Cinematical

Warning: The above TV spot kinda spoils the Tony Stark cameo in The Incredible Hulk. Watch at your own risk.

A very smart new TV spot for The Incredible Hulk opens on a snippet of the scene featuring Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) and General Ross (William Hurt), spoiling what, for many of your average moviegoers, would have been a giant surprise. Of course, those of us living out our days in internet movie geek land have known about the Stark cameo for awhile now -- and if you visited New York Comic Con earlier this year, you would've seen a good majority of the Stark scene during the Hulk panel.

But the question is: Should they have ruined the surprise for everyone right off the bat with this new commercial? I guess it depends on which side you're on. From a marketing standpoint, it's kinda brilliant and a great way to show moviegoers that both The Incredible Hulk and the wildly-successful Iron Man are connected in some way. And while many predict Hulk will not pull in Iron Man numbers, throwing that film's star in a trailer will certainly help Hulk give its Marvel counterpart a run for its money. Then again, some folks like to be surprised -- but what's to say the Stark cameo is the only surprise in the film? Oooohhh ... goosebumps! I'm seeing The Incredible Hulk in just a few hours from now and I'm stoked. Fingers crossed for Norton, Roth and the gang!

The Incredible Hulk smashes into theaters this Friday.

[via The Movie Box]

In the last week, it feels like Iron Man has suddenly gone mainstream. It went from being "another one of them geek movies" to a movie everyone is lining up for. Even my mom is interested, and I can never interest her in anything that originated from a comic book.

But, while this could be the movie that crumbles the walls between geekdom and the ordinary world, there are still going to be many people walking in and out of that theatre confused about all things Tony Stark. Or they will be bitten by the bug, and suddenly desire a stack of graphic novels and comic books beside their bed.

To help, our good friends over at ComicMix have put together a helpful reading list of essential Iron Man stories. I'm delighted to see that Armor Wars (the crazy comic story my friend Matt desires to see onscreen) made the cut . So did another contender for that list, Doomquest, which sees Tony Stark and Doctor Doom hurled into Arthurian England. it's not just essential reading for the new Iron Man movie -- it is essential reading for our Cinematical content too!

I don't know if you can manage to track all of these down before Iron Man opens on Friday -- but it does give you some handy reading for the weekend. And remember to check out their essential Batman reading list before The Dark Knight.

Thank you Rick, for sending this to us!

The picture above takes place toward the very end of the scene they showed us yesterday at New York Comic Con, and it comes toward the end of a battle between armed forces and the Hulk. This scene is also predominantly featured in the new trailer which will play before Iron Man in about two weeks. Essentially, the military have Bruce Banner (Edward Norton) on the run. They chase him into this glass tunnel, lock both entrances on either side and launch two smoke-type bombs into the area. Outside, jeeps and a slew of troops gather awaiting Banner's transformation. They want this monster and they want him bad.

Suddenly, as the smoke builds up, we see Banner press his hands against the glass -- his eyes go green, his face fighting the beast within. Smoke fills the screen; it's quiet. Everyone waits. Then ... BOOM! -- the Hulk crashes out of the glass onto this huge field, running for his life. Several jeeps give chase, guns firing from every corner of the screen -- bullets ripping into Hulk's skin; he bumps one jeep and the vehicle rolls over. He gets to another one, picks it up and proceeds to smash it until the thing is in a million pieces. Emil Blonsky (Tim Roth), who at this point has been given a few injections of that super serum, heads out to where Hulk is. Hulk tries to beat down Blonsky, but the latter has an extra bounce in his step. For some reason, he's not like the others -- he can move pretty fast. After a brief cat and mouse, the two approach each other (seen above). Blonsky says, "Is that all you got?" Hulk looks down, winds his leg back and goes to deliver a giant kick to Blonsky's stomach ... and we ... cut to black.

It's almost like an episode of MTV's Cribs ... except we're on a movie set with Jon Favreau touring Tony Stark's fictional house. Yes, in case the 1,547 Iron Man trailers, clips, TV spots, images and posters weren't enough to hold you over, Yahoo has released a video featuring Favreau running around Stark's amazing house on the top of a cliff somewhere. In the video, they're at this real house as well as on a soundstage where other parts of his house are in the process of being built. In between the tour, we're also shown several different "trailer-ish" clips from the film for those who ... need to see more Iron Man? Anyone else feel like they've already watched this film like ten times already? Yes, it looks like it kicks ass, but enough already. Cut it. Fade to black. Seriously, is there anything left to surprise us with? That said, a bit of a warning: There's a lot of Iron Man in this video, so if you're still trying to stay away ... don't watch.

The rest of Iron Man arrives in theaters on May 2.

Kevin Feige has what most fanboys and fangirls would consider to be a dream job. He gets to play around in the Marvel Comics toybox and bring classic superheroes to life on the bigscreen. It's like having life-sized action figures and a really big backyard to pose them in.

We spoke with him during the Iron Man press event at Comic-Con, and besides wanting his Stark Industries hat, we also asked him a few questions. Click on his picture for the audio, and read the highlight reel below.

• On asked how we could score one of those 'Stark Industries' hats, "Well, you can go back in time, and work really hard on the movie and ... I shouldn't have worn it, I know."
• "It was a challenge to decide which one of his many costumes to go with. The red and gold was a given, but there are a number of incarnations throughout the film."
• The classic red and gold armor in the film is based somewhat on the Adi Granov's artwork from the (really great) Iron Man series 'Extremis.'
• When asked how many of the actors were attached for sequels, he replied. "All of 'em." They're in multi-picture contracts, which seems to be the standard these days.
• "What I love about the Iron Man villains is, yes ... you could call a lot of them goofy these days, but the truth is they're all tech-based villains, just like way Hulk has all gamma-based villains, and Spidey has genetically altered villains. I love the tech aspect to it, and you'll start to see some of that in this film."
  
• "We're working on an animated Iron Man series right now." It even includes Unicorn!
• How different are things at Marvel Studios, now that they are independent? "Well, other than the fact that we're signing the checks now, things aren't that different."
• "There's only been a handful of times where I would have done something different [on the films] ... Elektra." He says this one in a deep voice, and I have to agree with him on that one.
  
• They currently have scripts in development for Captain America, Thor, Ant Man, Dr. Strange, Submariner and more.
• When asked about the negative fan reaction to Spider-Man 3, he said, "It was the biggest movie of the summer, I'm pretty pleased with it ... my favorite thing was watching people react to that birth of Sandman sequence." Granted, that sequence was cool. But did he see the rest of the movie?!

While sporting some serious heels that looked like they might be able to give the Iron Man armor a run for it's money, Gwyneth Paltrow gracefully strutted into our interview and talked about her return to sci-fi, how she approached Pepper Potts, husband Chris Martin's acting in Extras, and her bone-breaking injury.

Click on Gwyneth to hear the interview, which includes highlights like:

• What it's been like working on Iron Man as compared to Sky Captain and The World of Tomorrow.
• Exactly what happened to her leg. (Ouch!)
• She's been a been fan of both Robert Downey Jr. and Jon Favreau, and signed on to play Pepper Potts even before reading the script.
• She used to watch Jeff Bridges in The Jagged Edge on Betamax when she was a kid, and loved working with him in this film, "He's the Big Lebowski!"
• Longtime Iron Man buddy Happy Hogan WILL be in this film, although she wasn't really allowed to say who will be playing him. Based on the love for Jeff Bridges that she kept mentioning, signs are pointing to the fact that it'll be him.
• "This is not just a movie for guys ... I think women will be happy to accompany their guys to it."
• She is "very organized" like Pepper Potts, but says she doesn't have a complicated relationship with a superhero. "Well, I kind of do," referring to hubby Chris Martin, of Coldplay.
• The idea of her children one day playing with a Pepper Potts action figure is, "Kind of weird."

Here's some big breaking news, if Iron Man casting is "big" news to you, which it kind of is around here -- especially Iron Man casting news that involves Oscar-winning sweetheart Gwyneth Paltrow! Paltrow has signed to play Iron Man's love interest, Pepper Potts. Hmmm, I'm not exactly sure what I think of that decision. Then again, I seem to be one of the only movie nuts in the universe who really enjoyed Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow, a sci-fi retro-adventure flick that featured a playfully amusing performance by Ms. Paltrow -- so I guess I'd be foolish to complain about this casting choice.

For some reason this upcoming Iron Man adaptation has captured my attention like no other superhero flick ... since the first Spider-Man flick showed up, that is. When director Jon Favreau (Made, Elf) was signed (even after his underrated Zathura fared so unspectacularly at the box office) I was intrigued. When two of the Children of Men screenwriters were hired, I was enthused. And when they grabbed Robert Downey Jr. (of all people) to play the iron-clad billionaire Tony Stark I was pretty darn psyched. (I'm of the opinion that Downey is a fantastic choice for this role, although I can plainly understand why other Iron Man fans might disagree)

For those who might be less than thoroughly versed in Iron Man lore, I'll tell you that Pepper Potts was once the moon-eyed secretary of billionaire playboy industrialist superhero Tony Stark, and if you think she's just some one-note love interest, I recommend you think again. (As if anything's as simple as "boy meets girl" in the Marvel Universe!) Now, I ask the hardcore Marvelheads the obvious question: Gwyneth Paltrow? Is she right for this role? Frankly I think the gal's a doll, and I think it'll be fun to see her and Robert Downey (and Terrence Howard) dancing their way through a big-time superhero adventure.

So it turns out Marvel hadn't officially arranged finances for their upcoming Iron Man and Incredible Hulk films. Although it has long been known Marvel intended on releasing Iron Man as the first main flick under their brand-new film wing Marvel Studios, it was apparently not part of the initial "non-recourse debt facility" Marvel put together (colloquially known as the Marvel Warchest). Marvel legal guys got on it, though, and the agreement has been amended to include both films under the same terms and conditions as the rest of the deal. Iron Man is slated for Paramount distribution, and Hulk with Universal; both films expect to hit theaters sometime in 2008.

Marvel needs at least passable returns on both of these films. They've borrowed heavily against their own current popularity to finance their own films, and if early movies start tanking, Marvel could quickly find itself in some real monetary difficulty and future projects may be abandoned.

Hot on the heels of the Robert Downey Jr. casting news (he's Iron Man now, if you missed it) comes another major casting rumor for Jon Favreau's Iron Man flick -- and once again it is a big one. Got a big grain of salt handy? Good. Grab it and keep it close for this one, because as of right now it is nothing more than a big old rumor. CanMag received two separate email tips suggesting Tony Stark will have a love interest in the film (no big surprise there, love interests are a rather common plot device). What is more interesting is the name currently attached to said love interest. Ready for this? None other than Famke Janssen, previously of X-Men fame. Although Janssen has a history of working with Favreau, one would think playing two major roles in separate Marvel flicks would be a bit ... unusual, because theoretically we are talking about the same universe here, and I don't think Jean Grey has a twin sister running around putting the moves on Iron Man. Granted, we probably won't ever run into a situation which would require both characters to be in the same movie, but the point remains a strong one.

Following up on yesterday's Iron Man armor post, we bring you possible Iron Man weapons information. From deep within the heart of the Iron Man production offices comes a photo of writer/director Jon Favreau and executive producer Peter Billingsley in front of a table full of firearms. Although we aren't talking about Tony Stark created armor-addition sorts of guns, Billingsley is clutching a classic Red Ryder (insert your "shoot your eye out" joke here).

In fact, at this point there are no actual guarantees these guns are even intended for appearance in Jon Favreau's flick. They are hanging out in the production offices, so presumably that is their intended purpose, but who knows -- maybe Fav just really digs guns. Now I'm not what you'd technically call a "gun guy," so I really have no idea what these weapons are or if they're even real weapons to begin with, so I'm not going to make myself look stupid by trying to sound like I know something about them. If any gun aficionados out in the audience want to make an observation or two, I'm all ears.

Aside from Hugh Jackman's Wolverine flick, Jon Favreau's Iron Man is the next big thing on the horizon for Marvel Comics (movie-wise, that is) and their fans. As is typical for major comic book films, much controversy has been made over who will land the lead role -- particularly because Tony Stark has long been attached to Tom Cruise in Iron Man rumors. A sideline subject of discussion has been the costume work, and just recently fans have been granted a peek into some early 3D design concepts for the iconic character.

You can check out the work done by designer Brandon Perlow over at Screen Rant. The word is, visual effects supervisor John Nelson was impressed with much of the work, and even felt parts of it meshed with the overall vision for the film, but ultimately decided to go in a slightly different direction. Personally, I more or less approve of the first set of pictures provided, but I think the second set looks a little too "x-treme." Opinions from the geek balcony?

Jon Favreau may be putting the kibosh on those Tom-Cruise-is-Tony-Stark rumors, but not to worry: The kids at AICN have worked up another Iron Man rumor to take its place. Based on a series of secret "inside" sources and conclusions from fairly vague clues, AICN's Quint decided that Terrence Howard has been offered the role of James Rhodes, Stark's Viet Nam buddy, confidant and pilot (not to mention the man who takes over the Iron Man suit when Stark fakes his own death, and eventually becomes War Machine). There's really no way to know if this is true, short of Favreau or Howard themselves weighing in -- after all, even if someone else ends up in the role, it's easy to just say that Howard turned it down.

From what I've read on the web (Which, by the way, is making me want to read all of the damn Iron Man comics -- is the series as cool as it sounds?), Rhodes is major player in Stark's life, and therefore is likely to be heavily featured in the movie. So, Iron Man fans, is Howard right for the role? (And do you even care at this point, as long as someone other than Cruise plays Stark?)

Regular readers are well aware of my respect for Jon Favreau, which most recently stems from his very fans-on (that sounds sort of dirty) approach to directing Marvel's Iron Man. The geek fan base is an important part of the comic book movie revolution cinema is currently experiencing, and Fav has done a fantastic job of plugging himself in to said crowd, mostly via his very open and continually updated MySpace blog. In the wake of Comic Con, Iron Man has found itself beset by a recurrence of Tom Cruise rumors -- rumors which continue to greatly upset fandom in general, and yours truly in specific. But Cruise is guaranteed money despite the crazy, and this has to appeal to Marvel, a company which desperately needs the first of its solo produced films to succeed.

What does Fav have to say about it? On his blog (which I suggest you read for answers to several interesting questions) Fav recently addressed said rumor. His response to a scooper who claimed to overhear two execs saying Cruise had the Iron Man role "in the bag" was as follows: "If by 'in the bag' they mean drunk, I think they're referring to Mr. Gibson in Malibu. I've never even met Tom Cruise, though I do think he is a great actor. He doesn't seem to fit with what Marvel is looking for at this time, but you never know what will happen. The rumor is false as far as I know."

Ouch, a needless Mel Gibson non-sequiter burn. Of course, there is no reason Marvel would HAVE to tell Fav every move they make, but it is likely he'd have some idea of what was going on. I for one am encouraged to hear him denying these rumors. I'm firmly in the Tom Cruise to too short, too familiar, and too crazy to play Tony Stark Camp.

Jon Favreau is back on the MySpace scene, stopping by yet again to drop some further Iron Man info for eager fans. Although Comic Con is barelyt a week away and many Marvel flicks have chosen to use that forum as the time and place to share big movie information, Favreau went straight to the fans when he got confirmation of a filming date for his upcoming superhero film. Let's not be silly here -- I'm sure Fav will have plenty of interesting details to share with us if he felt okay bringing this information to the table early -- but it is still nice to hear from him as frequently as we do. According to the director, filming is set to begin in February (of 2007, of course), which puts the film right on target for a hopeful summer of '08 release. Check out Fav's blog, and be sure to stay tuned to Cinematical for upcoming Marvel news. With Comic Con on the horizon there is certain to be plenty of information on the way. ...

Hollywood bloggers generally fall into one of two categories: those who have some sort of token presence on the internet to please the studio marketing executives, and those who genuinely enjoy the quick communication it gives them with the fanbase. Jon Favreau seems to be doing his best to be one of the latter -- and I think that's admirable. If done well, such fan connection can certainly be a boon to any production, especially a geek culture flick like Iron Man. The latest news he offered on his MySpace blog concerns San Diego's Comic Con. Fav says he will be there to join a Marvel panel on Saturday -- but we shouldn't expect too much because hey, we've still got two years to go on this puppy. There will be "Ironworks" t-shirts, recently approved for distribution at the Paramount booth. Hit it quick if you are interested, because the numbers will be limited for each day. His closing thought: "all in all, I want to get my feet wet. Next year will be the big one for Iron Man. Personally, I'm excited for next year; Superman was fun and all, but I'd much rather be blogging Iron Man rumors.