Nerd Alert!

If you were one of the everyone who saw Iron Man this summer, you probably enjoyed the performance of one Terrence Howard, he of Hustle & Flow fame. You also might have gotten the idea that we'd soon see Mr. Howard as the character of Rhodes in an Iron Man suit in one of the sequels.

You were wrong.

CHUD has the scoop that, due to bad contract negotiations ($$ v. $$$), Howard has dropped out of Iron Man 2 to be replaced by...

Don Cheadle? Really? Wow. I mean, score one for Iron Man 2. That means they managed to swap out one Oscar-nominated actor for another in a supporting role in a super hero movie. Bad-ass move, Marvel. Bad-ass.

This makes me marginally more interested in Iron Man 2, because while I think Howard is a terrific actor (see: Hustle & Flow), I think Cheadle is a slightly better actor, and more willing to take risks on screen. Not that it matters, since he'll be wearing ridiculous armor and flying around all CGI-like. But hey -- that voice-over? OSCAR caliber.

Don Cheadle is a War Machine - CHUD

-RoboNixon

ps. I'm going to pretend that neither of them was in CRASH so that, in some small way, I can like both of them better.

EDIT: The Hollywood Reporter just posted a piece online to the same effect, meaning that Disappear Here officially (um, thanks to CHUD, as I did no actual reporting of my own) beat THR to a scoop.