Fans of Iron Man weren’t the only ones surprised by the announcement last week that Don Cheadle will replace Terrence Howard as James “Rhodey” Rhodes in the sequel.
Terrence Howard was shocked to read the news, too.
“It was the surprise of a lifetime,” Howard told NPR in an interview broadcast on Saturday. “There was no explanation. [The contract] just … up and vanished. I read something in the trades implicating that it was about money or something, but apparently the contracts that we write and sign aren’t worth the paper that they’re printed on, sometimes. Promises aren’t kept, and good faith negotiations aren’t always held up.”
The Hollywood trade papers had cited financial differences, “among other reasons,” for the breakdown in negotiations between Marvel Studios and Howard.
Iron Man 2, which opens on April 30, 2010, is set to turn a spotlight on Rhodes, who will likely don the War Machine armor.
(Via CHUD)
October 20th, 2008 at 10:19 am
“The Hollywood trade papers had cited financial differences, “among other reasons,””
Hollywood trade papers, a.k.a. Variety.
So it appears Variety has printed lies fed to them by a member of the AMPTP, a.k.a. the producers bloc. It would be no surprise to most people who follow Hollywood news to find Variety printing pro-producer spin. It has been claimed that Variety is but the organizational mouthpiece of the AMPTP.
Terrance Howard got screwed.
October 20th, 2008 at 3:41 pm
Weird that this is the first Howard heard of this.
Makes me wonder if Don Cheadle really is signed on. Has it been officially confirmed by Cheadle and his people? It’s not like there hasn’t been a landslide of BS comic book movie news in the recent past (Depp/Riddler, Smith/Captain America).
October 20th, 2008 at 4:16 pm
It’s always the black supporting actor who doesn’t make it into the sequels. (And it’s always “financial differences.”)
October 20th, 2008 at 4:46 pm
“Financial differences” might be code for “we think we can get a bigger audience with Cheadle”.
Cheadle is a fine actor, one of today’s best, but his presence won’t make me more likely to see IM 2.
October 20th, 2008 at 6:03 pm
Exactly, Alan… It’s not like IM had a problem selling tickets. Even if it it totally sucks (which is unlikely), it’ll make money. Witness Spider-Man 3.
October 20th, 2008 at 6:23 pm
I think it was that the people in charge thought Howard was replaceable. Robert Downey Jr. is essential, Gwyneth Paltrow you want to keep on, but whoever was responsible for this likely assumed that anyone (well, anyone of color) could play Rhodes. So Howard asks for more than scale and Howard gets dumped.
I mean, it’s possible that he really did ask for too much, but you’d think the studio would let that slip through a gossip columnist or two to cover their butts.
Of course, Don Cheadle is a fine actor and will likely do good in the part. But this is kind of fishy.