Starring: Robert Downey Jr., Gwyneth Paltrow, Don Cheadle, Jon
Favreau, Mickey Rourke, Sam Rockwell, Samuel L. Jackson, Scarlett
Johansson, Garry Shandling, John Slattery Directed by: Jon Favreau
U.S.
Opening Date: May 7th, 2010
THEY SAY
Now that Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) has come out of the closet as Iron
Man, who knows who is going to pop out of the woodwork to fight him . .
Reports have it that Mickey Rourke plays a tattooed Russian baddie named
Ivan who becomes Whiplash - a man with deadly, technologically enhanced
coils: "He's considered to be an evil version of Iron Man because he
battles the superhero in a nuclear-powered suit of armor."
Sam
Rockwell (Moon,
Hitch-hiker's Guide to the Galaxy) plays
Justin Hammer, a multibillionaire businessman and a rival of industrialist
Tony Stark. Scarlett Johansson is sexy superspy Natasha Romanoff AKA
Black Widow (see photo below).
WE SAY
With
a U.S. opening weekend of $98.6 million and an estimated global box office
take of $200 million within less than a week, it should come as no
surprise that Marvel has already started production on Iron Man 2
for a summer 2010 release.
Besides, director Jon Favreau has admitted in
interviews that he had the whole Iron Man
thing planned out as a trilogy. Rumor has it that the villain in the final movie will be the evil
mastermind
Mandarin.
Now that Marvel Comics has cut out the middle man
by producing their own movies (which makes the $150 million budgeted Iron
Man one of the most expensive independently-made movies ever!), it seems
that they have gone overboard! Also planned are movie adaptations of other comic book titles such as
Thor and
The First
Avenger: Captain America for 2011 and
The Avengers for 2012.
Personally we believe that Marvel may be riding on a wave of over-optimism
here. After all, Thor is probably one of the most ridiculous
superheroes ever invented and is prime material for high camp. But hey –
we didn’t have the second biggest opening for a non-sequel since the
original Spider-man, so what do we
know?
