Hey all. Capone in Austin, Texas here. I'm ass deep in SXSW screenings and interviews, so there's a lot coming your way soon.

In the next few days, I'll be posting a total of four different interviews covering every possible aspect of the funniest film of the year so far, I LOVE YOU, MAN. In the past two weeks, I've talked to pretty much all the major cast members, as well as writer-director John Hamburg. Yes, this film and these people more or less took over my life for days on end, and, well, if it had to happen with one particular film, I'm glad it was this one, because in case you hadn't heard, I heart this movie. But we're not here to talk about I LOVE YOU, MAN just yet. One of the people I got to spend a little time with at SXSW was renaissance man Jon Favreau. I met him just before the Q&A at the SXSW Opening Night screening of I LOVE YOU, MAN. We talked briefly about Chicago and other random stuff. The following morning, I sat down with him and his co-star in the film, Jaime Pressly, who plays his wife in the film.

At the very end of the interview, I asked Jon about IRON MAN 2 plans, which of the casting rumors were true, and just where things soon in the production process. Now understand, Jon is about a month away from actually starting to shoot IRON MAN 2, so the fact that he took a couple days out to come to Austin and support this film, speaks volumes about how much he admires it. Anyway, here's what he said about the recent casting news that has spread like wildfire.

Capone: There has been a lot of IRON MAN 2 news flying around in the last few days. What's true? What's not?

Jon Favreau: I can't confirm any casting stuff because there have been no announcements made, but let me say that the people that have deals that should all be finalized in our cast this week, I should hope…it's a different process being that Marvel is not a big studio and they don't really have the infrastructure to get things out there; it's not as streamlined as a studio, so I apologize to the fans for not being able to say things as quickly as possible. But they really want to have legal protections and not officially say things until everything is done. But, I'm very excited about the people that we have. There are no big surprises in casting coming that I can foresee [laughs]. It's going to be a really, really good group of people and a story that takes advantage of our cast but is in inundated and doesn't get too complex because of the number of new people that we're adding, which is always a tar pit for these superhero movies, you always have to make sure that you add the characters in a smart way.

Capone: Are you quietly relieved that Samuel L. Jackson has signed on to play Nick Fury for a billion movies or something like that?

JF: [laughs] I wasn't worried that Sam signing a nine-picture deal was going to hold up my movie, no. That would have been really bizarre if that had happened.

Capone here again. I think the key phrase here is "no big surprises in casting." I read that as Jon's non-confirmation confirmation of the Mickey Rourke and Scarlett Johansson casting news of late.

Our interview was pretty much over at that point in the conversation, so I didn't get a chance to talk about the recent release date changes for several Marvel titles or about the possibility of Favreau directing THE AVENGERS feature, however, I heard it from a little bird who used to be named Moriarty that Jon really, really wants that gig, and that if he got it, his life would be non-stop work for years on end with not break between IRON MAN 2 and THE AVENGERS. Make sure you check out Drew's SXSW coverage and his interview with Favreau (whenever he gets around to posting it) at his site, hitfix.com. Lots more to come folks. Stay tuned...

-- Capone
capone@aintitcoolmail.com