And El supposedly Avengers 2 pretty soon after. Man how much bank you think RDJ is making from this? And to think his career was in the toilet prior to the Iron Man Franchise. If you want to see his acting range, check out Less Than Zero. great movie.

@lazarus

In regards to RDJ, I still remember him in that disastrous SNL season as a cast member and recall following him in movies in the late 80s like Back to School. When I first started dating my wife, I remember her renting Only You with RDJ and Marisa Tomei.  Now, I'm pretty good at sitting through bad movies until the end but this one was a major snoozefest and I fell asleep halfway. Ha ha ha! He's come a long way from crap like that.

You can't really say his career was in the toilet prior to Iron Man though. He's been sober since 2003 and had memorable roles in Good Night Good Luck, Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, Zodiac and Singing Detective. The Iron Man franchise just propelled him to A-list status, gave him a lot more cash in the bank and now can pretty much do anything he wants.

Here is a cool fact on RDJ being cast as Iron Man that I recently found out. If any of you go on FB, there is a Marvel Movies page run by Ed Mazmanian. This guy is a diehard Marvel movie fan and is always posting stuff way before some of the entertainment websites. Back when Iron Man was in pre-production, names were being thrown around for the casting of Tony Stark (Tom Cruise was the more common one). Anyhow, Ed had posted on a forum RDJ as his choice and sent the recommendation to Favreau. Favreau replied back to him "interesting".

Yeah I can't see TC in that role. Back in the 80s there was a TV show called Matt Houston, (I think) which had a guy who fit the Iron Man persona perfectly. A little to Texan in his character but that was an actiing issue. He looked and fit the demeanor perfectly IMHO. It was the only I remember seeing him in.

Lee Horsley was his name, God Google is awesome. Look up some images from the 80s. He so looked the part.

If ever an actor was was made for a role, Mr. RDJ is Tony Stark.  It is soo fun to watch and enjoy everything he does as Iron Man.

He is an excellent actor, he was awesome in Chaplin. It's great to see someone with so much talent conquer their problems rather than ending up as another "what if." I'm really looking forward to IM3, I think the world will have caught up to Stark's technology and he'll have to rely more on his intellect rather than his IM tech. Now that A.I.M. is in the scope of this picture the gloves are gonna come off.  Maybe at some point we'll see him or The Avengers square off with MODOK.

haha Tom cruise..... no one wants to see the "Iron Midget"

You know I would like to see some armor actually designed for space flight. After Avengers I would have to believe he is investigating the possibility. Also there was the reference in the first movie by Jarvis about visiting other planets. We could only hope.

The Stealth armor would be cool. Someone tell me what the Iron Patriot is exactly? I thought the govt had War Machine as their Iron Man answer. What is the need for something that looks like Capt America throw in an IM suit...?

U know i was just thinking that in "REALITY", the next time the Avengers assemble, Stark should give Cap, Black Widow and Hawkeye one of these suits each to wear. They would be much more useful and efficient with 4 Iron Mans flying around and stuff... Just sayin.....

Hey Violator, that's true when you think about it. They would be more effective with Iron suits but maybe limited in mobility and all of those three rely on their dexterity.

Kind of reminds me of the Marvel Civil War era when Stark took Peter Parker as a protegee. They developped a big brother/little brother bond. Stark saw lots of potential in the intellectual Parker while Parker finally had someone close who understood him (and it helped pay his bills too). Stark developed the Iron Spider suit with Spidey wore and allowed him to kick more ass. That was fun and unique story telling until Joe Q erased everything with the devil. :(

Yeah and the Iron Spider storyline on the animated series was a tool. That was so funny.