jon favreau

"There will be blood in the water, and the sharks will come."

So says Whiplash (Mickey Rourke) in the just-released Iron Man 2 trailer (available on Apple's website in glorious QuickTime) and man oh man does it look like Jon Favreau and Co. outdid themselves. They don't hold much back in the chock-full 2 minutes and 28 seconds, but still, there's nothing too spoiler-ish going on, especially if you've been keeping up on your Iron Man 2 news. The correct one word response: totallyf-ckingawesome.

Since the end of Iron Man (i.e. "I am Iron Man"), Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) has gone full-blown rock star to the next degree. The sin of hubris attracts a lot of attention, mainly a pair of Ruskies, Whiplash (who we get a lot of) and Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson filling out that leather outfit nicely). Only a glimpse of Justin Hammer (Sam Rockwell) and Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson), but hey, cars flip, things explode, and yes, the oh so appropriate Black Sabbath song is back.

Did I forget to mention...War Machine (Don Cheadle replacing what would have been Terrence Howard)? Please just do yourself a favor if you haven't already and let this thing kick your ass all over the place. Or watch it again. Ahhh, May 2010 can't come soon enough.

No word yet if Marvel Studios has decided to release this thing in 3D, although I've got a gut feeling that that's going to be a big fat negative.

It's been known for some time now that Jon Favreau was interested in directing The Avengers should his schedule allow it. When the film's release date was pushed to May 4th, 2012, lots of folks figured the move was done, in part, to allow time for Favs to come in and helm. Earlier in the year, a Marvel spy told AICN the following: "Avengers is delayed a year because of financing issues but also because the plan is for Favreau to helm it. Everybody here loves the guy and he wants to do it, but it would have been impossible for him to do before the date change given his Iron Man 2 commitments. Also partly the reason why he agreed to do the Stark sequel on such an accelerated schedule was so he could get given first dibs on this. It would still be a punishing schedule for him, so hes not firmly confirmed yet, but he is certainly the presumptive director at this point."

Since then, though, it appears things have changed. Favreau will re-team with Robert Downey Jr. following their work on Iron Man 2 as director on Cowboys & Aliens, and he now tells MTV that he won't also be directing The Avengers because schedules just don't work out. Instead, he says he's going to executive produce: "They'll have to [find a different director], because I'm not going to be available", said Favreau. "It's something I'm being the executive producer on, so I'll definitely have input and a say."

By: Elisabeth Rappe (originally posted on Cinematical)

I really believe this is the best geek news we'll have all month. Not only is Robert Downey Jr. officially on board Cowboys & Aliens, The Hollywood Reporter announced that he's bringing Jon Favreau along for the ride. Considering the graphic novel was penned by Iron Man screenwriters Mark Fergus and Hawk Ostby, it's literally a dream team come true.

As if it wasn't touched by the movie gods enough, Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci, they-who-can-write-no-failures, are penning the script, and producer Damon Lindelof came aboard last fall. There's no way this can fail. Even if the movie was one big trick, and simply 2 hours of Robert Downey Jr. in a cowboy hat reading a phone book, it would succeed. We would just call it arthouse, and praise them all for subverting our expectations!

But there's no danger of arthouse here, Cowboys & Aliens really does promise to be pure fun with this team. The story takes place in 1880s Arizona, where a war is raging between settlers and Native Americans. Their war is interrupted by the arrival of a UFO, which promptly unleashes hell onto the plains of Silver City. The Native Americans and settlers must unite to fight a larger threat, and are led to battle by Zeke Jackson (Downey), a gunslinger and former member of the Union Army. You can read the entire graphic novel online, which should keep you satisfied until Cowboys & Aliens hits theaters in the summer of 2011.

By Elisabeth Rappe

I'm going to sound like a broken record with all the "Oh my gosh, he / she was so nice" remarks, but the happy truth is that all the ComicCon talent I encountered this year was ridiculously nice. Sam Rockwell was no exception. He's exactly as you think he would be: quiet, friendly, low-key. One of my finest moments was having my druthers enough to compliment him on Moon, and he was so flattered it was if he had never been complimented on it before. Call it good acting, call it being humble, whatever. He's a cool guy, and I feel so bad for being leery of him after his creepy turn in The Green Mile.

Coming up is Don Cheadle and Jon Favreau, so keep reading, they should be up by midweek.

[On whether or not it was fun to be out in Hall H and part of Iron Man 2 -- not sure which, impossible to hear. Sorry readers.]

No, it's exciting to see that trailer, you know? That's an exciting thing, because we just wrapped a week ago.

So you haven't seen dailies or anything?

No, it was really wild to see that. It was really exciting.

One of the cool things looking at this cast, and the people who are making this movie, is that everybody comes from a sort of indie background. I don't want to disparage, but it's real actors and real filmmakers working on this. Does that create a definite vibe on set, a sort of small, indie environment as a result?

It is. It really feels like you're a part of the All-Stars, you really feel like you're there to do something cool. You're right, it's not just a big studio movie with thrills and chills. It's very actor friendly, and cinematically it's just phenomenal. It's big filmmaking, and yet it is very accessible to actors in a way that independent film is. It's very actor friendly for sure. It's cool.

Read the rest at Cinematical

During the Iron Man 2 panel at Comic Con, one fan asked Jon Favreau whether he'd be directing The Avengers. Good news for fans out there is that Favs definitely wants to be involved in some capacity, and though he hasn't had any discussions with Marvel yet, he has been keen to what they've been doing for Thor and he said that stuff looks pretty spectacular. Towards the end of his answer, Favs noted that his work on Iron Man 2 will be over and done with by the time anything for The Avengers begins, and so perhaps that was his way of telling fans he's interested in the gig.

For more on the Iron Man 2 panel, read Cinematical's coverage here. Check out video from Comic Con after the jump, along with Favreau's Avengers answer.

The first image of Mickey Rourke as the villain Whiplash in Iron Man 2 has arrived online ... and I'm kinda diggin' the whole get-up. He looks like a biker baddie; the sort of dude you don't want to meet down a dark alley. Here's Elisabeth Rappe reporting for Cinematical:

The first look at Mickey Rourke as Iron Man's new nemesis, Whiplash, has hit the Internet courtesy of USA Today. As it's a rather large photo, I've put it in our Iron Man 2 gallery below, so I hope you don't mind a little extra clicking!

Rourke is playing Ivan Vanko, a Russian ex-con (notice the prison tattoos) who has constructed his own version of an Iron Man suit. Of course, he has all kinds of nifty little additions such as a pair of whips, powered by the suit's glowing chest piece. But Jon Favreau won't say whether or not Vanko works for Stark Industries' rival Justin Hammer, as he does in the comics. "We like to play into and against the expectations that people might have so, we mixed it up a bit." Here he's making his first appearance not just online, but to the Marvel world at the Monaco Historic Grand Prix.

Check out a larger image over at Cinematical.

Discuss: Does Mickey Rourke look like the villain from an Iron Man movie or a rejected Mad Max character ... or both?