terrance howard Tagged Articles at Cinematical

And it sounds glorious! Jon Favreau is doing a lot of press for the upcoming Iron Man DVD, and he sat down with CHUD to give an interview so long, it's been split in twain. Naturally, talk turned to plans for Iron Man 2 and 3, which Favreau is deep in the process of writing. Among the highlights:

-- War Machine is likely to be in the sequel, as Terrence Howard's Col. Rhodes had too little screen time in the first film. They want to make up for that, and give him a crack at wearing the suit.

-- The Mandarin is the overarching, behind-the-scenes villain, but he comes with a lot of racial and superpower baggage that is difficult to put on screen. Starships, dragon aliens, and ten magic rings that can upset the power of the universe don't really fit into the realistic universe Favreau has aimed to put Iron Man in. And yes, Favreau is concerned about how the various Avengers will fit into that world, too. Hulk and Captain America are feasible (and the cross-over has pretty much been forced on the former), but he's not sure about Thor. (Who is?)

-- The recent hostilities between Russia and the U.S. have made a lot of Iron Man's arch enemies current again -- and we might actually see Crimson Dynamo pop up. (I vote yes, so we can get the Black Widow introduced to audiences.)

-- Demon in a Bottle is coming. Expect to also see some elements of Matt Fraction's Iron Man run pop up -- the movie and his work have a real symbiotic relationship going on. There may even be a partnership forming ...

Now, isn't that a nice way to start the weekend? There's more where that came from on CHUD, but remember to come back and geek out in the comments.

Maybe it's just me, but there's certainly something a little bit off about this newly-released Iron Man cast photo. I don't know, it's just not what I was expecting -- the picture itself (featured to the right -- click for a larger version) seems to have this whole Sci-Fi Network vibe that just doesn't jive with me. As if EW was previewing a new television series, and not one of next summer's blockbuster movies. Nevertheless, this is the first image that features all of the primary cast members -- in character -- and reminds us that, while it's just another comic book adaptation, this isn't just another comic book cast.

We have Robert Downey Jr. as Tony Stark (aka Iron Man), Gwyneth "I'm back everyone!" Paltrow as Pepper Potts, Jeff Bridges as Obadiah Stane (aka Iron Monger)and Terrence "I'm what Cuba Gooding Jr. could've been" Howard as Jim Rhodes. Directed by Jon Favreau (who I never in a million years thought would be helming this kind of film back when he was chugging beers in PCU), Iron Man follows, what EW calls "a playboy billionaire weapons manufacturer who becomes a born-again do-gooder in high-tech duds after a brush with death forces him to reevaluate his life." I think that's a fancy way of saying -- dude creates a funky suit and decides to kick a whole lot of ass with it. This photo comes hot on the heels of a major rumor circulating that suggests Samuel L. Jackson is filming a top secret role in Iron Man as fellow comic book character (and Stark acquaintance) Nick Fury. No official word on that yet (but ComicCon is only a month away), so stay tuned. Iron Man hits theaters on May 9, 2008.

After granting the title role of Iron Man to Robert Downey Jr., director Jon Favreau and his casting team are on the move again. This time, they're finally making things official and bringing on Terrence Howard to play Jim Rhodes. If you aren't particularly familiar with comic books, then it's pretty safe to assume you have no idea who Jim Rhodes is. Well, I'll tell you: he's an old friend (and sometimes foe) of Tony Stark from his war days who served as Tony's personal pilot for a while, impersonated Iron Man on more than one occasion and eventually became the superhero War Machine with the help of an Iron Man-esque armor suit from Stark Industries. Yeah, he's a pretty big character.

Presumably Rhodes will only be in his friend/pilot role for the film -- if he's to become War Machine it'll likely happen in sequel land.
I wonder if this means the end of "Terrence Howard in Luke Cage" rumors. His name has been associated with the film in some form or another for some time, although, to my knowledge, nothing has been official. Now that he's found work elsewhere with Marvel, it seems rather unlikely we'll see him in a Power Man flick. How do you fans feel about the Howard casting? Good choice? Bad?

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