Welcome to the second part of my look at the duplicity that is the Hollywood we know and love (or love to hate in some cases).   Yesterday I delved into the mainstream films, such as Transformers, which get little to no recognition by the Academy.  These are movies that represent the very monetary foundation of which Hollywood is built.

Today I’m going to slide the other way and talk about the performance side of Hollywood.  Films with limited budgets, little to no marketing and have to fight tooth-and-nail in some instances for distribution as well as theater screens.  They are the darlings of Hollywood, praised for often dramatic portrayal of characters and deeply emotional stories.  Yet, even with all the attention they receive when nominated for an Oscar, only a select group of viewers end up seeing these films.

In contrast to their mainstream counterparts, performance films have always been the underdog.  It starts from the very point the script is completed all the way to getting onto the screen.  It’s the latter which ultimately proves the most critical because without theaters to show it, what good is a movie?

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The Internets basically exploded on Sunday night when news first came that a brand new Iron Man 2 trailer had been released. As if the Oscars hadn’t even happened, fans and geeks alike turned to their laptops in droves to check out the brand new Tony Stark goodness, and nobody was disappointed.

Today, not even 48 hours after the trailer was released, we’re bringing you even more stuff about the movie, like an aftershock of awesomeness. Today, a few brand new images have just dropped online, giving us more Iron Man, War Machine, and even Whiplash. Plus, we threw in a couple older ones as well just for fun.

Check out the images after the jump. Be sure to catch Jon Favreau’s Iron Man 2, starring Robert Downey Jr., Samuel L. Jackson, Don Cheadle, Gwyneth Paltrow, Sam Rockwell, and Mickey Rourke, in theaters on May 7th.

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As promised, the latest trailer for the much anticipated Iron Man 2 made its debut after the Academy Awards during Jimmy Kimmell Live, and boy is it cool. In this new one we’re given more action, more fighting, more story, more comedy and more Robert Downey, Jr. All of those elements, and more, come together for a very exiting trailer indeed.

Another great thing we get to see finally is the much rumored “suitcase armor” which Tony Stark carries with him for those little emergencies — like when he’s attacked by a whip-wielding Mickey Rourke as Whiplash. It’s also great to see more of Don Cheadle as he comes into his own as War Machine, the always cool Sam Rockwell as Justin Hammer and Scarlett Johansson as Black Widow.

Check out the latest trailer, courtesy of the folks at MySpace, after the jump. Iron Man 2 blows audiences away starting on May 7th. That day can not come soon enough.

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Are you excited for this summer’s Iron Man 2? Do you know French? Then you’ll love this new clip that the kind folks at French MSN.com put up. The second half of the video is the trailer that we’ve all seen before, but it’s the first half that has all new footage.

Director Jon Favreau, Robert Downey Jr., Mickey Rourke, and Scarlett Johansson all chat about some of the effects in the upcoming film, and some of the things they’re doing to introduce Stark’s newest opponent, Whiplash. The character is more of a hybrid of both Crymson Dynamo and Whiplash from the comics, with Dynamo’s backstory and Whiplash’s abilities and name.

With a screenplay from Tropic Thunder’s Justin Theroux, Iron Man 2 is set to hit theaters and IMAX on May 7th of this year. Along with Rourke, Downey, and Johansson, the film also stars Don Cheadle, Gwyneth Paltrow, Sam Rockwell, and Samuel L. Jackson.

Check out the french footage, courtesy of MSN.fr here. They don’t allow embedding, sorry.

Ben Stiller and Robert Downey Jr. seemed to strike gold when they had actor Justin Theroux co-write Tropic Thunder. The film got rave reviews from the critics and even took in a large chunk of change at the box office. To repay him, Downey decided to step up to the plate for Theroux by having him pen the script for the soon-to-be released Iron Man 2 for Paramount.

Now it seems that Stiller is taking interest in the young actor/writer/director by having him write and direct the sequel to 2001 comedy Zoolander, also with Paramount. From Deadline Hollywood:

I’ve learned that Ben and Justin are working on the script together, and Theroux is going to Fashion Week in Paris to “immerse himself on what is current in fashion”. ”It’s got momentum,” a studio source just told me. Everyone’s hoping Owen Wilson co-stars again but no deal is set. The villain likely will be Jonah Hill who’s in negotiations.

No word yet on who or what else they have planned for the sequel, but with names like Will Farrell, Billy Zane, Jon Voight, Milla Jovovich, David Duchovny, and dozens of others in the first film, you can expect to see some of Stiller’s new on-screen companions such as Jack Black, Tom Cruise, and Matthew McConaughey pop up in between glances of Blue Steel.

In news that seemed “too good to be true”, Guy Ritchie, who directed such action-comedies as Snatch and Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, would be directing an adaptation of the DC character Lobo for Warner Bros. Since then, Ritchie’s stock has gone up in a huge way with his Sherlock Holmes bringing in over $350 worldwide since it’s Christmas Day release.

With that in mind, both Warner and super-producer Joel Silver have decided to fast-track a Holmes sequel, which would put Lobo on ice, possibly permanently. When the LA Times sat down with Silver, he didn’t seem too convinced either way.

“I don’t think he’s going to do it now,” Silver said of Ritchie directing “Lobo.” “The studio wants us and Guy to focus on making another ‘Sherlock Holmes.’ So I think we’re going to be doing that. But we’re seeing what happens with this.

Everybody is analyzing everything. It’s all kind of happening right now as we talk. ‘Sherlock’ is sitting at just about $400 million in worldwide gross and showing itself to be pretty effective and pretty strong. So we’re trying to see if we can do something quickly with another ‘Sherlock Holmes’ movie. We have some ideas and some good story points.”

It was also rumored that Brad Pitt, a Guy Ritchie favorite, would be stepping in on the Holmes sequel to play the evil Professor Moriarty, but Silver didn’t seem to think that the plan would move on past the “wouldn’t it be cool?” stage.

Downey Jr. also just recently picked up his second Golden Globe for his performance in Sherlock Holmes, which you can still catch in some theaters.

The 67th annual Golden Globes awards took place last night, and Avatar walked away top honors of  Best Picture and Best Director, fueling speculation that it is gaining momentum going into the Oscar nomination race. Avatar and Crazy Heart picked up two awards each, but there were no lopsided wins this year.

Critical darling The Hurt Locker was shut out and went home empty handed.  The Hurt Locker has been cleaning up top honors at Critic Circle awards nationwide. Up in the Air was nominated for six awards, but only won for Best Screenplay.

Veteran actors Jeff Bridges and Meryl Streep won acting awards, and delivered particularly elegant and classy acceptance speeches.

On the television side, Dexter fared well, with John Lithgow and Michael C. Hall both winning acting awards.  HBO’s film Grey Gardens won two awards as well.  Mad Men won for Best Television Series, Drama and freshman series Glee won for best Television Series, Comedy or Musical.

A complete list of winners follows. Also, be sure to check out our photo gallery of all the winners after the jump.

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Saturday morning I thought that The Book Of Eli might actually pull off the feat of toppling the unstoppable Avatar, because it did lead the box office on Friday. Well, close, but no cigar. Avatar reigned supreme once again, and made an astonishing $41.3 Million in its 6th week of release, and it is still playing on over 3,000 screens.

Avatar has now surpassed Star Wars as the number three highest grossing movie of all time with a cumulative total of $491 Million. The Dark Knight stands at number two, with $533 Million.

The Book of Eli had a pretty decent showing, with $31.6 Million on just over 3,000 screens. If the movie gets good word of mouth, it should do well in upcoming weeks. In third place was The Lovely Bones, which fared better than I thought it would. It was postponed from last year, and has received somewhat of a critical drubbing, but it still managed $17.1 Million.

In my opinion, this is a testament to how much readers loved the book. Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel, hung around and made $11.5 Million for fourth place. The movie is closing in on $200 Million, as it now stands at $192 Million.

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As if it were any surprise, many of next year’s blockbuster films will be coming to IMAX at the same time as they hit regular theaters. With that obvious news comes the neat tidbit that Jon Favreau’s upcoming sequel to 2008’s Iron Man will also be hitting the mondo-screen along with the regular-sized ones.

Unlike The Dark Knight, for example, Iron Man 2 wasn’t always planned for IMAX  and was sent to IMAX to be blown up for next year’s release. The current IMAX release is set to hit on May 7th, the same as as the non-IMAX version comes out.

The sequel will star Robert Downey Jr., Scarlett Johansson, Don Cheadle, Sam Rockwell, Gwyneth Paltrow, Mickey Rourke, and Samuel L. Jackson. This story will focus on Stark (Downey Jr.) coming out to the public as Iron Man, while facing a backlash of enemies in both of his lifestyles.

It was recently announced that “hot megastar” Robert Downey Jr. was turning down the role in Iron Man helmer Jon Favreau’s next feature, Cowboys and Aliens. Well, now comes word from Deadline Hollywood that James Bond himself may be stepping up to do battle against the beings from another world.

Daniel Craig is currently in talks to sign on for the lead role of Zeke Jackson in the movie based on the Fred Van Lente graphic novel. The original story is about “feuding frontier settlers and Native Americans in the Old West who team up to fight extraterrestrials.”

The Script comes from Star Trek and Transformers scribes Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman, as well as a screenwriting credit to Lost’s Damon Lindelof, and the film has got Dreamworks and Imagine Entertainment powerhouses Steven Spielberg, Brian Grazer, and Ron Howard producing. This could very well turn out to be a mega hit like the small-scale District 9, or a bloated and missed opportunity like 1999’s Wild Wild West (or Transformers 2, whichever flop you want to go with).

No word on when the film is set to start shooting, but the studio is looking at a release date in mid 2011. What are your thoughts on Craig taking over for RDJ?