Easter Eggs are that extra layer of entertainment in films, sometimes a nod to something outside the film like the director’s name as the author of a book on a shelf in the background, or sometimes they are directly related to the film, like seeing Captain America’s shield on Tony’s workbench in Iron Man.

Well a little egg has been revealed from the upcoming Iron Man 2. Classic villain and alien dragon Fin Fang Foom will be seen on a billboard.

Reelz Channel shares:

This was my design for Fin Fang Foom for the Iron Man: Viva Las Vegas book I was doing with Jon Favreau. But this image in particular was done for the [Iron Man 2] movie and used as a billboard in one of the scenes where Iron Man flies past it. It’s very quick, but Jon wanted to have a kind of a cool Easter egg in there.

I love these little hidden bits in films. And to see something as silly as Fin Fang Foom in a brief cameo is appropriate considering the goofy named dragon creature is actually an alien from Maklu who first came to earth in ancient China (spawning dragon legends) and later when the advanced spacecraft that he arrived in is found, there are ten rings of advanced technology that are stolen from it by the man who eventually becomes The Mandarin.

Will Fin Fang Foom make a bigger appearance in a later film? Doubtful, but at least there is a nod to the origin of the Ten Rings of Mandarin, even though they are likely to twist that origin story slightly.

MTV was chatting with War Machine co-creator Bob Layton and it seems that there are hints in Iron Man 2 that might lead up to a Demon in a Bottle storyline in Iron Man 3.

Now I didn’t realize they were already writing 3 (since I assume Avengers will fit in between) but Layton seems convinced it could happen.

Worst Previews quotes Layton

“I think they’ve come up with a terrific segue to the third film, which I think is going to be fairly powerful,” he said. “My understanding is that the third film could very well be the ‘Demon in a Bottle’ story mixed in there with everything and I’m kind of looking forward to that, if that’s where they wind up going.”

I hope they build up into a solid Demon storyline. Its what Iron Man was made for. Its the most meaningful and notable storyline in all of the Iron Man books.

It was the thing that even made me pay attention to the character to begin with.

And they are planting the seeds effectively with Tony already having a penchant for the wobbly drinks. Its an easy fallback when the stress lays on thick.

It defines Stark and gives heart to the character instead of just a careless millionaire in a suit made of kickass.

I really hope they pull this storyline out when it will matter. Don’t rush it, make it right.

A new Iron Man 2 poster is online that is featuring the main enemy Whiplash.

I had hoped that the earlier images we saw of Whiplash were going to be a “work in progress” whiplash and that we would get to see a fully armoured version of him.

But it would seem that his mastery of the whip is sufficient enough to keep Iron Man at bay.

Still he looks pretty badass, and I can’t wait to see it.

Via

Once again we get a sneak peek at an anticipated character in a film by looking for its toy!

Previews, the advance listings catalogue for comic book retailers has an ad for the action figure of Cheadle in the
War Machine armour and gives us a little better look. Cleverly, they found a way to advertise this collectable in the catalogue without actually showing it, as the full image of the character is blocked out in sihloette.

Iron Man 2 is shaping up to be as good as the first, and I can’t wait to see it. I like that they are keeping War Machine under relative wraps for now.

Via

We get our first peek at the Iron Man armour on the cover of Empire Magazine’s January 2010 issue.

The posing is perfect. It could be an intimidating stare from the Man of Iron, or it could be just the armour standing on its own, granted with its eyes a glow and its power core never far from the chest of Tony Stark I have to assume it is the bold stare of Iron Man that is breaching the page just daring you to Jaywalk.

I don’t know that my anticipation could be higher for the sequel, though they are doing a good job keeping my interest maintained!

Via

The subtle presence of the Ten Rings terrorist group and the leader Raza wearing a decorative symbol of his position made me think that Mandarin might make an appearance in the sequel but we know that isn’t happening just yet.

The actor who played Raza has a little insight into the potential of Mandarin in the Iron Man films.

Latino Review quotes Faran Tahir:

“At some point, they want to introduce Mandarin into the storyline and my character, like Mandarin, was the leader of the Ten Rings. We’re leaving it open because, partly, it makes good business sense for us to leave a little bit of uncertainty for people to speculate on.”

“He [Favreau] has known for a long time where he wants to take it and I don’t want to speak for him, but my feeling is that the second movie didn’t want to just follow a singular storyline. They wanted to expand the characters to show that it’s not a linear saga like Lord of the Rings. There’s a linkage somewhere in there, but the big idea is to do at least one more Iron Man movie and then go into The Avengers.”

Now sometimes when we hear about a cast member promoting his character we just assume its just talk, but the talk here pretty much sets up the potential that Faran himself may not be the man who becomes the Mandarin.

The Mandarin’s true name has never been revealed, though it has been suggested that he has been called a few variations of Khan among other completely different names.

Perhaps it was the ring itself that becomes the cameo of the first film. Even Tahir admits that his character may not step into the shoes and just shares a little of the inside track he knows about Favreau’s plans.

I’d like to see Mandarin as the villain. He brings something a little different from the current trend of the “Turn Stark Technology against Iron Man” stories. Fav seems to be pacing out the storylines.

I also wonder when we might see the Bottle.

Twitter is a wonderful tool that I am getting used to. It gives me the snippets of information I want from friends and celebs that I want to follow in 140 characters or less! Its like reading headlines.

Well some news on the Marvel front has come out first via Twitter, starting with news from Jon Favreau that Robert Downey Jr’s Sherlock Holmes might be the place to be to see the first Iron Man 2 Trailer.

And while they are at that, the internal buzz about Thor is reaching a fever pitch with many people involved tweeting their excitement:

First Showing quotes:

The big Thor discussion was kicked off today by Marvel’s editor-in-chief Joe Quesada - @JoeQuesada:

“I could listen to Branagh talk about Thor all day long. Cast is in place, sets are being built and screenplay is brilliant. Marveldom rules!”

Then comic book author Brian Michael Bendis - @BRIANMBENDIS - replied with the following as well:

“Broadcasting live from marvel west. Thor movie meeting with Ken branagh was over the top amazing. Visited the sets! I was in Odin’s chamber!”

“U should get in line for the Thor movie today. Just saying.”

While I expect there to be a certain amount of pumping from executives and studios involved, this lines up with the rest of the news we are hearing. Solid cast, confident filming schedule and nothing but good news that almost sounds like the running start Iron Man had when we couldn’t find fault in that either.

I can’t wait to see how this all comes about. And if you are on Twitter, dont forget to follow us at The Stub

Remember back when we were just hearing bits about Iron Man, and every little shred of news was just made of the purest gold and made you more and more excited about seeing Iron Man come to life?

Well its happening again. And everything I am hearing sounds great. So for a first peek on set Entertainment Tonight sent Captian Jack Harkness to the set to check it out.

Scarlett looking sassy, Paltrow looking classy, Cheadle looking downright serious, and of course RDJ living the dream, loving this as much as we love seeing him in it. This video has me hyped already.

Cheadle says it: “Revered Silence” Nice.

Via

With Iron Man 2 already well underway, Entertainment Tonight is digging in for a special set visit special this coming Thursday.

Well today we get to read how these familiar faces will fit in to the big screen adaptation and sequel to the massive Iron Man.

Worst Previews spells out the synopsis for us:

On one side is Justin Hammer (Rockwell), a fast-talking weapons manufacturer who fancies himself the next Tony Stark; on the other, Vanko (Mickey Rourke), who, while incarcerated in a Russian prison, creates his own battle-suit, which shoots devastating, whip-like beams. Hammer and Whiplash join forces to take Downey’s character Tony Stark down.

Adding more flesh and blood to the new movie is Stark’s mysterious new assistant, Natasha, who has an alter ego of her own, Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson). That introduction inevitably sparks romantic tension between Stark and former assistant Pepper Potts, who’s been promoted to CEO of Stark Industries.

So Black Widow will be introduced as a spy who manages to get herself close to Stark as Potts former job has become available. I predict that the “love triangle” will be resolved when Stark finds out who Widow is and she admits she was playing him with her sexual wiles.

Check out the promo for ET’s Set Visit special:

Lookin great so far!

News broke over the weekend that we would indeed see War Machine in the upcoming Iron Man 2. Clearly hinted at when Rhodey says “maybe next time” to a prototype armour suit in the first film, the fans were waiting for it despite Favreau’s insistence that War Machine was not in the works just yet.

Oh the clever deception of directors!

Well fans at San Diego Comic Con got a sneak peek at some Iron Man 2 footage which included the ballistics heavy War Machine suit, presumably worn by Rhodey but as of yet, there hasn’t been a clear picture released online. Intrepid bootleg bandits that leaked the footage out captured the dark screenshot of War Machine, and I have taken the image and lightened it some to get a better look.

Its still not all that clear, and I am certain that we will get plenty of chances to look at the cast of Iron Man 2 in the coming months, but for now this is the best we get for War Machine.

Anticipation is taking on a whole new definition with the subtle ramp up to Avengers. First Iron Man gave us a peek at the badass juice that is Samuel L Jackson, and now with Iron Man 2 coming we anticipate more Nick Fury kicking ass.

So who’s ass gets the fury of Fury? Well…. No one really.

World of Superheroes says:

“Not this time, not yet,” Jackson told MTV News of the likelihood we’ll see his character become the action hero fans know in “Iron Man 2.” “We still haven’t moved Nick Fury into the bad-ass zone. He’s still just kind of a talker.”

This is like shopping for lingerie with your wife to rush home and find out it wasn’t for “tonight” You know you are going to get some of that, but you just don’t know when.

Jackson has that presence that just makes you want to see him slap someone. I can’t wait to see that leather jacket flowing, with blazing looks that will kill and guns that just did.

It just won’t be in Iron Man 2.

In what might seem very minor change in the Iron Man 2 film version, Justin Hammer will not be seen as a stodgy old coniving buisnessman but a young snappy business rival every bit as charming and powerful as Tony Stark.

Fused Film tells us Rockwell’s Justin Hammer will be different than his Comic Book counterpart:

“They wanted to go with a rival for Tony Stark who is closer to his age, and make him American,” Rockwell told MTV. Rockwell went on to say that his character would serve as a rival in terms of influence, prestige and social power, but wouldn’t be fighting against Tony Stark, decked out in his own suit of battle armor. “My character is the brains, not the brawn,” Rockwell said.”

It doesn’t bother me that they are changing Justin Hammer to be a younger less British version than the comics. Frankly if they gave him a new name and just had Rockwell play the role of a business rival that threatens his company with a hostile takeover people would just complain that he should have just been Hammer all along. So they flipped a coin.

A strong overall theme of the comics has always been that Iron Man had his battles in his world, while Tony Stark had his battles in his world. The stress of this leads up to the most notable storyline EVER in his comic, Demon in a Bottle. We all want to see it get there, and people were upset it didn’t happen in the first movie, and then even more that looks like it wont happen yet.

But this excites me because they are not ignoring it. It is a YET thing. Build up the origin, now build up the character and his struggle with his duality and the massive stress it brings THEN unleash the demon.

A good story is wasted if there is no foundation. Like returning Megatron to Transformers after one movie? Wasted opportunity. The fans are chomping at the bit for this story so why blow your wad and waste the chance to make it monumental.

Marvel had a big meeting to look over its first quarter progress and at that meeting some details were discussed giving updates on some of its upcoming projects.

- Iron Man 2 is, of course, already filming for a May 7, 2010 release
- Thor is scheduled to start filming in the First Quarter of 2010. Branagh says there will be casting news withint the month.
- The First Avenger: Captain America (directed by Joe Johnston) will start filming summer 2010 (out July 22, 2011)

And the roads will all meet after that to bring us The Avengers. Marvel bigwig Kevin Feige says Zak Penn is already co-ordinating with other writers to work on it.

Coming Soon reports:

“Zak Penn is already on board The Avengers [as writer] and he’s spending a lot of his time looking into what we’re doing with Iron Man, Thor and Captain America, seeing how we’re tying it all together. And he’s beginning to outline the script now – he’ll be doing that over the summer.”

Avengers is going to be the easiest and the hardest film to ever write. Zak Penn has it hard.

On one hand, with all the major players already being established in their movie versions and having personalities, image and motivations already in place, he just has to play them off each other. Writes itself right??

Wrong.

This guy has to take people’s work, take these characters (assuming they are done well, like Stark) and NOT FUCK IT UP!! If Wolverine taught us anything it is that just because the character works in other films, and those films are a success, taking someone else’s character and writing a storyline for it can go well or blow up completely. Sequels all suffer from this possibility, but this is a completely different level of risk. They are taking their time to craft these superhero genres into a standalone franchises which could all then attempting the impossible and writing them together in a geek orgy of an ensemble movie.

I don’t envy this guy. And I can appreciate the pressure he is going to be under.

The first image from Iron Man 2 is online and this staggering image breakthrough gives us our first peek at what is to come from Iron Man.

A scene that could have been from the first Iron Man.

Now granted in the background there are MORE suits, but Tony had 3 suits in the first movie and its no secret that Ironman has more suits than underwear, so that much is new. But for a “FIRST LOOK” it just seems like the first image they put out, and nothing spectacular.

Even still, the very knowledge that somewhere on this mass of rock hurtling through space, Robert Downey Jr is on set and making Iron Man 2. It wasn’t a dream. Its really happening. Giddy!

Clark Gregg, the soft spoken but persistent Agent Coulson for the Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement and Logistics Division in Iron Man will be reprising his role in Iron Man 2. As well a new face will be added to the cast but no one seems to know who she is playing.

Kate Mara will be joining the cast, and it seems almost deliberate that her role is kept secret, which only makes us speculate that it is important.

/Film reports:

Mara’s character identity is being kept under wraps (for now). Gweneth Paltrow is back as Pepper Pots and Scarlett Johansson is playing the Black Widow, so where does Mara fit into this picture? The fact that her identity is being kept secret is very curious. Anyone have any ideas?

The ulterior motive to these summer tentpole action flicks has always been to introduce little hints that lead up to the Avengers film, so I can only make wild guesses as to who Kate Mara might play.

She is a pretty girl, and could easily fit the role of the Scarlet Witch, though with Fox still owning the X-Men rights I doubt it would be revealed that she is daughter of Magneto. But of all the Avengers that she could be, that’s the only one I can think she suits.

There is also the Wasp, but I would think a spunkier firecracker of a personality for her. Not the feeling I get from Mara.

So that’s my guess. Wanda Maximoff. Scarlet Witch.

What do you think??

Jon Favreau is picking up Iron Man right where the last one left off, and we will get to see Garry Shandling in those opening scenes.

/Film says:

When Jon Favreau described the first day of principal photography on Iron Man 2 as “It’s like we picked up where we left off” he wasn’t kidding. IESB has learned that the scene that was shot is a continuation of the final scene of the first Iron Man film, where Tony Stark reveals to the world that “I Am Iron Man.”

And it seems the role that Garry Shandling will be playing is a “guy in a suit” and earlier reports say he will be in that opening scene. Perhaps as a reporter.

No word on jut how dominate of a role Shandling will have, but from the sound of things it might be little more than a cameo. Perhaps not.

With Iron Man 2 going into principal photography today, all eyes are now focused on the story. Clearly the strongest story in the Iron Man books was Tony Stark’s battle with alcoholism in the story arc Demon in a Bottle, which also brings about War Machine.

Will this be the plot of Iron Man 2? According to RDJ, its not.

Cinematical shares:

Robert Downey Jr. brushed off the rumors with a “Not Really” to the MTV Splash Page. “As a matter of fact, I think that’s probably best saved because it’s such its own storyline. We’re going for the interim space [between the origin and Demon] which is more a look behind the mask of someone who says he’s Iron Man and what it really is to become a superhero.”

I am both disappointed and pleased to see Robert Downey Jr address it this way. Yes, the story is huge and it deserves its own stage, so he anticipates that it will be “saved” speculating Iron Man 3.

We already saw that Stark has no problems with cocktails before noon, and always seen with a drink in his hand. The stage is set to lead up to the alcoholism. And the catalyst in Demon that sends him on the downward spiral is the accidental death of a politician when he suit malfunctions. Already friends with the bottle, he consoles his depression and worry in some binge drinking.

Also, we were are being introduced to Justin Hammer in this film, who in the comic turns out to be responsible for the suit malfunction. Also, while Stark is struggling with Alcoholism, Rhodey takes on the Iron Man persona wearing the armour for a while, and eventually becomes War Machine adopting a heavy combat version of the armour called the “Variable Threat Response Battle Suit, Model XVI, Mark I”

Fan speculation is a buzz that since RDJ mentioned War Machine in an interview (though not actually admitting he would be in the movie) that we will see Cheaddle in the War Machine armour.

Personally I would love to see the Demon in a Bottle storyline, but if they are saving it for a third movie, I can wait. I don’t want to see such a sensitive subject just get tossed aside as a subplot resolved in a couple scenes.

A couple weeks ago when we talked about Scarlett Johansson as the Black Widow in Iron Man 2, I mentioned that I had no doubts in her ability to act or maybe pull off the accent, but I just couldn’t picture it. She just didn’t “look” like Black Widow to me.

Well Screen Rant has an image that might set your mind at ease.

But at least as far as visually, things are looking up - When she recently showed up in London at Moet and Chandon: A Tribute to Cinema party, Scarlett was looking considerably more like the Russian spy that we’ve come to know.

Well my mind is at ease, but my heart rate isn’t.

Scarlett looks absolutely smoldering hot in that dark red hair and striking makeup. This is more like I would imagine Black Widow to look like.

At least now I am less worried about Scarlett in the role. I am confident at least that she can pull off the look.

Right on the heels of announcing Mickey Rourke will be the Russian villain Whiplash (who is now apparently Russian) and not Crimson Dynamol, we get an update about who is apparently cast as Black Widow after Emily Blunt left the role. Scarlett Johannson!

In the article that is mostly about Rourke, we get this tidbit from Latino Review

Now I’m told that Emily Blunt won’t be in the sequel and Black Widow will now be played by Scarlett Johannson. Interesting because Scarlett actually screen-tested for the role and didn’t get it.

I am unsure about Scarlett in the role of Widow. Maybe its because Blunt was just SO perfect for the visual representation of Widow.

Scarlett can be sexy with very little effort and looks great with red hair, but she just doesn’t fall into my imagination as widow.

Rumours also say that she is getting a really piddly paycheque for this and is tied to any sequels or Avengers films, but then as I have speculated before, she might only have one or two scenes to just to give her a presence to pre-introduce her to the Avengers.

At least this casting would be better than that Olga girl everyone keeps trying to name for ANY role with a girl in it.

International Friend Nate-O tipped me off to a story that Rourke was signed on to Iron Man 2. I figured it was an out of date story, but I checked it, and sure enough. He is back in the role he was rumoured in before - this time with a rumoured raise - Crimson Dynamo.

IGN.net reports:

Deadline Hollywood Daily says that Rourke got a significant salary bump after Marvel’s previously reported “lowball offer.” According to DHD, Rourke will play “the Russian villain” in the film, which seems to confirm the rumor that he’ll play Crimson Dynamo.

It looks like this was more of a negotiation tactic. Rourke must have had a couple dozen offers slide across his dusty table once The Wrestler yanked him into the limelight again. This likely made him think he was suddenly A-List and that wee paycheque raised an eyebrow.

His role is simply reported as the “Russian Villain” and that he will begin researching his role after he finishes promoting The Wrestler… in Russia. Convenient.

When the rumour came around the first time, I was happy with him in the role of Crimson Dynamo, and it looks like thats where he is going to be.