MTV has a new interview with Iron Man 2 screenwriter Justin Theroux as yet another mouth weighs in on what really was behind the letting go of Terrence Howard from the Iron Man 2 production as Don Cheadle steps into the role of Col. Jim Rhodes.
The thrust of the questioning is in relation to Nicole Sperling’s article at Entertainment Weekly from October 31 which basically said Howard was let go from the production because his salary was too high, director Jon Favreau was not happy with his performance and Theroux was having to cut back the role of Rhodes due to a lack of faith in Howard. Well, Theroux steps up to the mic and pretty much says, “Bullshit.” Here’s the quote:
“I can’t really speak to the plot stuff and all the rest of it but Rhodes is completely present in a very strong and big way… He’s COMPLETELY present.”
“All that stuff that was in the ‘EW’ article – I don’t know. I can only tell you what I know which is that from a writing standpoint we didn’t do anything differently [with the character]. It’s not like we were sitting there going, we need less of this or that. We just approached the characters and the story on their own terms.”
One has to wonder who Sperling’s sources were considering Theroux’s comments seem to mesh with something Favreau said in a live chat back on October 1 when asked about the Rhodes character and his ultimate transformation into War Machine, a hero that picks up the Iron Man mantle when Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) descends into alcohol abuse, “We need War Machine. Agreed. Shoulder cannons and all.”
I would assume if Rhodes was being cut back from the story they wouldn’t give him any kind of superhuman status, but that’s just me and my logical thinking. What truly happened we will most likely never know, but it would be nice to only hear from those that are directly involved with the production from this point forward as opposed to Nicole Sperling’s anonymous sources with “intimate knowledge of the situation.”
