Back in 1987, in the golden age of action heroes, the horror film Predator featured the likes of Arnold Schwarzenegger and Jesse Ventura as muscular mercenaries fighting space aliens in the Amazon. Now, “Predator” has been remade, as Predators and the space aliens are now at war with Adrien Brody, who won an Oscar in 2002 for playing the emaciated piano player persecuted by the Nazis in “The Pianist“

Thus the world of the action hero has changed: Bulked-up Oscar winners are racing through the world’s jungles with submachine guns, while aging bodybuilders and athletes are going into politics.

Nor is Brody alone. Earlier this summer, the hunky, swashbuckling hero of “Prince of Persia” was played by Jake Gyllenhaal, who received an Oscar nod for “Brokeback Mountain“. Next year’s “Green Hornet” will star Seth Rogen, the amiably chunky co-star of such comedies as “The Forty Year Old Virgin” and “Superbad“. The current titleholder as World’s Favourite Superhero is Robert Downey Jr., who received an Oscar nomination in 1992 for “Chaplin“, but now thrills crowds as “Iron Man” and — for a change of pace — an unusually athletic “Sherlock Holmes“. Oscar nominee, Edward Norton (“American History X” and “Primal Fear”) has announced he will not return as “The Hulk” in “The Avengers”, but the rumour is that he may be replaced by Mark Ruffalo (Independent Spirit Award for “You Can Count On Me”.)

Where have you gone, Sylvester Stallone?

Nowhere, actually. At 64, Stallone is reuniting his action-hero pals — Schwarzenegger, Bruce Willis, Dolph Lundgren — along with some of the new guys, such as Jason Statham, in “The Expendables“, a movie that plays on the image of the golden age icons. There weren’t many Oscar winners among them, let alone nominees for Independent Spirit Awards, but bicep for bicep, they could kick Adrien Brody’s butt. If Schwarzenegger had been a piano player in 1940s Poland, he would have won the Second World War single-handedly.

Today they’re, well, expendable: Stallone and Schwarzenegger and the others of a more muscular era — a time when an Austrian accent or a mouthful of marbles didn’t stand in the way of saving the world — have been replaced by a more lithe and athletic model. Statham is a throwback to that era, but the other Great White Hopes of the 21st Century, names like Vin Diesel and Dwayne Johnson, have faded into jokey takeoffs or children’s movies, where their size and fearsome demeanour are played for laughs.

That’s also a danger with action films, of course, and the reason why “The Expendables” appears to come with the ironic self-awareness that has made the genre so ripe for parody: the muscled men mowing down the enemy while remaining invulnerable themselves.

The action heroes of the early days of cinema were performers such as Douglas Fairbanks Jr. and Errol Flynn, dashing heroes who bounded around historic sets, outsmarting evil kings or sorcerers. They had a pre-computer athleticism that has been replaced today by the martial-arts suppleness of Jackie Chan or Jet Li, who is also in “The Expendables”. Sometimes they were cowboys, like John Wayne, an early example of the Large Man, whose power is that he doesn’t get hit by bullets, but never misses himself, an ability that has been passed down through the ages.

The action hero as muscleman was a function of the biblical epic or the historic fable: 1950s beefcake Steve Reeves, say, flexing his muscles as Hercules or — to a newer generation — Schwarzenegger looming ominously as “Conan the Barbarian”. But in the new age of big special effects, he came in other forms as well: suave (Sean Connery and the other Bonds), smart (Matt Damon and Will Smith), absurd (Steven Segal, Jean-Claude Van Damme, et al.), retro (Harrison Ford), insane (Mel Gibson, then and now), or smirking (the Law of Bruce Willis).

Rambo intensity gave way to Neo metaphysics: The hero who could defy gravity and dodge bullets was a creation of both special effects and a new kind of heroism, the bravery that comes at the edge of an existential void. Humphrey Bogart — a kind of action hero in the 1940s, when they were noir and fought with fists — stared into a glass of booze and wondered why, of all the gin joints in the world, she had to walk into his; Keanu Reeves stared at a blank manufactured world and wonders at the very nature of reality.

Meanwhile, almost when no one was looking, a new kind of tough guy invaded the action genre, and it wasn’t a guy at all. Sigourney Weaver’s Ellen Ripley kicked alien butt in “Alien“; Uma Thurman kicked martial-arts butt in the “Kill Bill” film;, Sarah Connor kicked time-travel butt in the “Terminator” films. Last month, Angelina Jolie took over a role that was meant to be played by Tom Cruise — a part-time action star who fatally injured his career jumping from a couch — and kicked CIA butt in “Salt“.

The result is a confusing time for the action genre, which is suspended between two eras: The no-neck he-men are giving way to actual actors and (gulp!) women. The development has created films that are more flexible, mashups of action and irony of the sort you get when a Michael Cera, say, goes all tough-guy in “Scott Pilgrim vs. The World“. The classic action stars have, through age and popular taste, become figures of nostalgia.

“My men are not expendable,” said Schwarzenegger in the original “Predator”, but, 13 years later, that’s exactly what they are.

“The Expendables” opens Aug. 13.

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Samuel L. Jackson

Samuel L. Jackson has signed a deal with Marvel to play Nick Fury in Iron Man 2, the sequel to last summer’s successful blockbuster Iron Man. Read on:

Samuel L. Jackson has buried the hatchet with Marvel Entertainment, making a deal to play the role of Nick Fury in “Iron Man 2,” and potentially many other films.

Jackson’s deal is a long-term commitment to play Fury, the leader of the espionage unit the Shield. His deal contains an option to play the character in nine future Marvel superhero films, efforts that are expected to include “Captain America,” “Thor,” “The Avengers” and “The Shield” as well as potential sequels.

Jackson introduced Fury in the closing moments of “Iron Man,” when the character asked Robert Downey Jr.’s Tony Stark to join his group. Fury is a natural to show up in multiple Marvel franchises, as he crosses paths with many Marvel superheroes in the comicbooks.

Jackson’s Marvel future looked murky, after he reportedly expressed his displeasure with the producer-financier’s initial offer to reprise his role. Jackson was hardly alone: Even though “Iron Man” grossed more than $600 million worldwide, Marvel brass has been sparing in offers to talent like Mickey Rourke and Sam Rockwell to play villains in the sequel, sources said.

Jackson and his ICM reps have evidently cleared those dealmaking hurdles, and he will take part in the sequel that director Jon Favreau shoots in the spring, with Paramount Pictures distributing in summer 2010.

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Emily Blunt (The Devil Wears Prada) has been cast as the Black Widow in Iron Man 2.

Tony Stark’s way with the ladies might very well prove lethal in Iron Man 2.

Variety reports that English actress Emily Blunt (The Devil Wears Prada, The Wolfman) has “emerged as the frontrunner” to play the femme fatale Black Widow, a.k.a. Natalia Romanova, in the Jon Favreau-directed sequel.

Although Variety refers to Black Widow by the name of Natasha Romanoff, she is also known as Natalia Romanova in the comics. Marvel would not comment on the Blunt/Black Widow rumor for Variety.

Mickey Rourke and Sam Rockwell have been cast as the movie’s two main villains. Filming begins this spring for a 2010 release.

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We’ve got a ton news about the upcoming “Iron Man” sequel.

Mickey Rourke, the so-hot-right-now comeback star of The Wrestler, and Sam Rockwell (Confessions of a Dangerous Mind) are in talks to join the upcoming Iron Man sequel as dual villains.

Rockwell, The Hollywood Reporter says, is up for the part of Justin Hammer, “a multibillionaire businessman and a rival of industrialist” of Tony Stark. Incidentally, Rockwell was one of director Jon Favreau’s original choices for the Iron Man role.

As for Rourke’s part, there appears to be some confusion. Variety says that he would play “Tony Stark’s Russian alter ego, a heavily tattooed bruiser who is in the arms trade and battles Iron Man in his own nuclear-powered armored suit.” The trade mag hints that he’s the Crimson Dynamo.

But wait… The Hollywood Reporter describes the character differently. They say Rourke will portray “a tattooed Russian heavy named Ivan who becomes Whiplash, a man with deadly, technologically enhanced coils.” That doesn’t sound like Whiplash at all — that character is a girl, except in the Ultimate universe where he’s only been briefly glimpsed. The description sounds a little bit like Omega Red, but we’re inclined to think that Rourke is actually playing Crimson Dynamo, as Variety states.

Did somebody get their wires crossed here? Is it intentional misinformation? We think the latter is a real possibility given the extremely convoluted nature of today’s announcements.

Finally, THR scoops that another role, that of Tony Stark’s assistant Natasha, has yet to be cast. Confused yet?

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“The Dark Knight” and “Iron Man” have been selected among the American Film Institute’s Movie’s of the year.

Heath Ledger keeps racking up posthumous honors from different critics’ groups for his performance as the Clown Prince of Crime.

The late Aussie’s portrayal of The Joker in The Dark Knight has now earned him Best Supporting Actor nods from the New York Film Critics Online awards and the Boston Film Critics, respectively.

Ledger has so far earned nominations from the Australian Film Institute, the Golden Globes, the Los Angeles Film Critics Association, the DC Area Film Critics Association, and the Satellite Awards. Does this mean Ledger is a shoo-in for an Academy Award as Best Supporting Actor?

In related news, The Dark Knight and fellow superhero blockbuster Iron Man have been selected as the American Film Institute’s Movies of the Year. And although it didn’t win the best picture award, The Dark Knight was also among the New York Film Critics Online awards’ finalists in that category.

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The screenwriter for “Tropic Thunder” will pen the sequel for Iron Man 2.

IGN recently had the chance to chat with actor-turned-screenwriter Justin Theroux for the DVD release of Tropic Thunder, during which time we got to ask him about writing the script for Iron Man 2.

One might think that a huge Hollywood production such as Iron Man 2 might not allow Theroux to be as loose and open to changes in the writing process as working on a comedy might allow, but the scribe disputes that notion. “Iron Man is just a unique character in the comic book world. He can get away with being incorrigible, slightly awful, funny, sexist at times. He has a very high threshold for things that he can do and get away with,” Theroux explained.

He continued, “So in a weird way it’s a lot of fun writing for him and it’s not like writing a more stoic superhero part. Obviously, you have the story elements and the action elements and all those gears of that you want to make sure are well oiled. But within that you can have a lot of play.”

Theroux — who starred in films such as Charlie’s Angels: Full Throttle, Mulholland Dr., and Miami Vice before making the leap to screenwriting with last summer’s Tropic Thunder — was a fan of the character before landing the job of scripting the Marvel sequel. In particular, he was “a big fan of the [Matt] Fraction series, but it was only when Robert [Downey Jr.] got into the skin of that guy that it made total sense. Because Robert is so good at just sliding things between the cracks and finding moments. It’s just such a great anti-hero.”

The scribe says don’t expect Iron Man 2 to be a more fantastical or comic book-y film than its predecessor in order to prepare viewers for seeing Tony Stark alongside characters such as Thor and the Hulk in Marvel’s live-action version of The Avengers.

Iron Man 2, Theroux insists, “can’t really go crazy. It has to live within the same world Tony lives in, which is the world of technology. So it can’t get too far afield. It’s not really our job to suit all the other characters. Our first concern – Jon [Favreau]‘s first concern – is that we raise the level on Iron Man 2 and make sure the audience gets exactly and more of what they wanted before in a really satisfying story that’s really fun and playful. As good a movie as possible. And after that we’ll think about ways that we can plug in other elements that might exist in other films or other worlds.”

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As seen in the the 2008 summer blockbuster film Iron Man, we have the Iron Man Mark I Maquette. This awesome piece is a stunning representation of Tony Stark’s first generation of Iron Man armor, complete a working light-up feature, replicating the ‘heart’ of Tony Stark.

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The first draft for Iron Man 2 is already completed.

Tropic Thunder scribe Justin Theroux is one of the writers to have joined the Iron Man 2 writing team, and he spoke about the superhero sequel to UGO.com.

Apparently the first draft of the script is already done, with Theroux and his fellow scribes discussing further ideas.

“I just got back from London where I was working with [Iron Man star] Robert [Downey Jr.] and [producer] Kevin Feige,” he explained. “We were talking with Robert, who’s out there doing Sherlock Holmes, he was giving his input and his notes. We’re sort of there. It’s just sort of chugging along.”

He also said they hadn’t re-written the role of War Machine in response to Don Cheadle replacing Terrence Howard as Jim Rhodes, contrary to speculation. “No, that’s all nonsense,” he said. “We’re writing the thing, virtually the same for Rhodey that we would for any actor. We’re really taking what’s going to be the most interesting story for the fans, and what are they going to enjoy watching.”

They also apparently haven’t been making too many provisions for the future Avengers movie: “It is the Marvel universe, but… they haven’t given us any instruction as far as ‘we want you to do this or we want you to do that.’

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Robert Downey Jr. at Comic Con

Iron Man star, Robert Downey Jr. talks about the “dangers of bring Marvel’s The Avengers to the big screen.”

“If we don’t get it right it’s really, really going to suck.” So says Robert Downey, Jr. about the dangers of bringing Marvel’s The Avengers to the big screen.

“It has to be the crowning blow of Marvel’s best and brightest because it’s the hardest thing to get right. It’s tough to spin all the plates for one of these characters,” Downey recently told MTV from the London set of Guy Ritchie’s Sherlock Holmes.

The star added, “The danger you run with colliding all these worlds is [director] Jon [Favreau] was very certain that Iron Man should be set in a very realistic world. Nothing that happened in Iron Man is really outside the realm of possibility. Once you start talking about Valhalla and supersized super-soldiers and jolly green giants it warrants much further discussion.”

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Don Cheadle will replace Terrence Howard in Iron Man 2

Howard is out and Cheadle in Iron Man 2.

Back when Iron Man came out, Terrence Howard was very excited about the direction his character – Tony Stark sidekick Jim Rhodes – would take in the sequel, telling us he was already thinking about how he would play the character in Iron Man 2.

Well it seems all that talk was in vain, with the actor now dropping out of the movie due, according to The Hollywood Reporter, to “financial differences, among other reasons.”

Marvel has quickly stepped in, hiring Don Cheadle to replace the departing actor. He’s probably most famous for his awful attempts at a cockney accent in the Ocean films, but has serious acting credentials having nabbed an Oscar nomination for Hotel Rwanda.

The role is set to be greatly expanded in Iron Man 2, with all the sequel buzz suggesting [possible spoiler ahead] that Rhodes will become War Machine next time around.

Filming on the sequel will get under way next year.

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