slate of upcoming films, now they’ll be capable of exploring new territories as we (hopefully) get to see an expansion of their production capacity thanks to Disney’s vastly superior resources.

In light of the major news surrounding Disney and Marvel, we have for you some pictures of new characters born out of the merger between the two media juggernauts as well as some words about the corporate happenings from Stan Lee, the genius creator behind so many of the comics and characters we know and love today.

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?

Today has been a big day for Marvel.

If you haven’t already heard, Marvel was acquired by Disney this morning in a massive $4 Billion agreement.

Looking at this optimistically, what that may simply mean for Marvel Studios, is more financial support and marketing resources to (hopefully) push into development more feature film projects. Perhaps, this could even fast-track some projects that are being considered for years down the road… perhaps a sequel to The Incredible Hulk?

To quote the late Queen of Blues, Dinah Washington, “What a Difference a Day Makes.” Just recently all anyone was talking about in the movie industry was whether The Final Destination was in indeed final and if Rob Zombie was done butchering horror films (to answer that last question, NO, he’s trying to tackle The Blob next – and I’m not referring to my first girlfriend from high school). But here we are, just a scant twenty-four hours later and the biggest fish in the marketing sea has just eaten the biggest fish in the comic book sea.

Of course, I’m talking about the news that Walt Disney Co. acquired Marvel Comics, Inc. for the meager sum of $4 billion dollars. It’s a great deal of money, and I don’t care what the nay-sayers out there gripe about, if I owned a prospering business and a mega-company offered to buy me out for an exuberant amount of money, I’d sell too. Heck, I’d go buy a special pen just to sign the papers! Anyone who says otherwise just isn’t being honest with themselves.

OK, so just a few minutes ago Twitter literally exploded with news of a major financial announcement: according to The Associated Press, The Walt Disney Co. will acquire Marvel Entertainment Inc., for $4 billion in cash and stock.

Woah! If you ever wondered how much the Marvel Universe is worth, I think you just found out.

We recently got a look at what (we think) Mickey Rourke’s finished Whiplash armor (above) will look like in Iron Man 2; now we have Rourke’s own stunt double describing what Whiplash’s weaponry – his energy whips – are like and how much havoc they actually wreak in the film.

Garrett Warren was recently crowned the 2009 Stunt Choreographer of the Year at the Hamilton Behind the Camera Awards, and he sat down for an exclusive interview with Movieline to describe what it’s like working on films like Tintin, Alice In Wonderland, James Cameron’s Avatar, and yes, getting crazy with those whips on the set of Iron Man 2.

Everything is looking on the up and up for Jon Favreau’s Iron Man 2 and today we have a round-up of news items which feature two of the actors hyping up the film even more and a brand new image for the movie.

Don Cheadle, the new man behind Col. James “Rhodey” Rhodes in the Iron Man franchise spoke with MTV about working with Jon Favreau on set and what their goals were this time around.

Due to her involvement in the upcoming sequel to Iron Man, Scarlett Johansson has been through an interesting ride up to this point, and we’re still nine months away from the movie’s release.

It all started with some negative reaction at her being cast into the role of the red-haired, slim-fit Russian spy, but after some pictures surfaced of her sporting a new look and reports of her working out for the role, heads were starting to turn in the right direction. Then the first images of her in costume made their way online and they were also received in a positive light helping solidify director Jon Favreau’s decision to give her the role.

Like all of the other contracts we’ve seen actors sign for with Marvel Studios, Scarlett has a multi-picture deal that could bring her and her Russian alter ego back for a couple more movies if Iron Man 2 does well and her character is liked by the fans.

Jon Favreau loves to take chances when it comes to the Iron Man movies. First he cast a forty-something Robert Downey Jr as Tony Stark (brilliant!) and now for Iron Man 2 he’s decided to highlight what even fans of the long-running comic book would call a cheesy, second-tier villain: Whiplash.

Basically Whiplash is an ex-con who figures out how to build a suit that uses electrically-charged whips as a weapon. And yes, at one point in the comics he did look like he was into bondage with a black leather costume replete with a zippered mouth.

After director Jon Favreau and his team behind Iron Man 2 showcased exclusive footage to a packed house of eager fans (including our own Vic Holtreman, Screen Rant’s Owner and Editor-In-Chief), attendees were treated to shots of Tony Stark/Iron Man (Robert Downey, Jr.), Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson), Whiplash (Mickey Rourke), Lt. Col. James “Rhodey” Rhodes (Don Cheadle), Justin Hammer (Sam Rockwell), and of course, the War Machine armor.

Louis Leterrier, the director behind last year’s The Incredible Hulk, made a lot of headlines in and around the time of its release by hinting at a Captain America cameo in the film as an “easter egg” that never really met our expectations. Now he’s at it again, this time talking about the major upcoming Marvel films, what he knows about them, what he’d like to work on, and what he’d like to do with The Avengers, given the chance.

In a Clash of the Titans set interview, LA Times journalist, Geoff Boucher, sat down with Letterier who wasn’t shy about revealing some of his ideas and thoughts on the upcoming slate of films in development at Marvel Studios. We’ve taken the best bits to discuss and share with you, and then we share what we think could be done with the eagerly anticipated Marvel team-up adventure.

About a year ago we told you that Marvel was extending its brand name to the Far East, partnering with Japanimation studio Madhouse to produce four anime films to be released in 2010. At the time there was no official word on which Marvel characters would be getting the ‘animakeover,’ though Iron Man, Spider-Man and The Hulk were early guesstimates.

Well, flash-forward a year later and we finally have a first look at two out of the four Marvel/Madhouse films on the way. The first characters to receive their animakeover? (Surprise, surprise) It’s Wolverine and Iron Man. Check out the teaser trailers:

The top three most talked about movies at Comic-Con were Iron Man 2, Avatar and District 9. In fact, Screen Rant Editor Vic Holtreman wrote an article yesterday talking about the results of a poll we ran on the site to determine which movie people were looking forward to the most from what was shown at Comic-Con. It was no surprise to see Iron Man 2 at the top of the list.

At San Diego Comic-Con two years ago, Jon Favreau brought some ridiculously cool footage of the first Iron Man and blew everyone out of their seats with it. This began the road to success for that film and the franchise. The hope was that he would do the same this year and from what Vic reported on during the Con, he succeeded in that goal (read: Exceeding Fan Expectations).

The other day, Screen Rant covered some updates on the future films in planning at Marvel Studios. This news touched on the future of Ed Norton’s Incredible Hulk, the Avengers movie and more. Today we have a bit of an update on that front for you.

NukeTheFridge is exclusively reporting that Ed Norton is set to have a cameo as both Bruce Banner and Hulk in Iron Man 2. Apparently, they have an inside source feeding them this bit of info, the same source that found out for them a while ago about Stan Lee’s cameo appearance as Larry King in the Iron Man sequel.

Comic-Con seems like old news (even though it only ended a week ago), but as a final note we thought we’d show you what you guys ended up picking as the hottest things to come out of the 4 day event. There was certainly a lot of competition for fan attention, but as usual there are always a few things that end up grabbing the limelight.

We ran a poll asking you to pick what you thought were the three hottest things to come out of this year’s San Diego Comic-Con. Now the total numbers add up to more than 100% because with so much to choose from we allowed people to pick their top 3 items.

Results after the jump.

3D is all the rage these days, and recently at Comic-Con, the technology made several big appearances. Whether actually being shown or discussed, 3D was a big part of the convention in San Diego, where films like James Cameron’s Avatar, Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland and Robert Zemeckis’ A Christmas Carol showed off footage in the “come to life” technology.