Futurama: 2007 Comic Con.

We're getting good reports about Futurama from Comic Con (OK, all the reports are coming from Agent 1BDI and God bless you for sharing the intel with us) but there's other stuff being shown for the first time. Star Trek XI for one, Lost for another. Iron Man comes to mind.

Speaking of Iron Man, a friend from San Fran is attending and this is his report about the upcoming IRON MAN movie:

Jon Favreau appeared in a video apologizing for not being there. He
said, however, that he wanted to still show something.

One note that has to be addressed... above the monitor was a piece of
production art that no one mentioned or pointed to or anything... but it
was Iron Man fighting who I assume will be Iron Monger. Grey, hulking...
at least twice the size. The rumors are that the technology comes from
the Mark 1 and it looks it.

Anyway, Favreau turns around and clicks a button on his computer and
the footage starts.

It was about 20 of the cheesiest seconds from the old IRON MAN
cartoon, complete with politically incorrect Mandarin.

As the audience laughed, Favreau hopped on the stage to Black
Sabbath's IRON MAN.

He said that they planned on showing some footage, but then they
scheduled a bigger event on the Marvel panel Saturday. The audience;
"Awwww..." Dramatic pause... then Favreau: "Buuuuttt... maybe we could show
some footage here first..." Crowd: (Roaring cheers).

First off, the film looks beautiful. Matthew Libatique (REQUIEM FOR A
DREAM) did an outstanding job. Crisp, lots of depth of field, natural
colors.

We're introduced to Downey as Stark. He's a bit of an asshole. He's a
weapon designer and he's good... and he knows it. He's actually a smart-
ass... a little in the KISS KISS BANG BANG tone of character.

He stands in front of an army group, mountains behind him. "Repulsor
technology. They say the best weapon is one you never have to fire. I
respectfully disagree. I prefer the weapon you only have to fire once.
That's how Dad did it, that's how America does it, and it's worked
pretty well so far."

Next bit... he's stopped in what looked like Vegas... Favreau has a cameo
as his body guard (Happy Hogan?!? Maybe not... maybe just random cameo
#3, but he'd actually be a great Hogan), but Stark allows a very
attractive reporter to get some time with him.

"You've been called the Da Vinci of our time. What do you say to
that?" Stark: "That's ridiculous. I don't paint." Reporter: "And what
do you say to your other nickname, The Merchant of Death?" Stark:
"That's not bad."

Next cut was to Downey riding in a hummer with some army guys. One of
them asks to take a picture. He makes some cracks about no gang signs
as he poses. Out the front window, past a smiling army passenger we
see another hummer suddenly explode.

We see some cuts of action as the caravan gets taken down. Downey
stumbles through the sandstorm (heartbeats on the soundtrack) and in
the craziness an explosion goes off right next to him, knocking him
off his feet.

Next thing we know, he's waking up in a cave, mid-section bandaged. He
peels some of it off and reveals a crude contraption... a steel circle
over his heart, with two wires leading down to a car battery.

A man is working next to him, whistling.

Stark: "What the hell did you do to me?"

Man: "What'd I do? What I did is to save your life. I removed all the
shrapnel I could. There's a lot still there. Want to see? (He shakes a
glass filled with tiny metal shards) Take a look. I've seen many
wounds like that in my village. That (points to the device on his
chest) is an electro-magnet hooked up to a car battery and it's
keeping the shrapnel from entering your heart."

Then we get a montage of Stark getting up, working in the metal shop
with this man... prisoners both. VO: "I should be dead already. Unless
it was for a reason. I finally know what I have to do."

Man: "What are you building, Stark?"

He slams down a cooling Mark 1 mask.

Stark: "I'm working on something big."

Then we get to see the Mark 1 in action. Glimpses of it as he puts it
on and then we see some men with guns standing outside his door. We
hear him coming, they look terrified... the door buckles as it's hit. It
buckles again and then if flies open, the Mark 1 standing there.

It's bulky, moves slowly, but it is bullet-proof. The bullets bounce
off. In fact there's a moment when he takes a Universal monster-like
swing at someone, misses and gets his arm embedded in the cave wall.
He struggles to pull it out as one of the gunmen approach quietly from
behind him, unnoticed. The man raises his gun to the Mark 1's head and
pulls the trigger.

The bullet ricochets back at the man, hitting him in the head instead.
Iron Man looks over his shoulder like, "What was that?"

He pounds the shit out of these guys, sending them flying into cave
walls. The whole time the guitar solo section from Sabbath's IRON MAN
is playing. I don't know if it'll be included in the final picture,
but it was awesome in this context.

He beats down so many people, then gets to the cave entrance and
unleashes on the crowd there with two wrist-mounted flame throwers.

The audience went bat-shit.

Afterwards we got glimpses of Jeff Bridges (bald, with a beard),
Gwyneth Paltrow (who looks surprisingly good as a redhead) and then
the only CG elements... The Mark 3, Red and Gold outfit flying through
the sky, being chased by jets. Maybe not chased. They weren't firing
on him, but he did seem to want to out-distance them.

And he didn't have much trouble doing that.

The footage ended with the logo, then back to Iron Man in the sky, the
jet's catching up... he ducks his head down, opens his palms, pointing
them behind him and both repulsors shoot, sending him speeding out in
front of the jets, going so fast as to make a sonic boom.

It was actually really incredible. Downey proved he can be Tony Stark.
Favreau proved that the practical effects look amazing and that our
trust in him was worth it.