Beaks here...

All set visits are not created equal. Sometimes, you get everything: interviews with the director and cast, an all-access tour of the sets, the opportunity to watch the shooting of a crucial scene, a cameo and a filet mignon for lunch. Other times, you're left roasting under a brutal Albuquerque sun waiting on a promised ten minutes with Corbin Bernsen that turns into a contentious phoner two weeks later.

Yesterday's trip to the set of IRON MAN 2 at Marvel Studios' headquarters in Manhattan Beach was definitely more filet than Bernsen.

How much more? I'm not at liberty to say. Yet. Paramount and Marvel have asked that we hold our full set visit report until closer to Comic Con. And since I'd like to be invited to the sets of THOR, CAPTAIN AMERICA, THE AVENGERS, etc., I've decided it's worth my while to play ball.

They have, however, given us clearance to post a brief preview piece in which I whip you up into a frenzy by telling you that the sets are elaborate and ultra-sleek (they're using as many as five soundstages on the Raleigh Studios lot), the creative team is in a groove, and, as far as I can tell, everyone is extremely pleased with what they're getting thus far. This was apparent from the way Jon Favreau, Robert Downey Jr., Matthew Libatique and others tweaked and tweaked this one really cool, fairly lengthy take - in which Tony Stark [redacted] - until it was utter, fluid perfection.

Most of the stuff we saw yesterday was set in Stark's workshop, which has been modified to include some nifty new gizmos (this includes the floor, oddly enough). There were also a few tantalizing clues left strewn about just to get us worked up over what/who might or might not be appearing in the sequel. We were also given an unplanned peek at something stashed away on another soundstage - and I'm not sure they're going to let us write about this in our official write-up next month. Not that my meager words could do it justice.

Everyone was incredibly generous with their time: we got a good thirty minutes or so with Downey, and probably twice as much time with Favreau - who'd drop by video village to field our questions every time he got the chance. We also got to interrogate Marvel Studios honcho Kevin Feige at length regarding pretty much everything the company has in development, and I'll be reporting back on every last bit of info he offered up tomorrow (Friday) at Noon Pacific. We had a roomful of geeks, so rest assured that everything was covered (although I cut Feige some slack and didn't ask after Larry Clark's POWER PACK this time; they were being far too generous for me to be that much of a smart ass).

So I'll see you tomorrow for a big ol' Marvel Studios rundown.