Marvel Studios is getting ready to start production on Iron Man 3, which starts shooting this May in Wilmington, North Carolina. A new casting call has been released, which reveals Scarlett Johansson will return as Black Widow, Gwyneth Paltrow reprises her Pepper Potts role, and Don Cheadle is back as Jim Rhodes in Iron Man 3. Take a look at this excerpt from the casting call.
"Principal actor auditions and extras casting registration is underway for the Walt Disney Studios/Marvel Studios superhero feature film Iron Man 3. Shooting will take place in the Wilmington, NC area and other locations in North Carolina from May 21, 2012 through September 7, 2012. The film's main stars are being cast out of Los Angeles, however many supporting and day player acting roles will be cast in North Carolina. All of the extras, photo-doubles and stand-ins for the films stars will be cast in North Carolina. The production will create 550 "high-quality, well-paying jobs" and 1,000 talent opportunities in N.C.
Two-time Academy Award nominated Robert Downey Jr. will reprise his roles as as Tony Stark, an industrialist and master engineer who builds a powered exoskeleton and becomes the technologically advanced superhero, Iron Man. Scarlett Johansson will return from Iron Man 2 playing Natasha Romanoff aka "The Black Widow", and Gwyneth Paltrow plays Stark's closest friend, love interest, and business partner Pepper Potts. Don Cheadle, who replaced Terrence Howard after the first Iron Man, returns as Lt. Colonel James "Rhodey" Rhodes - Stark's personal pilot, chief aviation engineer for Stark International, and one of Stark's closest friends.
Multi talented actor, screenwriter and film director Shane Black is taking over the directing duties from Jon Favreau, who directed the first two films in the Iron Man series. Black also is writing the screenplay for Iron Man 3 with Drew Pearce and Robert Downey Jr.'s creative input. He recently said not to expect Iron Man 3 to feature any other heroes from Marvel's universe saying that after The Avengers the plan is to go back to self-contained single-character stories. Shane Black has directed Robert Downey Jr. before - in Black's last feature film directing job Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang in 2005.
Louis D'Esposito will executive produce for Marvel Studios. Former president and chairman of Marvel Comics, Stan Lee, will also executive produce along with Golden Globe Award nominated independent producer Charles Newirth. Avi Arad will produce the film under the banner of his company "Avi Arad Productions". Arad has served as producer or executive producer on every Marvel film since 1998's Blade. He is former CEO and the founder of Marvel Studios."
The casting call also offers a brief story rundown which indicates Tony Stark will be battling "real world villains" in Iron Man 3.
"In this third installment of the Marvel Studios' film adaptations of Iron Man, the storyline is being described by writer-director Shane Black as being a Tom Clancy-thriller, with Iron Man fighting real world villains. Black stated, 'the studio wasn't happy with the result of Iron Man 2, as a result that pretty much came about due to a rushed production schedule in an attempt to hit a release date rather than simply make a good film, but I digress. Iron Man 3 will not be another, 'two men in iron suits fighting each other.'"
CLICK HERE to read the full casting call, which includes information on how to submit materials to be a part of this Marvel Studios sequel.