Iron Man 2

So after what seems to be never ending a question on whose actor is playing who, The Iron Man 2 is on. Early trailers of the movie have already hit the net. Youtube.com counter is stacking up the hits, and why not? The trailer looks very promising.

Robert Downey Jr. is reprising his role as Tony Starks / Iron Man. Gwyneth Paltrow will again play the role of Pepper Potts; Starks’ executive secretary. The biggest surprise in this movie is Don Cheadle. The skinny Cheadle will replace Terrence Howard as Lt. Colonel James “Rhodey” Rhodes / War Machine.  Rumors have it that money have something to do with the changes. According to an article in Wikipedia:

As Favreau (Director) and Theroux (Scriptwriter) chose to minimize the role, Marvel came to Howard to discuss lowering his salary – Howard was the first actor hired in Iron Man and earned the largest salary of the cast. The publication stated they were unsure whether Howard’s representatives left the project first or if Marvel chose to stop negotiating.

That was later denied by Justin Theroux (Script writer of Tropic Thunder where Robert Downey Jr. played a role) saying that “the role of War Machine was scaled back and then beefed up”.

Mickey Rourke who almost did not accept the role (again because of money issue) will join the cast as the Ivan Vanko/Whiplash. Okay. I understand the confusion. Hardcore marvel comic fans would be shouting sacrilege about this, well, maybe not. But in Iron Man 2, for reasons only the writer’s would know, they integrated two characters into one. Ivan Vanko (who is supposedly the alter ego of the first Crimson Dynamo), and the villain Whiplash (now known in the comic books as Blacklash) whose name in the marvel universe Mark Scarlotti are merged as one character.  The only thing that is common on these two characters is the fact that they both use electricity as weapon.

Aside from the battle Between the Iron Man and whiplash, the plot will also evolve around Tony Starks’ problem with alcoholism. During a promotional tour, Robert Downey Jr. revealed that the story will be a crossover of Demon in a bottle (Iron Man Vol. 1 #120, March 1979 to #128 November 1979) story arc and origins. Demon in a bottle is written by David Michelinie and Bob Layton with art by John Romita, Jr., Bob Layton, and Carmine Infantino for marvel comics.

Other characters in the movie are: Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury, Scarlett Johansson as Natasha Romanoff / Black Widow, Sam Rockwell (who was first considered for the role of Tony Starks in Iron Man 1) as Justin Hammer, Jon Favreau as Happy Hogan, John Slattery as Howard Stark, Clark Gregg as Agent Phil Coulson of S.H.I.E.L.D. and Paul Bettany as the voice of JARVIS (Starks’ computer).

Iron Man to is set for release in 2010