Two more have been added to the ever large Iron Man 2 roster, according to The Hollywood Reporter and with production all nice, quiet and secret save for Jon Favreau's Tweets, we can speculate endlessly on what their additions might mean.

The first is a no-brainer, as Clark Gregg is returning as Agent Phil Coulson of S.H.I.E.L.D. Having hammered out the acronym, he gets to come back and try to keep Tony on the straight, narrow, and heroic. I think that's nice. You could just have any old agent, but they're keeping Gregg.

The female addition is what's really interesting. Kate Mara has joined the cast in an unspecified role. I'm going to just throw out a random guess (based largely on her looks) that she's playing Bethany Cabe. I can't believe they'd throw another love interest or action chick into the mix, but Cabe helps to defend Tony against Whiplash and Justin Hammer. She also suits up in some old Iron Man armor alongside Rhodes' War Machine to battle the giant robot Ultimo. The groundwork is there, but it's an awful lot of action and romance for one film. Perhaps Cabe will simply show up as Stark Industries' Head of Security, ready to do her part later on? Maybe she's just a love interest for Hammer? We'll know soon enough.

But wow, three redheads in one Marvel film? I thought it was Wolverine who had that particular fetish. Go Tony!

With one of next year's biggest films now in production, the race was on yesterday to snag the first photos from the set of Iron Man 2. Director Jon Favreau spent a little time on Twitter, offering fans a glimpse of his director's chair and some warning sign, but what folks really wanted was a first look at the cast in character (and costume). Just Jared and SpoilerTV managed to snag some shots, all of which include Robert Downey Jr. (as Tony Stark), Gwyneth Paltrow (as Pepper Potts) and Don Cheadle (who replaced Terrence Howard as Col. James "Rhodey" Rhodes). Favreau also left this note on Twitter as day one of production wrapped up: "First day went great. I've never worked on a sequel before. It's like we picked up where we left off."

In addition to these new photos, IESB reports that comedian Garry Shandling (of all people) has not only been cast in the sequel, but he was also on set for the first day of shooting. They claim he's "a reporter or Senator or some sort" who pops up in a continuation of the final scene from the first Iron Man (when Stark proclaims, "I am Iron Man" and all that). Does that mean Iron Man 2 will literally pick up right where the last one left off? Seems so, especially since it looks like Downey Jr. is wearing the same shirt and tie from the final scene of the first film. Check out larger versions of the three images above down below. Iron Man 2 hits theaters on May 7, 2010.

As Jon Favreau Tweeted last week, Iron Man 2 begins filming today -- and while we still don't know what storylines the new film will tackle, we do know one that it won't: Demon in a Bottle.

Robert Downey Jr. brushed off the rumors with a "Not Really" to the MTV Splash Page. "As a matter of fact, I think that's probably best saved because it's such its own storyline. We're going for the interim space [between the origin and Demon] which is more a look behind the mask of someone who says he's Iron Man and what it really is to become a superhero."

That teaches us all not to read too much into a scene that involves Tony Stark puking into a toliet. But I bet we'll still see Stark knocking back a few, especially since Don Cheadle is supposed to don the War Machine armor.

In the meantime, the man who was supposed to be War Machine is still upset. Terrence Howard sat down with Sci-Fi Wire to complain about Marvel, who he insists didn't honor the cast contracts, but that the cast should have stuck together. All those rumors of diva behavior sound a little more truthful now, even as he wishes the best for Cheadle. "Yeah, I'm definitely looking forward to it. I want to see what happens with that. I want to see Don Cheadle become me. I want him to do better than me. That's what I really want to see. I think he can."

If you believe the post-Oscars party talk, it's official: Emily Blunt is out as the Black Widow. According to The Playlist, Jon Favreau was cornered by E! at an aftershow party, and confirmed that Fox had exercised its option on Blunt, and pinned her into Guilliver's Travels.

Now, given that there's so little finalized on Iron Man 2, I think it's very possible that Blunt could still pop in. As it stands now, the cast consists of one Robert Downey Jr., Sam Rockwell, and Don Cheadle. Even Gwyneth Paltrow told MTV News has no idea if she's returning as Pepper Potts. They haven't even given me a script yet. They don't tell me anything. I could be, like, a costume assistant in it. I know nothing."

But, if Mickey Rourke decides to sign once and for all, they could have it before cameras pretty quickly, and that means they would need a new actress. Let's just hope that Favreau & Co aren't lured by the curves that are Scarlett Johansson, and either accept Eliza Dushku's very public offer (she can speak Russian, and she'd be better than Johansson) or wait around until Blunt can return. I'd prefer the latter. I mean, Favreau always did think that April 2010 release date was unrealistic.

Cinematical spoke with Brooklyn's Finest director Antoine Fuqua on a sunny Saturday afternoon; within hours, Fuqua's gritty police drama would have sold to Senator Entertainment, the first distribution deal made at the 2009 Sundance Film Festival. Of course, as Fuqua talked with Cinematical about his exemplary cast, how exactly you make a cops-and-crooks film in the wake of The Wire and the challenges of shooting in New York, the film's sale was in the future. Fuqua also defended the film's controversial final shot, even as he noted he was willing to entertain discussions about changing it; "The whole point of the movie is that they don't have the proper help in the police force, and there's a huge piece in The New York Times about more police killing themselves than dying in the line of duty that just came out a few months ago ... and when you read that, it's so sad and heartbreaking, and you go "You gotta show that. ..."

You can listen to the podcast here at Cinematical by clicking below:



You can also download the interview in full right here -- and those of you with RSS Podcast readers can find all of Cinematical's podcast content at this link.

We know that Terrence Howard was upset and confused about being dropped from Iron Man 2. Robert Downey Jr. admitted he was in the dark about the decision. Guess who else was perplexed by it -- the new Rhodey himself, Don Cheadle.

IGN caught up with Cheadle, who was quick to describe the sudden and surprising offer from Marvel: "I got a phone call from my agent saying they were offering me the part. That was kind of it. It happened very fast, and I had a very short time to answer. Literally, overnight. I was unaware of what was happening with Terrence. And when they called me I asked what was going on with Terrence. I've worked with Terrence, I've known Terrence for a long time. And they said they were moving away from him. So it's not like I was taking Terrence's job, because the job was already gone. Someone else was going to do the part. I don't know who the next person in line was, but that's who they were going to. And I literally had a few hours to accept the job or not. "

A handful of geek news bits are the perfect way to end the week. There's all kinds of intriguing little quotes scattered all over the Internet tonight, and I've compiled them all below to give your mouse finger and Google toolbar a rest. Enjoy!

As always, the Old Canuckehead gets first grab -- X-MenFilms.Net was informed by Fox that the first X-Men Origins: Wolverine teaser is supposed to be attached to The Day the Earth Stood Still, which hits theaters on December 12th. Will we see the same footage that most of us glimpsed via YouTube bootleg from San Diego ComicCon? I bet we will!

Buried in that Ain't It Cool News scoop on J. Michael Stracynzki was the news that he had just finished his rewrite of Thor. I think the God of Thunder is moving faster than Captain America.

MTV's Splash Page caught up with Robert Downey Jr. and pressed him for word on the Terrance Howard/Don Cheadle swap. He stayed classy, of course: "I had nothing to do with that decision. I love Terrence very very much. That's all I'll say because I haven't talked to him yet ... I've always admired Don [Cheadle]. It's one of those situations where I still don't quite know what happened or why. Here's what happens too: things happen and you wind up commenting on them before you've actually talked to the people and it's in poor taste." He also stressed that the Iron Man franchise will be an "interactive" one, with he and Jon Favreau striving "to make sure we don't piss off the public that put us in the position we're in."

Continued after the jump.

If there was one story last week that prompted geekdom to wail aloud and gnash their teeth, it was the news that Terrence Howard wouldn't be returning as Rhodes in Iron Man 2. The role (and future War Machine suit) will go to Don Cheadle. It isn't that Cheadle won't do a fine job, but Howard was the perfect Rhodey. And that great little "Next time!" scene? It loses a bit of fun when a different person pops up next time.

We all blamed Howard for the split, particularly because the trades implied he wanted too much money to return. But we're in for another round of "Who do you believe?" because Howard told NPR that he knows nothing about any contract negotiations. In fact, he learned the ugly truth of his departure at the same time and place as the rest of us -- the trades. "It was the surprise of a lifetime. There was no explanation. [The contract] just ... up and vanished. I read something in the trades implicating that it was about money or something, but apparently the contracts that we write and sign aren't worth the paper that they're printed on, sometimes. Promises aren't kept, and good faith negotiations aren't always held up."

Despite the heavy hints in Iron Man that Jim Rhodes, best friend to Tony Stark, would come to play War Machine in a future film, it won't be Terrence Howard reprising his role as Rhodes in the forthcoming sequel, but rather Don Cheadle. According to the Hollywood Reporter, there hasn't been a formal announcement by Marvel Studios about it, but the casting swap appears to have come as a result of money matters (natch).

Returning still are stars Robert Downey Jr. and Gwyneth Paltrow, in addition to director Jon Favreau, as Justin Theroux, fresh off the success of Tropic Thunder, currently tinkers away at the script. Last month, amidst the press blitz for the Iron Man DVD, Favreau confessed to wanting to incorporate both 3-D and IMAX technology in the making of the sequel (to which the world collectively replied "[BLEEP] yeah!").

Alas, it remains for the Paramount/Marvel number-crunchers to determine in which format exactly we'll see Downey Jr. and Cheadle team up come the summer of 2010.

As with most any other genre, pitching a thriller seems to go that much more swimmingly once one finds an ideal blockbuster reference point with which to do half of the leg work. It's 'Die Hard meets this', 'Speed on a that', and, when in doubt, just say the damn thing is 'Hitchcockian'.

Post-2001, the likes of TV's '24' and 'Sleeper Cell', and film's Jason Bourne franchise, have tapped into both our political climate and pop culture zeitgeist, into a globe-trotting, gun-toting fear of the here and there and always now. Jeffrey Nachmanoff's Traitor feels like the first film that has itself been directly spawned in the wake of those successes, as opposed to merely being bolstered by it, and while it may overtake, say, Vantage Point in terms of plausible plotting and worldly knowledge, it remains a film that is good enough to grasp the bar and yet not quite enough to raise it.