2009 Comic-Con: 'Iron Man 2' Panel

Luke Y Thompson is covering the Con for DHD with an emphasis on Hollywood:

Wow. The most anticipated panel, IRON MAN 2, was also the most strangely truncated, ending a full 15 minutes before its time, where every other panel has run long. It also was the hardest to get into – even with a VIP pass, I still had to pull every string with Marvel publicists, who literally had to drag me through the crowd by publicists to the only open civilian seat. (Thanks! You ARE Iron Men and women.) But (a) it was all worth it, and (b), thanks, fans, for showing the TWILIGHT crowd that we still corner the market in crazy.

Now let’s talk footage.

We begin with Tony Stark, in the IRON MAN suit but unmasked, chilling out in the center of a giant donut sign on top of a donut store.

Samuel L. Jackson, NICK FURY himself, walks up. “Sir, I’m gonna have to ask you to exit the donut.”

Next, they’re sitting inside the store – Stark saying he doesn’t want to be part of a team, and Fury saying he gets that Stark works alone. Stark asks Fury if he’s a figment of his imagination.

Fury: “I’m the realest person you’re ever gonna meet.”
Stark: “Just my luck.”

Next up is Senate hearings on CNN, with Stark being interrogated by Senator Stern (Garry Shandling) about how the Iron Man suit is an undeclared weapon. Stark insists it be called what it is – a hi-tech prosthesis. Stern insists it is a weapon and should be turned over to the government.

Stark: “I am Iron Man, the suit and I are one, and turning over the suit would be tantamount to indentured servitude or prostitution.”
Stern: “I’m not familiar with..”
Stark: “…prostitution? Of course not. You’re a SENATOR.”

Asked if he has anything to say for himself, Stark says, “you’re welcome,” declares “I’m your nuclear deterrent, I have successfully privatized world peace.” Senate audience cheers, Stark calls Senators “ass clowns.”

Stern: “[Bleep] you, Mr. Stark!” (yes, it’s bleeped out).

Then we see Mickey Rourke with a movie-serial-killer-like collection of clips of Tony Stark. The Black Widow (Scaqrlett Johansson) does a little martial arts on unspecified attackers. Shot of a NASCAR-like track with a wrecked car, Stark in a race suit, and Rourke coming towards him, racking electric whips. He has a mechanical heart unit like Stark’s.

IRON MAN 2 logo. Black Sabbath riff. Then…

Sam Rockwell as arms dealer Hammer, presented with a damaged IronMan suit by Don Cheadle.

Hammer: “What did you do? What did you do? Is this what I think it is?’

He’s sucking on a lollipop. Silly character business, really. Then shows off a bunch of guns.

Cheadle: “I’ll take it.”
Hammer: “Which one?”
Cheadle: “All of it.”

Cut to a quick clip of the now-modified War Machine suit in action. Fade to black.

NOTE: I have seen some pre-production stuff at Marvel, and believe me, there is a TON of cool stuff not even touched upon in this trailer.

Panel: Jon Favreau, Kevin Feige, Robert Downey Jr., Cheadle, Rockwell, Scar-Jo. No Rourke.

Cheadle is asked a question right of the bat about the challenge of playing a pre-defined character, James “War Machine” Rhodes, played by Terrence Howard and controversially recast.

Cheadle: “It’s been a very interesting experience…I heavily relied on Robert and Kevin…it was just an amazing experience.” Nice dodge, but we will come back to this.

About wearing the suit, Cheadle says: “It’s heavy!”
Downey: “I can’t believe your rig is bigger than my rig.”
Cheadle: “It was contractual.”

Scarlett asked about her audition, says she didn’t have a formal one.
Downey: “Did you bump your fuckin’ head? Your audition is your body of work!”
Favreau: “She dyed her hair red before she got the part, and THAT was enthusiasm.”

Scarlett trained a lot to do her own fights, says the only solution is to put in the time, and as a moviegoer, she wants to see the actor doing it for real. “You wanna see the face, and recognize the body, so…” Thousands in the hall roar their approval of her body. She credits “a lot of egg-white omelets.”

Big cheers for Rockwell – surprisingly huge applause when MOON is mentioned. Have all these people really seen it?

Favreau is asked if he’ll direct AVENGERS. “I still got another year to go on this one, so whatever.” Notes, however, that Avengers doesn’t start till he’s done with IM2. Hasn’t been discussed, but he hopes to be involved somehow. Mentions he thinks Kenneth Branagh may also has a shot – he’s seen some early Thor designs and is impressed (this is the only mention of any other Marvel movie project).

Fan steps to the mic, says he was an intern for Marvel on the first film, and had to go through every Iron man comic to note minuscule costume changes. Wants to know if it was Favreau who made him do that.

Feige takes the blame, but Favreau adds: “You did it for these people. Now GET BACK TO WORK!”

Downey, on Rourke: “I thought I was crazy!”

Favreau remembers telling Rourke the character was a Russian ex-con. “Next thing I knew, he was in a Russian prison. And I had to learn from TMZ.” Says that 9-1/2 Weeks was the first Western film post-Perestroika to open wide in Russia, so Rourke is a “sex god” there, and loves to visit.

Downey: “And where do you o if you’re a sex god in Russia, but to prison?”

Finally, a fan asks Cheadle about Terrence Howard – how much of his performance was informed by him? “I tried to do it based on the script. I think we deal with it [the recasting] in an elegant way and move on, but being the vampire that I am, I tried to siphon off his performance.”

Last question? Fan asks if the studio ever approached Downey to play War Machine, since he was so good as an African-American in Tropic Thunder.

Downey: “You’re gonna waste the last question on THAT?” Calls the guy a smartass, says he likes that. “I want you to come work for my production company.”

One more question is allowed. A fan asks Cheadle if he prefers playing a good guy like in this, or a bad guy like in METEOR MAN.

Cheadle: “I don’t even know what that other movie is.”

I had forgotten too, until just now. Cheadle was in that? Time for a DVD rerelease with him on the cover.