The reason? The amazing footage that was shown.

While many movies conducted panels and talked about stuff that’s in the far off future, “Iron Man” showed about four minutes of footage and brought the house down.

And while I posted a YouTube link last night to see what you missed, since then Paramount has pulled all the clips so you’ll have to wait to see the footage. 

But while you may not have watched the footage, at least you can either read the roundtable interviews that I took part in on Saturday afternoon. All of them were great interviews and are worth reading.

So… this now brings up the first interview, and it’s with Terrance Howard.

In the movie Terrance plays Jim Rhodes, a liaison between the acquisitions office of the United States Air Force and Stark Industries. And since many of you have read the comics, you know who and what Jim is and what other character he may play in the future…

The great thing about the interview is that Terrance talks about everything and he even drops in a few things that I hadn’t heard before…like “Tony tracks down and fights a war lord in this.”

As always, you can either read the transcript below or download the audio of the interview as an MP3 by clicking here.

And with that…here’s Terrance.

Question: So how does it feel to actually be the first black super hero?  I mean there was Blade but he’s not actually a super hero.

Terrance Howard: I feel like Sidney Poitier and Jackie Robinson right here. I got to do what they’ve pushed the envelope on for so many years to be held responsible at the same time for how that character is conducted because perhaps in the future they’ll green light other characters or other ethnicities will have a chance to do that based upon how this is accepted.  I mean, it’s a lot of…I never thought about it like that.  I didn’t recognize that. 

Did you get a chance to step into the armor sometime?

You’ve got to remember, the reason that Marvel wanted to be independent on this project right here was so they would not have the constraints of the studio that was more concerned with marketing than with being concerned with the historical authenticity of the film, you know?  That’s what’s more important to be true creatively and then because this is a very smart audience now.  30 years ago an audience if they didn’t like something they could be outspoken and they could have their voice heard through 3 or 4 critics.  Now each person can get on and say I don’t recommend this movie because they forgot this and they forgot that, I mean we’re so much more accountable and we realize that the audience is so much more intelligent than marketing research shows.

Did you have any scenes with Hillary Swank or Sam Jackson?

Um, you know. 

Can you talk about the fact that there are introducing other characters in this movie?

They’re more concerned with the future aspects of it.  You know it’s like you can go and throw a bunch of preservatives in a piece of food and sell a million pieces of it but then two years from now when the scientific research comes out nobody’s going to buy it anymore.  But if you stay true and start grass roots and touch on the imagination of this intelligent audience, then you’ve got a lifetime and that means great for me because it means I get to go and be in The Avengers, you know.  Because I put on the suit and go to The Avengers.  I get to be War Machine.  I get paid man. 

What did you find the most challenging to play a super hero?

Well, the most challenging thing is to find something super in you.  To find something where you take a stand on something and then make a compromise because that’s what a super hero is.  It’s not just a man that stands up.  He’s gone beyond the call of duty.  Beyond the call of humanity and say you know what I’m going to be a man today, a real live man.  I’m going to sacrifice everything that I have and I’m weak in nature.  I’ve got the same problems as everybody at this table. To stand up and say I’m going to be more than that.  That’s the best part of it.

(inaudible question – something about putting on the armor)

Blasphemy.  You’ve got to remember in the comic book James Rhodes puts on that suit and as a result of the neuronet pattern that Tony Stark had and has designed the suit according to the frequency of his brain it changes Rhodes thinking pattern.  Whether Rhodes becomes smarter or not is left to be told.  Rhodes changed from being a traditionalist to now a rebellious man, so I can’t say yes.  I’m definitely not saying no.

In the movie, you start off as you said a Lt. Colonel?

Lt. Colonel in the US Airforce.

So what’s your interaction with Tony Stark?

I’m a liaison between the acquisitions office of the United States Air Force and Stark Industries. So on a day to day basis, Tony brings all of his new technologies or possible technologies to me first and then I say this has viability within the United States military, you know, whether it be—whether we’re going to move it down into the Navy, whether it be a Marine application or whether it actually be since and we also work with Boeing.  So most of it stays with the Air Force but we also have us as going to M.I.T. together.

Did you do any special training for this film?

Just went up with the Air Force.  Spent a lot of time with them.  I got to fly jets.  You just don’t go up in there and sit in there. The best thing about these jets let me tell you, you have nothing to hold on to in there except this joy stick and the only time they give you the joy stick—is the person up front will shake it and when he shakes it you know that he wants you to take it. You’re going 400 miles an hour in a jet but the wing man here and they’re telling you to roll it and I got to do that so we went through the flight simulators for a week and then finally I flew 3 or 4 times with the United States Air Force in T-38’s and F-16’s and F-15’s and I’m bad now dude.  I can land a plane.

What kind of comics did you grow up with?  Were you a fan?

I was a fan of X-Men.  They made me so mad when they killed the Phoenix.  I didn’t want the Phoenix to die for nothing. I thought there was other possibilities. Hopefully they’ll bring her back.

It wasn’t for nothing.

No but they…remember the young mutant who’s ability was to cancel out the mutant gene?  Why couldn’t he come around her?  Why did Wolverine have kill her?

You have a point.

They should have brought him right out. 

Are you ready to see yourself immortalized in plastic as action figures?

I would like that. 

Will you play with yourself?

Will I play with myself?  I’ve done that once or twice before and now to have a little buddy to play with…little bullet. Yeah, I think I’m going to play with myself.

So we will see you soon in a movie with Jodie Foster?

Yes, The Brave One.

And in how many other movies?

Well, not too many more, you know.  You can’t spread yourself so thin… I’ve got a film coming out with Richard Gere and another one with...

Richard Gere is it a real story or?

Yes. It’s a story of what took place in Serbia and Croatia and Bosnia with the war lord that had been—it’s almost like Iron Man in a sense—because the same way Iron Man jumps up and makes himself available to handle things that most governments will not touch because of their political duplicitous actions. I mean I get to go in and shut down a war lord and that. Tony tracks down and fights a war lord in this.  We’re doing some socially conscious things now. 

Is Nicole Kidman the girl in the movie?

In the Richard Gere movie?  But no she wasn’t in that. She wasn’t in that one.

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