Iron Man - but not Iron Man 2 - star Terrence Howard has been talking (to NPR of all places) about finding out that he's not going to get to be Jim Rhodes in Jon Favreau's second installment of the Marvel Comics tin man movie franchise, and if what he says is true, apparently Marvel isn't big on actually telling people why they've been fired.Talking to Scott Simon on Weekend Edition, Howard said,
It was the surprise of a lifetime [finding out that Cheadle has taken over the role]. There was no explanation. I read something in the trades that implicated it was about money or something but apparently the contracts that we write and sign aren't worth the paper that they're printed on. And promises aren't kept.
Our guess is that certain "promises" were made about money regarding sequels that, when the movie became as big a hit as it did, certain parties (*coughMarvelcough*) starting having second thoughts about - especially if the conversation about whether Howard could carry a potential War Machine spin-off ever came up. Nonetheless, it's sad to see Howard's relatively restrained quality being replaced by a potential scenechewer like Cheadle, and sadder still that Howard doesn't seem to know why. Terrence Howard Talks Tunes, Family, Science [NPR] (Via)