james rhodes Tagged Articles at Cinematical

Terrence Howard might be playing Tony Stark's close friend and military ally, but if you've read the comics then you know that if they make a sequel to Iron Man, he'll be playing War Machine, and possibly going toe to toe with the Man or Iron himself. You can click on Terrence's picture to listen to the audio from the interview, he even provides his own fanfare.

Some highlights our interview with Terrence include:

• He's signed on for several sequels, possibly with an eye to making this a trilogy. Everything between him and Tony is set up in this first picture, and the sequel is, obviously, contingent on how well this one does.
  
• He compares Iron Man to the Kenny Rogers song, "The Coward of the County". Sometimes you have to stand up and fight.
• He calls Iron Man "the only hero that any hero can kid can become." Most other heroes have a special event that gives them their gifts. Tony Stark actually makes himself a hero. (Let's not forget Batman, and a slew of other heroes, though. But I get his point.)
  
• He actually gives a really good explanation of how the repulsors work in the movie.
  
• "Everything is special effects in the mind", he says, "so now you can see things on the screen instead of having to imagine them." (Is this necessarily a good thing?)
  
• He got to fly an F-16 with a wingman next to him and threw up seven or eight times. Talk about realism.
• It's nice to hear the respect and admiration he has for the Air Force, who worked with them on the film.
• One of his most mind-blowing moments, going from small budget films like Crash and Hustle & Flow was having an entire Air Force base at their disposal. They spent $10 million dollars in one day, which was greater than the budgets of both of those films.

Odds and ends from Friday:

• Billy Zane is the only actor that can go from one of the biggest films ever made in Titanic to Pocahontas II: Journey to a New World. Damn, who the hell is this guy's agent? Anyway, word is Zane has just signed on to star in The Mad for Archetype Films. Pic looks to be ripping a chapter out of George A. Romero's diary, as it focuses on what happens when a doctor and his teenage daughter run into a bunch of flesh-eating zombies while stuck at a truck stop.
• In one of the more bizarre stories from Friday, Elizabeth Hurley has decided to give up acting in order to farm organic food in England. Wait -- hold up -- she's becoming a farmer? Says Hurley, "I would like to go for some kind of organic food production and I plan to do it - maybe something Indian." Hmm, organic Indian food? Good luck with that Liz.
• Not long ago, there was a rumor going around that had Terrence Howard up for the role of James Rhodes in next summer's Iron Man flick. Well, Howard spoke to MTV about the film and, when asked about the part, let out a big old "Mayyy-bee." However he is a bit concerned about the action aspect, saying, "The CGI and special effects, that's a whole 'nother thing. Playing to green screen or blue screen, I've never done that. I want to accomplish it and do it well. I don't want to do anything and not do it well." Will he? Won't he? I guess we'll see ... [via Superhero Hype]

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?)