A couple of weeks ago we asked if Terrence Howard had been blindsided by Marvel with his removal from Iron Man 2. According to that post the word that he was left out of the sequel and replaced by Don Cheadle came out of the blue, and he heard about it online like the rest of us. My first reaction was “What the heck is wrong with Marvel?” but I did figure that there were two sides to the story and we should wait until we heard the other side before coming to any conclusions.

Well we now have the other side of the story (albeit unofficially), and it’s quite fascinating and unusual.

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Well the title “Cool Stuff” is already taken by my buddy Pete over at /Film, and although I hate “cute” names for things I had to come up with something different - so until someone comes up with a better title, I’m going to lump stuff like this under “SR Picks.” Help us come up with a name!

When I saw this thing over at Sideshow Collectibles my eyes about popped out of my head. In case you don’t know - I’m a HUGE Iron Man fan and own a number of cool collectible statues, comiquettes, busts and yes, even toys. The last thing I really wanted was the life size Stan Winston bust from these guys, but it was just too far out of my price range.

Another week means another jammed-packed Mid Weekend Movie News Wrap Up.

This week:

Mel Gibson returns from the Edge; Iron Man goes Halloween; Jack Ryan may have two-faces; Elvis goes to hell and we bite down on some R-rated Pie.

Super nice guy Quint over at AICN had the chance a while back (prior to all the Terrence Howard/Don Cheadle news) to sit down with Iron Man director Jon Favreau. It’s a huge interview (took up two posts over at their site) and covers a lot of ground as far as Iron Man 2, The Avengers, and how all the movies involving Marvel Comics characters have to mesh into a cohesive whole.

No rumors here folks - we’ve got some rock solid, straight from Marvel Studios news regarding the Avengers, Iron Man 2 & 3, Jon Favreau, Robert Downey Jr. and the final word on the the Don Cheadle replacing Terrence Howard story.

That’s a lot of stuff for one post!

Yesterday, Samuel L. Jackson spoke to the press and revealed that at Spike TV’s Saturday night 2008 Scream Awards he got a chance to speak with Iron Man director Jon Favreau about Nick Fury’s role in the sequel.

“As a matter of fact, ‘Iron Man‘ director Jon Favreau spoke to me at the Scream Awards last night, and told me that Nick Fury would have a much more prominent role in the second one (Iron Man II).”

Awesome!

What the heck is wrong with Marvel Studios?

First they drag their feet on hiring Jon Favreau to direct Iron Man 2 (no-brainer, right?), and now it seems that they’ve bungled the Terrence Howard/James  issue.

It seems that Marvel never notified Howard that he was dropped from the sequel. He heard about it the same way the rest of us did - by reading about it on the internet.

Geez, when is a guy supposed to sleep? I hit the sack last night after watching Heroes, and wake up to the earth-shattering news that Terrence Howard will not be reprising his role as Jim Rhodes in Iron Man 2! He’s been replaced by…

Don Cheadle?

Marvel Studios has us already talking about a movie not set to be released until 2011: The Avengers. That film will no doubt be of epic proportions.

Director Louis Leterrier, who brought us The Incredible Hulk, suggested to MTV News (back in June) that they couldn’t find a villain that could challenge the teaming of Iron Man, Ant-Man, Thor and Captain America.

And his solution was for them to use his.

In a live chat with the Los Angeles Time, Jon Favreau discussed where things stand with Iron Man 2, and RopeOfSilicon.com was kind enough to clean up the results and extract some interesting new information.

Among the items revealed were where they are as far as the script, comparisons to The Dark Knight, and why some superhero movies fail.