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Expect more than a post-credits cameo from Samuel L. Jackson's Nick Fury in Iron Man 2. The actor confirms he's already received word the eye-patch-wearing operative will have a more significant role in the sequel, due in May 2010. "I saw (director) Jon Favreau last night. He walked up and said, 'Hey, I hope you're making your deal.' "
One cast member who won't be back, as previously reported, is Terrence Howard. The actor, who played Tony Stark's pal James Rhodes, has been replaced by Don Cheadle. (For those unfamiliar with Marvel mythos, Rhodes winds up donning the Iron Man armour for a time before becoming the equally-heroic War Machine.)
There are conflicting reports about why Howard lost the gig to Cheadle -- at first the Hollywood trades suggested Howard wanted too much money and negotiations broke down, but he has since publicly said he was blind-sided by Marvel's move. For his part, Jackson has no insights into the behind-the-scenes deal-breaking-and-making.
"Don and I are good friends; I love Don. I think it's going to be an exciting difference; we'll see what happens. It's kind of amazing something like that happens. But I'll be around."
NO SPIDER-MAN 4 FOR BANKS? Spider-Man may need a new Ms. Brant. Elizabeth Banks, who's played Daily Bugle secretary Betty Brant in all three Spider-Man flicks, says she isn't sure she'll return for Spider-Man 4 and 5. "I have no idea. I'm the last person that they call."
Additionally, the actress told chud.com she may bow out of the production entirely unless Brant's role is beefed up. Right now Spider-Man 4 is expected in theatres in May 2011 with a fifth film possibly following later that year or in 2012.
'NAM, I AM: Oliver Stone wants to go back to Vietnam, but the Iraq War won't let him.
Stone ended up doing his George Bush biopic W as a fallback after funding fell through on Pinkville -- his post-mortem drama about the My Lai massacre of 500 South Vietnamese civilians by U.S. troops in 1968.
"Pinkville was a great idea, there's no reason it can't be done someday," says Stone. "But I don't think the Iraq War helps us," he says about the resistance of American audiences to do much but cheer the troops these days.
"Pinkville was never designed as a war movie. It was designed as an investigation movie into how the massacre was uncovered. It was the efforts of three or four people that really made this break out. It's like The Insider, a story about how hard it is to get the truth out."
He's also attached as a producer of Escobar, a movie about the late Colombian druglord Pablo Escobar, which has Antoine Fuqua (Training Day) attached as a director, but Stone has his doubts about the financing for that one too. "It's a Scarface kind of story about a man who was against the state on a large scale," he says.
Of course, fans of the series Entourage know Escobar as Vinny Chase's dream role ?-- a dream that led him to blow his credibility on a bad movie called Medellin that got laughed out of Cannes.
Would the running Entourage gag affect how audiences receive Escobar? "I hope not," Stone says. "Let me tell you, it was no joke at the time."
MEL NO LONGER LETHAL? Despite original screenwriter Shane Black penning a script for a fifth Lethal Weapon flick, it looks like the project might have received a, well, lethal blow. Director Richard Donner recently told the Los Angeles Times he won't be helming the sequel and now Mel Gibson has rejected it as well. Gibson, who hasn't starred in a film since Signs (2002), returns in front of the camera next year for the thriller Edge of Darkness.