iron man sequel Tagged Articles at Cinematical

I believe I've had to type 3D more times this week than I have in my Cinematical career thus far, and it's only Wednesday. I'm also seeing the birth of a new trend towards 3D rumor mongering and speculation which I want to say began with The Hobbit, but I would probably be very wrong. But I digress. Today, Ain't It Cool News is reporting that we might see Iron Man 2 converted into 3D.

According to Harry Knowles: "Right now, there is a 1 minute demo of Iron Man 2 converted to high quality digital 3D ... Right now the suits at Marvel & Paramount & now also Disney are considering this 1 minute. At the same time that this is happening, they are fishing for bids with 3 different companies to see what the cost and time it would take to convert Iron Man 2 to a complete 3D film." There's also talk that if they actually pay to convert Iron Man 2 to 3D, they might also do the same to the first Iron Man and rerelease it into theaters next May. Watch Jon Favreau's Twitter to see if this comes true or not.

As Knowles points out, if it does come to pass it would certainly be a game-changer for the upcoming Marvel slate. You might see Captain America, Thor, or The Avengers behind a pair of dorky glasses. I'm not entirely sure how I feel about that, as I find the format too distracting to be enjoyable. But it would be a hell of a lot of fun to see Iron Man rereleased in 3D, and revamping an existing film seems better suited to this ongoing novelty than designing a film around some pop-out effects. I seem to be in the cranky minority when it comes to the 3D style though, and those who are enthusiastic for it are certainly winning the war for it.

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.

The critics loved it, the audiences seem to dig it even more, and the sequel has officially claimed a 2010 release date already: This weekend we're all about the Iron Man. (I was gonna say "This weekend we're all about the iron, man," but it was way too corny.) So while we've already been promised the arrivals of characters called War Machine, Mandarin, and Nick Fury, I hope that the fine folks at Marvel Entertainment will consider tossing a few of these guys into the mix:

Alloy Boy -- Desperate to become Iron Man's first sidekick, young Alfred Loye decides to build himself a suit made of several disparate components. A big fan of TV dinners and collectible unicorns, Alfred fuses tin with pewter and creates an outfit that proves to be as effective as a suit made of tissue paper and smoke. His demise at Bessemer mansion inspires Tony Stark to avoid future sidekicks.

Irony Man -- Although he and Tony Stark shared similar talents for pith and witty banter, Irony Man proved to be an undeniably difficult ally to deal with. The two heroes had a massive falling out after, in a fit of rare sincerity, Irony Man referred to Stark's newest suit as "quite nice, actually." Irony Man was killed by Lord Caustic of Sardonica. His remains are buried in Sarr Chasm.

Vitamin Gal and the FEmales -- After depleting their planet of iron (in a matter of weeks) and fully convinced that Tony Stark is Earth's very source of the vital element, the five young women descend upon the tycoon's mansion and have one hell of a weekend. After learning that iron is in fact one of this planet's most prevalent components, they beat the living hell out of Stark, leaving only Vitamin Girl to hang out for a while. (She would eventually leave him for Centrum executive Frumay Tuzinc.)

Most of us haven't even seen Iron Man yet (though it's possibly just me -- everyone on my MySpace and Facebook is horrified I haven't, and it wasn't even midnight in my time zone), and already they're planning the sequel. Iron Man Cinematical reviews are here and here.

Brad Grey, head honcho over at Paramount, told Entertainment Tonight that if all went as hoped with the first movie, the sequel will come out this very week in 2010. (I just saw into the future ... and I'm pretty much typing this same post with the third installment in 2012.) Since it doesn't look like Iron Man is going to be a disaster at the box office, I think it's safe to say you can start counting down to 2010.

Hopefully, as much care and attention will be lavished on the sequel -- again, I haven't seen it yet, but all appearances and reviews suggest that they really knocked it out of the park. It would be awesome if it surpassed X2: X-Men United, which I think is the best superhero sequel yet. (Though maybe your opinion leans more towards Spider-Man 2.)

Now would be a good time for you well-read Iron Man fans to jump in with where you want the sequel to go. (Or, if you're feeling mean, you can also start screaming "sell out!" or something along those lines.) I wish I could throw in a story suggestion here, but I can't ... I'm still waiting to see it! You should feel really bad for me.

[via Empire]

The following post may contain spoilers, so beware!

The entire Iron Man crew are currently making the press rounds (they'll be in NYC on Sunday, so expect a slew of quotes to come flying next week), and already director Jon Favreau knows exactly where he wants to go with the Iron Man sequels -- so much so that he's dropped a bunch of hints in the first film, due out May 1. He tells Rotten Tomatoes, "I've got another two movies in my head; I'm ready to go and I know the cast feels the same way," he said. "Now it's out of the hands of us, of the filmmakers, and it's even out the hands of your readers. I know all the people who have been following this for two years are going to go and see the movie, and maybe they'll see it twice and I'm very grateful for that. If everybody comes out to see the movie and it's successful, then I'm sure Marvel's going to want to do another."

Be careful with that RT article because they do spoil some stuff, like whether Samuel L. Jackson actually shows up in a cameo role as Nick Fury. But perhaps the biggest set up for a sequel -- spoiler warning -- comes when Jim Rhodes (Terrence Howard) glances at Stark's Mark II Iron Man suit and says to himself, "Next time baby." It certainly looks like the second film would involve Rhodes in costume, possibly as War Machine, but as IGN points out, Rhodes first dons another suit in the comics. Howard told them, "If you've read the comics you'll know that that is the next phase, but there is another intermediate phase in there where he would have to put on his best friend's suit for a period of time."