Today we’ve gathered some info and updates on Iron Man 2 that should prove interesting to the Marvel movie fans out there.

In today’s round-up we have a recent Tony Stark close-up image from him in his race car, interview snippets of Robert Downey Jr. explaining his character and why he loves him and last but not least, director Jon Favreau (kind of) explains why we probably won’t see Ed Norton in Iron Man 2.

We know Hulk will be a part of The Avengers and we know Tony Stark appeared in The Incredible Hulk movie to recruit Banner so to no surprise, there has long been rumors that Ed Norton would return the favor and make a Bruce Banner appearance in the Iron Man sequel. The future of the Hulk and Ed Norton’s involvement going forward has been very unclear unlike the other main Avengers characters.

In an indirect way, someone posed the question on this topic by asking Jon Favreau on Twitter as to when Iron Man 2 takes place in relation to The Incredible Hulk and Favreau replied with the following:

“Before. RT @ThiagoSiQueiraF: Just watched “The Incredible Hulk” Gotta ask you:Does “Iron Man 2″ takes place before or after Hulk movie?”

This would be the reason for no mention or cameo from Bruce Banner/The Hulk in the Iron Man 2 movie and likely this means any chance of an Edward Norton cameo is shot. If true, that is. Although I expect some sort of surprise in the movie or after the credits. A mention of Banner by Nick Fury or S.H.I.E.L.D. wouldn’t be too off the mark, would it?

Robert Downey Jr. is Tony Stark

In other Iron Man news, RDJ had an interview with SFX Magazine and discussed the character of Tony Stark in the sequel and why he thinks Stark is Stan Lee’s greatest creation.

“In Iron Man 2, Tony’s psyche undergoes quite a rupture because he no longer has that kind of was trade to tweak on. What’s a fella to do? He’s thinking more about his legacy and about sustaining his own corporeal being, which has always been a problem, and now obviously comes much more to the fore because he essentially has a nuclear reactor as part of his anatomy!”

“Stan Lee created (and of course I’m biased) his greatest character in Tony Stark… The number of offshoots in comics, TV, animation and now movies, and the people who have taken him from the ’60s to the ’70s, to the ’80s and to the present day – everyone has done a great job of expanding the character and building on his inherent hostility through the guise of technology.”

Why is Stark interesting to play and what’d different for the character going forward?

“There’s a dark side to Tony Stark because of his impending death. But there are also all the people and characters around him who bring him to life.”

“There’s this huge world that’s so much fun, and it’s great to go back there, erase the chalkboard with Jon and say, ‘Okay. This thing came out, people really liked it and it did great business, but what are we going to do now?’”

The Avengers and sequels, Robert. Lot’s of sequels.

Source: SFX (via CBM)

Stark Likes to Live on the Edge

The following image of Robert Downey in costume as… a race car driver recently released which depicts him ready to roll in his personal ride prior to meeting Mickey Rourke’s Whiplash.

Source: Collider

What are your thoughts on these updates? Why would Iron Man 2 specifically take place before the Hulk film?

Iron Man 2 opens May 7, 2010, Thor opens May 5, 2011 , The First Avenger: Captain America hits July 22, 2011 and The Avengers is scheduled to debut May 4, 2012.

Follow Jon Favreau on Twitter @jon_favreau

Follow me on Twitter @rob_keyes

Paramount Pictures has put out a press release confirming earlier rumors that Iron Man 2 will be showing in IMAX! Well… sort of.

I you remember way back to fall of 2008, the original rumor was that Iron Man 2 would be filmed in IMAX 3D, a la James Cameron’s Avatar. This rumor was later put to rest when director Jon Favreau let us know that the tight production schedule (and no doubt the cost) of Iron Man 2 prevented them from going the 3D IMAX route – although that visual feast was being reserved for Iron Man 3.

So what’s this press release that’s come along? Basically it’s announcing that Iron Man 2 will be converted into IMAX so that you can see every detail of that glorious superhero tech action once it has been stretched to fit the ginormous IMAX screen (a la Star Trek).

Here’s a bit of the official press notes on the matter:

Paramount Pictures today announced that the highly-anticipated action-adventure Iron Man 2, directed by Jon Favreau and starring Robert Downey, Jr., will be released to digital IMAX^® theaters simultaneously with the film’s worldwide release on May 7, 2010. The film’s limited IMAX release will be digitally re-mastered into the image and sound quality of The IMAX Experience^® with IMAX DMR^® technology.

“The success of the first Iron Man movie catapulted the franchise from the comic books to theatre screens, and we’re excited that the IMAX format will offer fans an even more immersive way to experience the sequel,” said Tim Connors, Chief Operating Officer, Marvel Studios.

“Iron Man 2 is a fantastic addition to our growing film slate for 2010, which is filling out faster than any previous year,” said IMAX CEO Richard L. Gelfond. “The rollout of our digital projection system has enabled us to add more films to the slate, and we’re very excited to partner with Marvel and Paramount on this next installment of the incredible Iron Man franchise.”

“We’re thrilled to once again be working with Paramount and our long time friends at Marvel Entertainment as we help to bring their characters to life in IMAX,” said Greg Foster, Chairman and President of IMAX Filmed Entertainment. “The combination of Marvel’s iconic Iron Man story, Jon Favreau’s brilliant vision and Paramount Pictures’ talented team coupled with IMAX will make for a wild cinematic experience.”

Now I’m one of “those guys” that doesn’t really go for the “stretched for IMAX” version of films. After seeing The Dark Knight and Avatar - two films shot using actual IMAX cameras – it’s been kind of hard for me to go back. However, I fully acknowledge that I’m being Little Ms. Debbie Downer right now, and that a lot of you Iron Man fans will be packed into those IMAX theater seats to see Ol’ Shellhead rip and roar on the BIG big screen again.

War Machine blazing guns in IMAX proportions? I’m certainly not mad about it .

Ok, let’s open the floodgates: what do you guys think about Iron Man 2 in IMAX? Will you be seeing in that format, or is a standard screen enough for you?

Hopefully Iron Man 3 will arrive in true (3D) IMAX when its time comes.

For now, catch Iron Man 2 in theaters and IMAX on May 7, 2010.

In a move the reeks of opportunism and greed, Jack Kirby’s Estate (a.k.a. his family) have hired Intellectual Property Lawyer Marc Toberoff to sue Disney/Marvel, Sony, Universal, 20^th Century Fox and Paramount Pictures in an attempt to reclaim copyright ownership of the characters their late father Jacob Kurtzberg created. You may know his name better as Jack Kirby and you are most familiar with his iconic and highly popular comic book creations, The Fantastic Four, Captain America, the X-Men, Iron Man, Thor, The Hulk and The Silver Surfer.

Thanks to the guys over /Film for sharing this with us and to Rich Johnston at Bleeding Cool and Nikki Finke at Deadline Hollywod who seem to have gotten the drop on this breaking news. This is not the first lawsuit we’ve seen involving a comic book creator’s estate vs. the current owner and publisher; Just recently we reported and discussed WB/DC’s fight with the heirs of Jerry Siegel and Jerry Schuster over the rights to Superman.

The Siegel/Shuster heirs have been successful in their legal pursuit to some degree; they now have full access to Superman’s origins with many thanks going to their superstar lawyer (you guessed it) Marc Toberoff. What they are going to do with the just the origins of Superman remains a mystery to me, because after the countless retellings of Superman’s beginnings, I’m pretty sure we weren’t going to see that story again anytime soon.

Back to Jack Kirby: His Estate is currently suing and sending termination of copyrights notifications to each of the big studios that have involvement with any of characters Kirby created. The rest of this article is background information on Jack Kirby and my own observations and opinions. I am not a copyright lawyer, nor do I claim to have extensive background knowledge on U.S. Copyright Laws; so if you see something I misinterpreted, please enlighten me.

This isn’t the first time Kirby and Marvel haven’t seen eye to eye on things. In a very detailed account over at The Comic Journal, Marvel was in a major dispute with Kirby during much of the 80s, regarding his  work from the 60s and 70s. At the end of the day (and after Will Eisner got involved), Marvel reluctantly agreed to give Kirby back 1900 pages of his work. That seems like a lot, but it’s actually less than 25% of what Kirby had done.

Kirby was the first illustrator hired when Jerry Iger and Will Eisner formed Eisner & Iger Studios in the 1930s.  Until 1978, when the copyright laws were changed, most if not all of the comic creators hired artists under a “work-for-hire arrangement”. In other words: artists didn’t own the rights to whatever they were paid to draw. The same thing is still done today in other business models – electronics and programming are two of the biggest examples.

When a programmer working for Microsoft writes a new program and it turns into the major code behind a new piece of Microsoft software, that programmer doesn’t own the rights to his code. He was paid by Microsoft to write it and has already been fairly compensated for his time and effort. He doesn’t have the right to sue once that program starts making millions of dollars, just because he is jealous.

I don’t claim to know the copyright laws inside and out, but to me it would seem pretty simple: If Jack Kirby was hired under those aforementioned circumstances, then any characters he created should not be his to own. Sure, he will always get “creative credit” for coming up with them in the first place, but it’s not like he thought them up in his garage and then Marvel came along and stole them in the night. From what I understand, Kirby was paid fairly to create those Marvel characters and without the company publishing his work, he would not have gotten them off the ground. Of course the reverse could be (and likely will be) argued – that Kirby created the most iconic characters in Marvel’s repertoire and without him they would have died a slow comic death.

(Head to pg. 2 to help answer the question, “Why Now?”)

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…

Wanna see Iron Man again in 3D?

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

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.

From the footage we saw at the San Diego Comic-Con Iron Man 2 panel, we got a little glimpse of her in action and that seemed fine, but the deciding point for most folks will be how she pulls off the Russian accent which is essential for the character.

So, where could we see her again after Iron Man 2? Iron Man 3 is an obvious choice but there have also been rumblings of her having a part in the most ambitious comic book movie ever, The Avengers.

Screen Rant master Vic was in a group interview with Marvel President of Production, Kevin Feige, in San Diego and he mentioned her as a likely name attached to The Avengers project along with Nick Fury and the S.H.I.E.L.D. organization.

As for the pretty lady playing Natasha Romanoff, Scarlett spoke with Ireland On-Line and openly admitted her desires for more parts in the other Marvel blockbusters in development, and was fond of the idea of a spin-off for Black Widow if fans support her and enjoy her character.

“I hope I get to come back and do it again… The character certainly comes back. We see that she does in the comics and certainly she is a big part of The Avengers. I don’t know if that is where it’s going to go but she is definitely a big part of The Avengers.”

My easy bet is that she’ll definitely be a part of The Avengers. Heck, if Incredible Hulk director Louis Leterrier has his way, Scarlett will be in four Avengers movies. Speaking of which, The Hulk is a character we really need in the movie. I hope we don’t get a team consisting only of Iron Man, Cap, Thor, Fury, Black Widow and have no big green dude to play with. I would be very disappointed.

I doubt there will be a Black Widow solo film though. There’s too many sequels that will be coming out to the current films and a bunch of other heavily desired characters who need their own films first. One of which is an Iron Fist/Luke Cage team-up film based on the Heroes for Hire comic. That’s something I definitely want to see.

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.

Jon Favreau was also at Comic-Con, treating the 6,000-plus fans who were lucky enough to get into Hall H to the first ever footage from Iron Man 2. Screen Rant head honcho, Vic Holtreman, was one of those lucky folks and he (along with pretty much everyone else) has had nothing but amazing things to say about it.

However according to Favreau himself it could have been even better. He actually wanted to make the Iron Man sequel in 3D (he had hoped for this almost a year ago), and wants the third one done with the technology if possible. The director spoke to MTV about his liking for 3D and specifically praised James Cameron for what he’s doing with Avatar:

“I really love the 3D… I like all the new technologies, 3-D being one of them. James Cameron had brought me around a few months back to see what he was doing with ‘Avatar’; that’s what’s been seen now by many of the fans… It was exciting to go in there and see what he’s doing with cutting-edge technology. He’s just a great storyteller as well, and to see a great filmmaker working with the cutting-edge of this technology is amazing.”

Favreau went on to say that he loved the footage he saw of Avatar so much that he almost made Iron Man 2 in 3D, but cited certain problems like time and money constraints, as well as it meaning you have to shoot it digitally, as reasons why he didn’t:

“I talked to Marvel after I’d seen [Cameron's footage] about doing ‘Iron Man [2]‘ in 3-D… I was hoping to get a shot at doing it this time around, but it didn’t work out that way… There are a few drawbacks to it at this point – there’s more cost involved, and it also forces you to shoot digitally. My cinematographer [Matthew Libatique] really likes film, and ‘Iron Man’ had a certain look because it was film.”

But nonetheless Favreau remains optimistic about 3D being used for Iron Man 3:

“I think that, as the digital technology gets better, 3-D is going to be a lot easier… Certainly for ‘Iron Man,’ I think it would work out well.”

Favreau says that even though Iron Man 2 wasn’t shot with IMAX cameras, he’d like to see it “blown up” for IMAX nonetheless. The same thing was done for Star Trek this summer, and even The Dark Knight to some extent last summer (several scenes were shot with IMAX cameras).

Favreau goes on to remind us that he’s not signed on to direct Iron Man 3 nor The Avengers movie that Marvel has lined up for 2012 (which, in case you don’t know, will feature Iron Man along with Thor, Captain America, Hulk and Nick Fury). But he says he has talked to Marvel about the content of at least The Avengers, and he’ll be involved in at least some capacity. With the great job he did with Iron Man (and that looks to continue with Iron Man 2) I hope he stays on as director for Iron Man 3 as well as The Avengers.

With regards to 3D, I think having that red and gold suit on the biggest screen possible, as well as feeling like you can reach out and grab it, can only be a plus. I’m sure Favreau – with both his enthusiasm for 3D and him proving with the first Iron Man that he knows what he’s doing with the franchise – would utilize 3D in the right way.

What about you: Do you think the 3D and IMAX routes would be a good way to go for the Iron Man franchise? Or is it fine the way it is in 2D and on the standard screen?

Iron Man 2 is scheduled to be released on May 7th, 2010.

Sources: MTV via /Film

Did you think Iron Man was awesome? Although Iron Man 2 is still a year and a half away are you dying to find out what we have to look forward to?

Yeah, me too, and luckily thanks to the good folks over at C.H.U.D. there’s a TON of info about not only the next film but some hints about Iron Man 3 as well!

• Director Jon Favreau has been working hard on the script with writer Justin Theroux. Robert Downey Jr. is also involved in the scriptwriting process.
• Terrence Howard gets to play War Machine in the next film.
• Favreau will have more time on screen as Tony Stark’s driver/bodyguard Happy Hogan.
• The series is being planned as a trilogy (which I’ve reported here quite a while ago).
• Although classic Iron Man villain “The Mandarin” is the behind the scenes villain across the trilogy, Favreau is being very careful with the transition to the big screen. He doesn’t want him to seem goofy or introduce “magic rings” into the movies.
• While he wants to keep the next two movies very character driven, he is aware that the action was lacking in the first film, especially in the final battle scene. He plans on upping the action quotient in Iron Man 2.
• Now this one’s a bit confusing… He wants to leave the dark superhero thing to The Dark Knight and keep the Iron Man franchise more simple and fun – but he is planning on bringing the “Demon in a Bottle” storyline into the films. This is the story where Stark succumbs to alcoholism and loses everything. How you keep a movie “fun” while showing the destruction of Tony Stark due to alcoholism seems like an oxymoron to me.

Speculation Alert: From what I know of Iron Man’s history in the comics, I’m betting that Iron Man 2 may be The Empire Strikes Back of the Iron Man trilogy: It will be the film that shows the downfall of Tony Stark, necessitating Rhodey stepping up as War Machine to fight some adversary. We may also be treated to scenes of Stark wearing the armor while drunk.

Iron Man 3 would be the “return of the hero” and the final, face to face showdown with a technology-driven Mandarin.

Paramount, please send your check to Vic Holtreman, care of Screen Rant.

Thanks.

For much more detail, head over to CHUD.com.