'Iron Man 2' Coming Into Focus

It's a good week to be an Iron Man fan.

On Tuesday, a picture from Jon Favreau confirmed work had begun on the sets for "Iron Man 2." On Wednesday, word came down that Mickey Rourke and Scarlett Johansson had been officially cast in the movie.

On Thursday, two more pieces of the process came into focus.

First, a Marvel "spy" told Ain't It Cool News that, "Iron Man starts rehearsals in a few days, which is why the casting is finally coming together so quickly."

Next, as IESB.net spotted, Gwyneth Paltrow had written on her GOOP newsletter that she "can’t wait to start Iron Man 2 in two weeks."

The Ain't It Cool News spy also said that part of the reason for the just-announced one year delay for Avengers is so that Favreau can direct it:

"Avengers is delayed a year because of financing issues but also because the plan is for Favreau to helm it. Everybody here loves the guy and he wants to do it, but it would have been impossible for him to do before the date change given his Iron Man 2 commitments. Also partly the reason why he agreed to do the Stark sequel on such an accelerated schedule was so he could get given first dibs on this. It would still be a punishing schedule for him, so he's not firmly confirmed yet, but he is certainly the presumptive director at this point."