The Avengers has come and gone, and now we get to see Tony Stark (Robert Downey, Jr.) dealing with the trauma he apparently experienced in New York. He has insomnia, and it strains both his work on the latest Iron Man suit as well as his relationship with Pepper (Gwyneth Paltrow). His bodyguard Happy (Jon Favreau) is now head of security for Stark Industries. And, all around the world, there’s broadcasts from a strange terrorist figure named “The Mandarin” (Ben Kingsley).

The movie opens with Stark recounting a New Year’s Eve party way back in 1999. He’s at a conference in Bern, trying to bed a buxom botantist, Maya (Rebecca Hall) before the year’s turnover. He’s interrupted by pimply geek Aldrich Killian (Guy Pearce), who’s trying to start a think tank and wants Stark’s help. Stark blows him off, and if the use of Guy Pearce didn’t already suggest it, Stark states outright that it was the beginning of trouble.

Thirteen years later, Aldrich shows up at Stark Industries, again seeking support, though he does seem more interested in rubbing everyone’s nose in his success. He has created a new whatsit kind of technology called “Extremis” that allows the brain to regenerate tissue…and, somehow, make the patients melt things with their hands. (Dr. Curt Conners from the latest Spiderman films is going to be smacking his head with his tail when the inevitable crossover comes.)

Earlier this week, we got a new poster and the first official look at the Mandarin. Now, here it is folks, the first trailer for Iron Man 3 starring Robert Downey, Jr. and written/directed by Shane Black, the guy who wrote Lethal Weapon. In this one Tony Stark “has his back against the wall on a quest to find his enemy. He also discovers the answer to the question that has secretly haunted him: does the man make the suit or does the suit make the man?”

I’m gonna go out on a limb here and say it’s a bit of both. Of course, there’s also another question that needs to be answered: Is he getting too old for this shit?

Iron Man 3, which also stars Gwyneth Paltrow, Don Cheadle and Ben Kinsgley, will be in theaters in Digital 3D and RealD on May 3, 2013.

Steven Soderbergh seems to have found his new Clooney, as Matt Damon has helped the man snag a #1 spot twice now with The Informant! and as of this weekend, Contagion.

Hard to believe a film about a virus wiping out the likes of Gwyneth Paltrow, Jude Law, and Laurence Fishburne could bring in $25 million worldwide in the first weekend, but that’s just what it’s done. Not terrible, considering the film’s budget was a measly $60 million (most of which likely went to the ensemble cast).

Following up in the top 5, The Help finally got knocked from its #1 spot for the first time in 3 weeks and finally hit the $140 million mark. In third, another new release, as the “Rocky of UFC” movie, Warrior, opened to a quiet response, with only $5.6 million.

In fourth place, political thriller The Debt managed to drop off significantly from last week and only pull in an estimated $5 million this weekend.

Even though he’s said he’s going to retire from film directing soon, that hasn’t stopped Steven Soderbergh from continuing to make some pretty great films. From his first effort Sex, Lies and Videotape through one of my favorites The Limey, the Oceans 11 trilogy, Traffic and more he’s constantly demonstrated his skills as a storyteller.

This time around he’s turned his attention to something that scares the crap out of many people: a virus that can kill all humans. In his latest film Contagion, Soderbergh tells the story of a virus that mutates quickly and starts killing the world’s population faster than we can find a way to stop it.

The film features an amazing ensemble cast including Matt Damon, Jude Law, Laurence Fishburne, Marianne Cotillard, Kate Winslet, John Hawkes and Gwyneth Paltrow who, sadly, doesn’t seem to have a happhy ending in this one. We’ve got the brand new trailer for the film to share with you right here.

Gotta say this looks pretty good. Also, it looks pretty scary.

Check out Contagion on September 9th. See the trailer after the break.

Feel like Iron Man 2 was lacking in the alcoholic subplot that Tony Stark went through in the comics? Well, it looks like the original scribe of the film felt so as well, as we’re getting to see the original opening of the film for the first time.

Set to be attached to next week’s DVD and Blu-Ray release of the film, the opening focuses way less on Rourke’s backstory, and way more on the relationship between Robert Downey Jr.’s Tony Stark and Gwyneth Paltrow’s Pepper Potts.

The scene also includes the iconic Pepper/Helmet kiss that we saw in all of the trailers, but never made the final cut.

They may have beaten the alcoholic subplot, but it looks like this deleted scene had more of the witty comedy that made the first film so good. More deleted scenes are expected to roll out as we draw closer to the release of Iron Man 2 on DVD and Blu-Ray next Tuesday.

In the meantime, check out the scene in glorious standard definition after the jump.

M. Night Shyamalan gets a bad rep sometimes. He’s an excellent storyteller who’s been known to go off of the deep end when it comes to getting his films made, most notably with Lady in the Water, which was basically just a love letter to his kids. We won’t address The Happening.

He seemed to go a bit more mainstream with the upcoming The Last Airbender, but now it seems the writer/director is getting back to his mysterious roots with his newest film. According to The Hollywood Reporter, the film’s premise, and even the title, is a mystery. Nothing has been revealed about the plot or the genre. What we do know is that Shyamalan has apparently already locked in three big actors for the film.

No details are known about the project, but it comes with some major acting talent: We’ve learned that Bradley Cooper, Gwyneth Paltrow and Bruce Willis are loosely attached to star in the film.

Shyamalan is famously secretive, and this project is no exception: Only top studio execs have read the script, and they were required to allow a Shyamalan assistant to supervise the process. When the execs finished reading, the assistant took the script back and left.

This project could be just what Night needs to get back to where he was circa 1997 with the success of The Sixth Sense. He’s got a pretty good track record with Willis, as he was in both Sense and Unbreakable.

Not sure where he could possibly go with this film, as he’s already touched on fairy tales, aliens, ghosts, and evil trees. We’ll be sure to keep a close eye on news from this upcoming project.

Though the movie has been out for a week now, we wanted to make sure the majority of you saw Iron Man 2 before we posted anything else that could potentially spoil the movie. And then there’s this video.

For those of you you remember the trailer very well and saw the film, you might recall the scene where Pepper Potts (Gwyneth Paltrow) kisses RDJ’s helmet and throws it off the back of a cargo plane wasn’t actually in the film. We also know how much RDJ and the rest of the cast ad-libbed while shooting.

CollegeHumor put together a great compilation of animated “alternate takes” that also didn’t make it into the film. It isn’t completely out of the question that some of these outtakes were actually shot.

They’re all pretty amusing, especially the potential to see a sequel titled Mask-O. Check out the animated clip after the jump, and you can still catch the rest of the movie (without the scene) in theaters and IMAX everywhere.

Iron Man 2 faces the unenviable task of living up to its predecessor. The success of the first movie was a surprise to many, and part of what made it so fun was its arrogant anti-hero Tony Stark, played by Robert Downey Jr. His quippy, cocky, charismatic character was truly a breath of fresh air from the conventional action movie heroes we’re assaulted with each summer. So now that the cat’s out of the bag, can the sequel capture the same magic? Sort of.

Tony is basking in the glow of all the attention being foisted on him after he “privatized world peace,” as he calls it. He is a major celebrity now, and at the Stark institute, he is presented in the same manner you would see a band introduced at a stadium concert.

A splashy little group of “Starkette” dancers wearing hot shorts and bra tops dances in the background while Stark addresses his adoring masses. All the spectacle looks like a show straight out of Las Vegas. The ego-stroking has gone straight to Tony’s head, and his hubris has rendered him quite unlikable.

In Moscow, Ivan Vanko (Mickey Rourke) seethes by his father’s deathbed as he watches ad nauseam television coverage of Tony Stark’s big reveal as Iron Man. His father whispers, “It should have been you” just before dying. Vanko feels his family (who has worked for the Starks in the past) has been wronged by the Stark family, and he starts plotting his revenge, building a specialized suit that is equipped with deadly whip-lasers.

With the Iron Man 2 release just two weeks away, we are eating up anything and everything given to us about the upcoming super hero blockbuster. Earlier today, director Jon Favreau, who seems to be the main source for all information being spread about his film, posted links on his twitter account to the two newest movie posters for the film.

The first shows one of the villains Iron Man and War Machine will be facing, Whiplash. Though it looks like Mickey Rourke may not have actually even showered since The Wrestler, if there is any actor who can portray this insane amalgam of the comic book versions of Whiplash and Crimson Dynamo, all while bringing the character from obscurity to a household name, we have faith that Rourke is the one.

The second poster promotes the IMAX showings of the film with an image of Tony Stark’s slick new briefcase armor, which has been seen in various trailers for the film.

Check them both out in full after the jump, and stay with us as we draw closer to Iron Man 2‘s release on May 7th.