The introduction of Jake Lonergan (Daniel Craig) is all silent behavior, so you get a sense of who this guy is visually. Jake suits up as a cowboy in the cold open, and Craig makes a great man with no name. It’s not that different from his rough and tumble James Bond, but I want to see that guy in the old west too.

Get The Alien Cribs Tour In 'Cowboys & Aliens' Trailer

Jake shakes up the town just like any western hero would. Percy Dolarhyde (Paul Dano) is used to making trouble and endangering civilians with no one standing up to him. Jake humiliates Percy in a badass way. Doc (Sam Rockwell) is just a saloon owner with a dream, Meacham (Clancy Brown) is the preacher who still knows he needs a gun and Sheriff Taggart (Keith Carradine) sees outlaws all the time and recognizes how flexible the law is in the old west. Meanwhile Jake keeps beating dudes up.

Woodrow Dolaryde (Harrison Ford) has a stronghold on the town and Ford is having fun scowling it up. Unfortunately, once the town goes looking for the aliens, Mr. Dolaryde is just along for the ride. He gets some good character moments, especially with he and Jake sizing each other up, but it’s not a fully developed part. Ella (Olivia Wilde) is saddled with all the exposition, and I’ll embrace that pun in all its glory but I would have said the same thing if she were in any genre explaining all the backstory.

7 photosOlivia Wilde

Perhaps some of the bad buzz has come from people’s expectations of western. This isn’t the Oscar-y western like True Grit or Unforgiven. It’s like the real westerns of old Hollywood and the Italian era, just a great yarn with cool characters. They still run into bandits and natives, build legends like Woodrow’s war history, ride through the plains on horseback and bond over the campfire.

The little bit of sci-fi is still in the western mold. Jake chases after a spaceship like it’s a runaway stagecoach. In the climactic battle, Nat Colorado (Adam Beach) lassos an alien like cattle. The aliens resemble a combination of Giger, Predator and Blade 2. They look good, although I forgot about their mouth arms until they use them again in the end.

The McGuffin on Jake’s wrist still rubs me the wrong way. It’s a totally artificial mystery. It’s like oh, look, what is this crazy object on his wrist? It exists only to reveal backstory later in the film, and to make it easier for Jake to shoot down alien ships. Other characters come up with creative ways to use their bare bones western tools to fight aliens, but the script hinges a mystery on this artificial device

For me, Cowboys & Aliens is what I wanted in a summer movie. It’s a grand, fantastic world full of big adventure and high concept. Probably not a memorable classic but damn good fun. I hope there’s a porno parody of it. They can call it Reverse Cowgirl & Aliens.

PCU

David Spade and Jeremy Piven in PCU

Jeremy Piven destroys anything that comes into view with a sarcastic wit that is timeless and perfect for a college movie. Teamed up with a larger Jon Favreau, Piven gives lessons in college etiquette along with an enlightened and useful view of classes to take as a freshman that are the Rosetta Stone of education. PCU takes no hostages among the various factions at their school, demystifying the higher education experience with an almost religious fervor. Roll around in the genius of this movie until you stink of old sheets and older pizza crusts. Pay particular attention to Piven’s advice about overcoming the lack of a car.

Road Trip

Tom Green with a snake in Road Trip

Surpassing adolescence as the premier rite of passage into adulthood is the cross-country car trip with your buds. Road Trip tosses together an unlikely group of friends and acquaintances and sends them across America to take care of a certain mistakenly sent package to one of their girlfriends. An amusing college movie that shows off a deep love for the buddy travel genre, Road Trip bookends the journey with the universally dreaded end of term finals—the heart of the movie is the companions realizing they need to be freed from from thei high school past in order to experience the present.

Old School

Will Ferrell partying in Old School

A soul check of a movie because if you’re not dying of laughter by the time a certain flying tackle into a fountain that takes place, then there’s a probably a good chance you spent your childhood torturing small animals. The college frat gets a remodel when a bunch of guys well past their prime decide they can start up their own—and it steam rolls into the land of belly laughs and snorts from there. The inability to let go of their early twenties is the main center of focus here, but it’ buried under a surface of the classic bonding of miscreants and weirdoes who form the same bonds that a typical fraternity would produce. Will Ferrell is on point in Old School with Vince Vaughn flanking him as they combine into a Voltron of awesomeness making this a college movie you can watch again and again.

Accepted

Justin Long and Jonah Hill in Accepted

Ingenious in its concept about a fake college acceptance letter that snowballs into the need to actually build a fake university to perpetuate the lie, Accepted makes your adolescent fears of not getting in anywhere a reality and then pushes it off a cliff. Timeless is the fear of rejection and the necessity is the mother of invention and all that jazz. Seeing Lewis Black play a dean and eventual professor alone is worth seeing, not to mention you’ll garner some valuable insight into the sheep-like pursuit of higher education. Whaddaya know, you might just learn something.

Back to School

Rodney Dangerfield throwing a football in Back To School

Back to School doesn’t even bother saying hello before it tears into the sanctity of college with wild abandon. Rodney Dangerfield is at his peak as a father who feels out of touch with his son and chooses to attend school with him so they can share the experience. The problem being that Dangerfield plays a rich businessman and therefore knows how money makes the world go round and applies it to his classes and his free time. Quips and one-liners bounce off the scenery with enough slapstick to satisfy any type of comedy lover. Without any need for a moral anchor, this film strives to deliver as much laughter as possible while carrying along a story that’s built on a foundation of the love between a dad and his son.

Here are our picks from Thursday’s schedule. You can check out the entire schedule HERE.

11:15-12:15 The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 1— Summit Entertainment presents a sneak peek at the highly anticipated next chapter of The Twilight Saga. This is a must see for fans interested in the story’s final chapters. You’ll see exclusive footage from The Twilight Saga Breaking Dawn Part 1 and be treated to a filmmaker and cast Q&A session providing details on the first half of the epic two-part finale. Hall H

2:00-3:00 Napoleon Dynamite— Original cast members from the hit indie film including Jon Heder, Tina Majorino, Efren Ramirez, Jon Gries, Sandy Martin, Diedrich Bader and executive producer Mike Scully (The Simpsons) present a new series following your favorite awkward teenager like you’ve never seen him before — animated! Join us for a sneak peek at never-before-seen footage of the newest member of FOX’s Animation Domination lineup and a “sweet” Q&A session. Room 7AB

3:00-4:00 Game of Thrones Panel and Q&A session— Based on the bestselling fantasy book series A Song of Ice and Fire by George R. R. Martin, HBO’s Game of Thrones concluded its 10-episode debut season on June 19. The series, executive produced and written by David Benioff and D.B. Weiss, follows kings and queens, knights and renegades, liars and noblemen as they vie for power in a land where summers span decades and winters can last a lifetime. Some of the cast featured in the first season and appearing on this panel are (in alphabetical order) Emilia Clarke as Daenerys Targaryen, Nikolaj Coster-Waldau as Ser Jaime Lannister, Peter Dinklage as Tyrion Lannister, Kit Harington as Jon Snow, and Jason Momoa as Khal Drogo. Moderated by George R. R. Martin, who also serves as a co-executive producer and writer on the series. Ballroom 20

3:15-4:30 20th Century Fox— At past Comic-Cons, 20th Century Fox has previewedIndependence Day, X2 Avatar, and X-Men Origins: Wolverine. You won’t want to miss the excitement this year, as Fox presents first-looks at some of its most-anticipated pictures of 2011 and 2012. Hall H

4:00-5:00 Archer Screening and Q&A— This animated half-hour comedy revolves around the spy agency known as the International Secret Intelligence Service (ISIS) and the lives of its self-involved employees. Series creator Adam Reed (Sealab 2021, Frisky Dingo) and the show’s voice-over actors discuss their daunting and enigmatic work of espionage, reconnaissance missions, and undercover surveillances — which are all actually unmitigated occasions for the ISIS staff to undermine, sabotage, and betray each other for personal gains and prosperity. Panelists include H. Jon Benjamin (Bob’s Burgers, Jon Benjamin Has a Van) as the highly skilled yet incredibly vain master spy Sterling Archer; Aisha Tyler (Talk Soup,CSI) as fellow agent provocateur Lana Kane; Chris Parnell (Saturday Night Live, 30 Rock) as the easily intimidated comptroller of ISIS, Cyril Figgis; Judy Greer (Mad Love, Arrested Development) as the loquacious secretary, Cheryl/Carol; Amber Nash (Frisky Dingo, Aqua Teen Hunger Force) as the discordant director of human resources for ISIS, Pam Poovey; andGeorge Coe (Funny People, Curb Your Enthusiasm) as Sterling’s elderly and always-exploited butler, Woodhouse. Indigo Ballroom, Hilton San Diego Bayfront

5:00-6:00 Beavis & Butthead— In 1993, Mike Judge (creator of Beavis and Butthead) and MTV knocked their heads together and launched a cartoon series starring a couple of lunkheads and unwittingly started an animated pop culture revolution. Now, Beavis and Butthead are coming back to MTV in 2011 to unleash on music videos, Jersey Shore, viral videos, and more. See the first footage from the new episodes, and join Mike as he discusses the duo’s return to MTV! Room 6A

5:30-7:30 Showtime : Tired of Ordinary Television?— This year at Comic-Con, Showtime saves! The casts and creative forces behind Dexter and Shameless give sneak peeks into the new seasons. And be the first to see an exclusive look at the new Showtime original series Homeland. Ballroom 20

6:00-7:00 Entertainment Weekly: The Visionaries: A discussion with Jon Favreau and Guillermo del Toro on the Future of Pop Culture— EW moderates an in-depth conversation with Jon Favreau (Cowboys & Aliens) and Guillermo del Toro (Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark), two filmmakers at the forefront of bringing geek culture to the masses and making blockbuster art out of pulp fiction. They will discuss their inspirations, their current work, and how they strive to put a personal stamp on blockbuster entertainment. Plus: How is new technology changing the way stories are produced and viewed? And what do they think the pop culture universe will look like a decade from now? Moderated by Jeff “Doc” Jensen.Hall H

6:15-7:30 Wilfred Screening and Q &A— Elijah Wood (Lord of the Rings, Happy Feet) stars as Ryan, a young man struggling unsuccessfully to make his way in the world until he forms a unique friendship with Wilfred, his neighbor’s canine pet, played by Jason Gann (The Wedge, Mark Loves Sharon), who co-created and starred in the Australian version of Wilfred in 2007. While everyone else sees Wilfred as just a dog, Ryan sees a crude and surly man in a cheap dog suit. Elijah and Jason, along with Wilfred co-stars Fiona Gubelmann(Californication, Cold Case) and Dorian Brown (Roommates, Psych), executive producer David Zuckerman (Family Guy, American Dad, King of the Hill), and co-executive producer/director Randall Einhorn (The Office, Modern Family) discuss bringing this unique, live-action comedy to life. Room 6A

8 photosNew ‘Super 8′ Stills Show Everything (But The Monster)

Cowboys & Aliens starring Daniel Craig, naked Olivia Wilde, Harrison Ford, Sam Rockwell, and Abigail Spencer opens on July the 29th.

We also catch a glimpse of an alien this time around. It’s what you’d expect. We only catch a gnarled, boney Joan Rivers hand with reptilian skin gripping a rock while it lifts itself out of frame. It’s the only confirmation that we need that there are actually aliens in this movie. Up until this point, I was sure that jet from Stealth was up to its old tricks.

Above is the new trailer for Jon Favreau‘s Cowboys & Aliens, starring Daniel Craig, Olivia Wilde and Harrison Ford. I like this new trailer. It’s got thrills, chills, cowpokes, alien folks. It gives you just enough to understand the complex, gun-based relationship between cattle rustlers and space invaders.

Based on a graphic novel – because of course it was – by Scott Mitchell Rosenberg, the film takes place in 1873, in the desert town of Absolution. Those old west towns have the friendliest names. A criminal with no memory of his past (Craig) must team up with the town sheriff (Ford) to stop aliens from destroying everyone. Olivia Wilde plays a girl character. It has a couple producers you probably haven’t heard of, like Brian Grazer, Ron Howard and Steven Spielberg.

The shoot-out comes to theaters July 29, 2011.

As far as I was concerned, Jon Favreau just showed some footage of a cool new western he made. I was looking at all the western parts and what impressed me were the silent exploration and the subtle score.

The western town looks like a Leone/Eastwood movie, where it’s just past the studio backlot era and it looks like a real place people live. Those figures of Harrison Ford and Daniel Craig posing side by side in a widescreen frame are impressive, and Lonergan (Craig) sneaking around town to patch up his side wound is good visual storytelling.

Dolarhyde (Ford) gets a dramatic reveal, with the camera pushing in from behind as he turns around, looking up from under a hat. His issue is his cattle have been blown up, and it’s still approached like a rancher dealing with a real problem. Who would assume aliens? He drags the herder behind a horse because he assumes he’s lying about this bright light that zaps the cows (of course we see it in a flashback).

We saw a substantial alien attack. The ships za the town and snatch up some locals with their long tentacles, but Lonergan is able to blast one out of the sky with a device attached to his wrist. Lonergan establishes that he has no memory before waking up with it attached to his wrist.

After that first attack, the cowboys examine the downed ship at night. The townies are screaming about their captured family members but Dolarhyde shuts them up. A spark startles him though and he fires a round at the ship. That’s a joke, because it just clanks on the metal.

In quicker clips we saw Dolarhyde butt Lonergan with his rifle and Lonergan returned with a sock to Dolarhyde’s jaw. Alien ships fly over the stony canyons. There’s a big battlefield with horsemen galloping below the flying ships.

Jon Favreau said that the quick shot of an alien growling at a cowboy is exclusive to WonderCon, and he’s not going to show it any marketing before the movie comes out. That’s a great plan to keep the aliens a mystery, but I’m not sure the design is so original it’ll surprise anyone. I mean, a hulking mass of dark tissue with lots of pointy teeth kinda looks the same to me.

I don’t mind it. The cool part will be how the old west deals with this creature. CGI just looks like CGI, at least from a quick glimpse, so it seems to me like a familiar sort of creature to today’s audiences.

The Immortals

Immortals will benefit from the public’s interest in getting to know who this guy playing Superman is. Henry Cavill plays an action hero on Greek myth before he become The Man of Steel. At WonderCon, they showed a teaser trailer for Immortals.

I remember the teaser for 300 shown at Comic-Con and this is pretty much the same deal. There are a few memorable money shots and some flashes of setting to establish the tone. Only 300 was the first time we’d seen anything like that. Immortals REALLY looks like 300.

I’ll give Tarsem Singh credit that there’s an overall aesthetic plan. They picked out some shots of armies lining up and slow motion kill shots. It’s got that artificial golden light added in post production, set atop cliffs with fortified castle walls, so it all looks like a moving graphic novel.

Hyperion (Mickey Rourke) has a harem, an arsenal and armory. Theseus (Cavill) seems to be the only man equipped to lead armies, although Zeus (Luke Evans) is on his side so that helps. Theseus finds his bow and it seems to get a magic spark. At the end of the teaser he shoots four arrows in quick succession and they fly with zinging sounds and glowing charges of light.

One totally Tarsem shot is what looks like a grounds-eye-view of a huge battle. You see all the soldiers as if they’re standing on glass. Maybe they were supposed to be flying through the air but I got the impression they were on the ground battling hand to hand, only we got an omniscient perspective, but from below instead of above.

Theseus gives a speech to motivate his troops and he even says, “Today we fight for honor.” Tonight we dine in hell, the glory of Sparta, blah blah blah. 300 had at least three glory speeches so if Immortal talks about honor four times I guess it wins.

Dylan Dog: Dead Of Night

Only two scenes screened for Dylan Dog: Dead of Night’s WonderCon footage, but that might be good. The two clips made the film look very entertaining, didn’t overdo it or give away too much.

Both scenes focused on Marcus (Sam Huntington) and all his zombie powers. In the first clip, Dylan (Brandon Routh) is in the supermarket, pushing Marcus around in a shopping cart. Marcus actually wakes up and notices the smell of his own rotting corpse. He’s also got a tattooed left arm of a different ethnicity he doesn’t recognize. It had to be replaced and they didn’t have any more Caucasian arms.

So Dylan explains that they’re picking up floor cleaner for soap, bleach for his teeth and other ways of keeping zombies fresh. Marcus tries to eat some food left on a counter for samples, but ends up vomiting it into a plastic bag (zombies can’t eat food like living people do.) The deadpan timing with which Dylan hands him the bag shows that they’re onto something here.

The second scene is lit by candlelight, or Dylan’s lighter to be accurate. He and Marcus are locked in a crypt. Marcus really freaks out about it, and a scene that could be annoying is actually endearing. Marcus tries his cell phone in a panic.

It turns out, as Dylan explains, that zombies are world class diggers. Marcus has the power to dig them out. Marcus protests no, no, no, no, no, I lost count of how many “no”s he says. Huntington made it sound like character, not schtick.

Closing with a brief montage, there were monsters and a buff shirtless Routh. Dylan Dog looks like a legitimate Hollywood movie considering its underground indie pedigree. Monster makeup is a plus for me and I like the irreverence towards living with a monstrous condition.

Jon Favreau made a big deal about the reveal at the end of his Cowboys and Aliens WonderCon footage. He showed an alien, which he’s been keeping out of the trailers and plans to keep out of the marketing until the film is released. He’s actually got a whole plan for the aliens that can play out in sequels, but you’ll see it just in the way they invade the western frontier.

“Let’s assume that all travel is sublight and let’s assume that there’s no transmutation,” Favreau said in the WonderCon pressroom. “You can’t develop whatever elements you want, so essentially the people coming here are what we were like coming to the new world. It’s not people just hitting a war drive and ending up wherever they want to in the universe. I guess I grew up with Planet of the Apes where you’re traveling a great distance and it takes a great amount of town to go to the other Goldilocks planets. There’s a methodology because you don’t want to just be steampunk and you don’t want it to just be plug in your standard sci-fi look into this movie. We wanted to feel part of the landscape but justify it.”

The footage showed Daniel Craig patching himself up in a dust town home and Harrison Ford punishing farmhands he blamed for killing his cattle. The aliens invade, snatching up locals and firing at the galloping cowboys.

“You’ve seen that there is fun to it but the fun is not at the expense of the stakes. That it’s badass but it’s still human. There’s some confusion and emotion. These people are vying to get their families back. The odds are really long and how are we going to do this in a believable way? Because we set up a conundrum that seemingly can’t be solved. That’s the fun. That’s the fun of making movies.”

The western parts really feel like a western, and that’s partly because of the musical score with that wind chime-y cadence. Favreau chose Harry Gregson Williams for his combination of classical and technological skills. “The tone is so much determined by the music that if you have something that feels a little too playful, it’s going to feel like a wink. And if you have something that doesn’t embrace the western enough, it feels like we’re being dismissive of it. For a guy that you could actually phase in and out of, and as the movie changes, you want sweeping emotion sometimes, themes, but you also want to have that tension building and getting into that more tech-y, synth-y sound and being able to marry the two to give it a unique soundscape.”

If the film looks like an old school western, it’s because they shot with anamorphic lenses (REAL widescreen) and didn’t try to make it 3D. “In anamorphic, the lenses feel twice as long as they really are as far as the framing goes. So you get great flares and you get great blurry backgrounds and that’s why you get away with so much in Close Encounters where you don’t know if that light’s a mile away or 100 feet away. It’s that ambiguity that feeds into your imagination. We shot two days of test footage, because if I was going to shoot it I was going to shoot it digital stereo. I didn’t want to convert. It is something I think is good for certain movies. I look forward to working in 3-D but for this particular film I felt it held us back and now it’s part of what I think makes us original and unique and that seems to be our strongest asset right now. In a summer where a lot of things seem familiar, this one seems very different.”

Cowboys and Aliens are coming this July.

Seems like #3 in these Marvel trilogies is the easiest to screw up (see Spider-Man 3, X-Men 3, or better yet – don’t), but Black is a strong candidate. He’s worked well with Robert Downey Jr. before. My thinking is that if you can direct a guy getting his ass kicked in real life, you can direct a CG guy in a CG suit getting his ass kicked in CG. The scale of an Iron Man movie is super-huge, but if Darren Aronofsky can direct Wolverine, then Black should have no trouble handling a few iron dudes.

These are just talks, so who knows how they’ll pan out. Also, Black may have just accidentally stumbled into Marvel’s offices to avoid the police, and kinda improvised his way through the pitch. (Collider)

Jon Favreau has just informed Marvel that he won’t be returning to direct the third Iron Man film. It’s not known if his bowing out was due to financial, creative, or craft service preference differences. It could be that stingy Marvel was unwilling to pay Favreau a likely salary upwards of $12 million plus back end points. It could also be that Favreau was unwilling to turn Iron Man 3 into an extended trailer for the upcoming Avengers movie by cramming every superhero into it except Kitchen Sink-man. He’s a silly hero anyway.

Marvel began the process of looking for a new director last night. Unfortunately for the studio though, Robert Downey Jr. has to give final approval and I’m hoping against hope that McG is on his shitlist. Regardless of who signs on, I’m sure Marvel will lube up their decision hole and tightly pack their creative “suggestions” so far in it that they won’t be able to discern their directorial vision from the studio’s vision. I pray for thee. (Vulture)

Harry Potter fans are having a strange reaction to the trailer for Cowboys & Aliens. The comical title is causing viewers to break out into laughter, similar to the way that the name M. Night Shyamalan causes audiences to break out into “Awww, what dah fuh’s?!?”

This concerns Universal because the film isn’t a comedy whatsoever. Rather, it’s an awesome mash-up film where cowboys fight for survival against alien invaders. Now they’re scrambling to find the proper way to sell the film. Could a title-change be in order? Either way, the Deadliest Warrior movie is totally screwed. (NY Times)

Jon Favreau is putting on a brave face when discussing the dissolution of his bromance with Robert Downey Jr.. He’s spoken out about Downey’s need to jump off Cowboys & Aliens in favor of Sherlock Holmes 2 and seems to be a pretty good sport about it. He also tells The Playlist about the joys of working with Hollywood codger Harrison Ford.

"That’s sort of an inside joke between us," says Favreau. ‘I said, "You’re coming to Comic-Con with me’ and he said, ‘I’ve never been there. I’m not going. If you’re going to bring me, you’ve got to bring me in handcuffs.’ I showed up with handcuffs yesterday on the set from the prop man. And so he cam and wore the handcuffs on stage."

Which really was not a good idea. That room full of Crystal Skull haters ripped the restrained Ford limb from limb. Harrison J. Ford 1942 – 2010.

When asked about what we might expect to see from him next, Favreau responded that he’d like to take on the zombie genre. Prepare yourselves to see Vince Vaughn just eating everything in sight. More than usual.

Daniel Craig hasn’t made a movie since 2008, but it looks as if his schedule is about to fill up fast. The actor best known as James Bond is close to nabbing the part of Mikael Blomkvist in David Fincher’s adaptation of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. The film is the first in a three-part series based on the crime novels of Stieg Larsson, and Craig is expected to sign on for all three installments.

Rumor has it that Brad Pitt was close to landing the role, but was "edged out" when a bikini-clad Craig showed up at David Fincher’s house and offered to wash the director’s car. Fincher filmed the wash, and was so impressed by Craig’s physique the he offered him the job on the spot. True story. (Collider)

Jon Favreau tweeted this little morsel from the set of Cowboys & Aliens to get your appetite so whet your superiors are wondering why the mop handle in your grip is covered in drool. Though can we really be sure this is official just because the director of the movie released it?

My overbearing paronia insists that the pic could be a clever marketing campaign by Disney for Toy Story 3. If Woody was flesh and blood THIS is how he would look, always hauling a backlight around with him so we could never be certain of his identity. Oh no, you’re not pulling the wool over my eyes, Lasseter. First the subliminal Nazi propaganda shorts before the main attraction and now this? If you weren’t so damn awesome at what you do I’d have a good mind to shake an angry fist at your visage. That and my angry fist in buried deep in a tub of animal crackers at the moment. I know there’s an elephant in here somewhere…  

Iron Man 2 has been in theaters for less than a week, but that didn’t stop director Jon Favreau from speculating on the villain for Iron Man 3. And if Favreau has his way, Tony Stark will be taking on The Mandarin in the next installment of the popular franchise.

"You’ve got to do The Mandarin", says the director, who has been teasing this in the films already with tiny references to the Ten Ring organization, "but the problem is, the way he’s depicted in the comic books… you don’t want to see that."

The "problem" Favreau is referring to is the fact that the character, an evil descendant of Genghis Khan, has been criticized for being nothing more than a negative Asian stereotype. However, I have no doubt that Hollywood can work around this problem, changing the The Mandarin to a white Anglo-Saxon Protestant businessman hellbent on oppressing minorities and destroying the environment, while still maintaining the essence of the character.

However, since Tony Stark is set to appear in the upcoming Avengers film, work on Iron Man 3 will have to wait until at least 2012. And if my sources inside the government are correct, by that time Hollywood will have already been destroyed in a limited nuclear exchange with the Chinese, making concern about The Mandarin a moot point. (Empire)

Entertainment Weekly aired a featurette centering on Iron Man 2‘s villains Whiplash and Justin Hammer. It’s nothing mind blowing, but for all those needing a fix it’ll "take you there" and have you feeling the effects for about twenty minutes afterwords, not unlike the coke Mickey Rourke used to rail off hotel carpets. Also, the suit Sam Rockwell is wearing fits him really well. What, a man can’t admire fine tailoring? **Rips off sleeveless polo. Gets int fighting stance**

Check out the featurette below. Iron Man 2 hits theaters May 7. (/Film)

And just for kicks, here’ Iron Man punching Hugh Grant.

(BuzzFeed)

Rugged Hollywood grandpappy Harrison Ford is now officially cast in Cowboys & Aliens as an unspecified character according to director Jon Favreau’s Twitter posting:

"Please stop asking if Harrison Ford is in Cowboys & Aliens. Okay? He is. Please don’t tell anybody."

Umm, for the record Jon, I didn’t ask. Okay? Dial back the attitude some. Maybe you need to relax with a travel brochure.

Sorry you guys had to see that. Anyway, this may mark the first time Harrison Ford has been in a good movie since Air Force One. That is, if the concept of cowboys and Indians teaming up to fight off alien invaders can yield a good movie. Personally, I feel like it could be quality. If casted correctly….

Iron Man 2 director Jon Favreau was forced to leave Olivia Munn‘s cameo on the cutting room floor when the tone of the sequel shifted to become darker. Perhaps fearing the wrath of a million deflated nerdboners, he lovingly reinserted Munn into the film in a new mystery role. She tells Complex:

You’re in two gigantic movies this year. Let’s talk about Iron Man 2 first because it’s f*cking Iron Man 2.
Olivia Munn: Actually, they just gave me another role in the film. I had to reshoot all of my scenes.

What if you’d stayed on the cutting room floor?
Olivia Munn: I would’ve started crying.

Sexy crying, of course. Which character from the Marvel universe will Munn portray? There have been rumors swirling that she would play Scarlet Witch or Iron Maiden for awhile now. More importantly, will it involve spandex or a leather bodysuit while sauntering in slow-motion to cock-rock? Knowing Favreau, yes.

^{"We need to see BOTH hands, Favreau."}

Not content with pissing off only black people, Couple’s Retreat has sparked a new controversy. A former model is suing NBC Universal for $10 million after discovering her photo was used without permission as a "masturbatory prop" by Jon Favreau‘s character in Couple’s Retreat. In the film, Irina Krupnik’s decade-old bikini picture appears in a brochure that Favreau faps to while his wife is in the washroom. Krupnik had signed a general release at the time the picture was taken but never thought it would be used in a "quasi-pornographic context." We would post the picture for reference but the thought of Favreau…. jesus. Let’s hope that piece of movie history doesn’t end up at Planet Hollywood. I want to enjoy my blackened mahi mahi without that image in my head. (NY Post)

This 2:30 new trailer for Iron Man 2 packs more punch than the ten hour Academy Award broadcast I just live blogged until my fingers and eyes bled. Luckily for you, I stopped the hemorrhaaging long enough to write this post.

I was impressed with the first trailer for Iron Man 2, but the new one definitely sticks it in its predecessor and breaks it off. The reason for this: Scarlett Johansson as Black Widow. Can I just say, DAMN. Halfway through, she body-spins around some henchman before slamming his head in to the ground. Best way to die ever. The trailer also features more Stark, Fury, Whiplash, War Machine, and an easily foldable Iron Man suit, but no amount of CGI can trump Scarlett’s magnificent naturals (James Cameron hangs his head, defeated).

Check out the new trailer after the jump. Iron Man 2 hits theaters May 7, 2010.

Iron Man 2 New Trailer – Watch more Movie Trailers

Just before the credits rolled on Iron Man, Tony Stark revealed to the world that he is indeed the armored hero. In the sequel, the filmmakers explore the effects of living in public view by likening the life of a superhero to that of a celebrity. Director Jon Favreau discussed this parallel with the Los Angeles Times:

"Robert had strong points of view on these things. He was propelled quite publicly to a much more successful station and we were able to draw upon that. We were able to comment on the phenomena of celebrity as we know it today."… "It allowed us to draw upon our experiences and certainly Robert’s experiences."

Robert’s experiences? Does that mean that we can expect to see Iron Man blow rails off hookers while wearing a Wonder Woman costume? Seems to me that’s what he’s hinting at. You can quote Favreau on this one you guys. (LA Times)

^{Or are they???}

When you’re a bro as in demand as Robert Downey Jr., bromances come and bromances go. And Jon Favreau needs to understand that.

News has broken that Downey Jr. has dropped out of Favreau’s Cowboys & Aliens in favor of broin’ out with Jude Law on the set of the Sherlock Holmes sequel. The success of the first Sherlock Holmes has prompted Warner Brothers to fast-track the sequel and put it before cameras this June, which is exactly the same time that Cowboys & Aliens is planning to begin principal photography.

It looks like this was strictly a business decision and Favreau should not take Downey’s broparture to heart. I’m sure he’ll find another bro who’s brotastic enough for the part. That Matthew McConaughey seems nice. Just talk it over with Vince Vaughn. He’s always there for a bro in need. (EW)

OMG! OMG! OMG! (Heavy breathing) The… Iron… Man… 2… Trailer… Ngah… Ngah… Ngah… Is here! It’s got Tony Stark, Nick Fury, Mickey Rourke playing a Russian named Heatrash, wait no, WHIPLASH, and War Machine with Don Cheadle inside of it!

Iron Man 2 hits theaters May 7th, 2010.

Watch the trailer after the jump while I expel the thick mucus building up in my lungs!

Iron Man 2 Trailer – Watch more Funny Videos