Robert Downey Jr. -- I am "Iron Man"
Friday September 29 2:16 AM ET

Robert Downey, Jr. is suiting up to star in "Iron Man," a superhero movie based on the Marvel Comics character.

Jon Favreau is directing the Paramount Pictures release. Filming is slated to begin in February in Los Angeles.

Downey will portray Tony Stark, a billionaire industrialist and genius inventor who is kidnapped and forced to build a devastating weapon. Using his intelligence and ingenuity, Stark instead builds a high-tech suit of armor and escapes captivity. Upon his return to the U.S., he uncovers a plot with global implications and must don his armor and protect the world.

The comic debuted in the 1960s, and Iron Man's origin involved Stark being a prisoner of the Viet Cong. The movie version will be set in today's geopolitical climate.

Budgeted at more than $100 million, it marks the first feature film to be produced independently by Marvel Entertainment, which previously licensed its characters, such as "Spider-Man" and "X-Men," to other studios.

Marvel president of production Kevin Feige said the filmmakers looked for the best actor to embody the character.

"The Marvel characters are not just about how high they jump or how fast they fly, they're about their character flaws," Feige said. "They're about their inner demons. They're about the struggles that they go through between being a man and being a hero."

Downey, who has battled his fair share of inner demons, worked hard to get the role, getting in shape and even growing a goatee like the one Stark sports in the comic books.

"In every casting announcement we've done, people in their mind's eye have their own view of it and let us know about it. We're used to it," Feige said. "The point is, we looked at everybody, and we found the best person for the role. It's as confident a casting move as we've ever done. The proof will be in the pudding, but he is Tony Stark."

Downey returns to theaters on November 10 in the Diane Arbus bipic "Fur" opposite Nicole Kidman.

Reuters/Hollywood Reporter

With or without a nose?

Naturally, we here at IMWAN hope it's "with".

I just saw Flags of Our Fathers yesterday afternoon and I highly recommend it. It's a very mature, thought-provoking film that was also one of the most emotionally draining films I've ever seen in my life. It's not your typical war movie though so if you go in expecting Saving Private Ryan you'll be sorely disappointed. The battle scenes are awesome but it's the three lead performances that really give the movie its emotional center. As far as I'm concerned Flags of Our Fathers along with the earlier released End of the Spear are the two greatest films released so far this year that I've seen. End of the Spear in particular is quite moving to me and hits close to home since all my great relatives knew the 5 slain missionaries and their families personally back then and in fact one of my great uncles was one of the co-founders of the Mission Aviation Fellowship program, but really you can't go wrong with seeing either film. I give both my highest recommendation and urge everyone if they can to go see them.

For those of you who are planning to eventually get Flags of Our Fathers on DVD eventually, I would also highly recommend that you get the companion film Eastwood made for Japanese audiences about Iwo Jima from the perspective of the Japanese. The name of the movie just slipped my mind.

Steve,
It's called Letters from Iwo Jima. It will be released in February.

I saw The Prestige tonight. I will plan on hitting Flags next weekend.

We saw The Prestige tonight too. Entertaining, and Bowie is a hoot as Nikola Tesla(!), but the plot takes so many twists and turns you practically need a scorecard to decipher who is doing what to whom. I'd say it finishes second to The Illusionist in the category of "2006 movies about magicians who can apparently do real magic." You can add Woody Allen's Scoop in there too.

Basically, I'm with you Jimbo. I thought that over all The Illusionist was a better movie. It was about something bigger, the nature of reality, The Prestige was more about the plot and the idea of obsession. But I thought the clues were more skillfully handled in The Prestige. They were both more subtle and hidden in plain sight so there was less cheating in the wrap-up. Casting Bowie as Tesla was brilliant. The movie is definitely worth seeing.

I've been seeing the trailer for "Happy Feet" on TV lately and it looks gorgeous on my SXRD.

This might be worth a trip into the city to see for the family since I think it will be an IMAX movie.

The studio photo doesn't do this movie justice. It looks spectacular on a HD tv.

I love animation, so I'll be seeing this one when it opens. Robin Williams voices the main character.

As if to prove that Hollywood feeds on itself, last week I saw coming attractions for an animated feature titled Surf's Up, about surfing penguins!

That is one of the problems with this trend of CGI Animated movies. You need a scorecard to keep up with all the "animal acting human" movies that have been released in the past 2 years.

That there will now be 2 penguin movies continues this trend.

Hollywood won't be happy til they kill the golden goose.

I'd put money on Surf's Up easily being the better of these two. Unfortunately it won't be released until next summer.



Dave

Got to see The Nightmare Before Christmas on the big screen today in 3D.

It was great to see this fun film once again and the 3D was pretty good. We even got to keep the glasses.

Worth seeing while its still in theaters!

I'll wait for the DVD. I still need to see The Departed!

Yes. Yes you do.

Saw both Flags of Our Fathers and Borat today.

I loved Flags powerful, subtle and thoughtful.

I had a lot of trouble with Borat. There were parts that were hysterically funny but there were also parts that were mean-spirited. There were targets that were worthy of the satire and people that just did not deserve what was being done to them. By lumping those two groups together the movie came off a little smug and superior in places, at least to me.

I laughed in spots and the audience was in hysterics so I might be alone in my feelings on this.



BTW, I don't think this is all that much of a spoiler but I think this is a cool feature and wanted to use it.

I just saw my third favorite film of the year this past weekend Pixar's Cars and noone's as surprised as I am by how much I truly loved this film. I've been completely underwhelmed by animated movies as of late (I thought Shrek 2, The Incredibles, Corpse Bride and The Polar Express were all extremely mediocre and just plain boring to watch). Thankfully Cars blows away all those films put together and is easily the best animated movie I've seen since Finding Nemo. I was starting to wonder if I would ever enjoy another animated film again but with Cars I can wonder no more because it truly is a wonderful film.

Sorry for the double post. Still trying to get a hold of this posting thing lol.

I took care of the double post. We moderators, we got the power!

Thanks Jimbo. I had a feeling someone would be able to fix my little error.

I have seen "Flags" and "The Departed" within the last few weeks and both films are exceptional. I went to see "Flags" on Veteren's Day and I was sadden in that to my expectation I would see more patrons. People seems more and more not to show recognition to our past vets, maybe its the Iraq war that has worn everyone down.

"Flags of Our Fathers" was a great picture and other acknowledgement on how Clint Eastwood gets it right. As posted by Michael this is not no" Saving Private Ryan" so be prepared.

As for "The Departed", best police drama / mob movie I have seen in many of a year. All cylinders hitting here. Can Marty finally win the big one?