The reporting in this EW piece isn’t stellar, but it’s sort of their response to the Vulture piece where Mickey Rourke himself said he wasn’t in the film, “right now,” which was basically loaded with tons of implication. It’s basically their attempt to horn in on the piece of the news action.
“The Oscar-nominated star of The Wrestler, who starts his gig on Sylvester Stallone’s testosterone-fueled The Expendables in two weeks, could still play a Russian baddie in the Iron Man sequel, as sources tell EW that the offer still stands, though nothing’s yet being negotiated.”
“Could still”? We would trust what comes out of Rourke’s mouth before we would trust what a damage-controlling Marvel studio person told EW frankly. And if he starts “The Expendables” in two weeks does that leave room for “Iron Man 2”? Frankly, yes. ‘IM2’ was supposed to start in April, but apparently it has no fixed start date yet, so this is where EW’s reporting could turn out to be true. Update: ReelTalkTV has an interview with Rourke.
“I would love to be in ‘Iron Man 2.’ I met with Jon Favreau and I really liked him, I met with one of the guys from Marvel and he was real interesting and I talked to the writer and we talked about what I would like to do and bring. If it happens… I’m a Robert Downey Jr. fan. Robert’s a great actor, I think we would have fun, the chemistry would be great. It’s a possibility… they need to do some road work that needs and then… we’ll see,” Rourke said alluding to the negotiations problems.
“They”? Well, there’s nothing vague about that. Marvel, the ball is in your court. Pony up or loose your villain.