After 15+ years in development, the comic hero first based on Howard Hughes is refashioned as a contemporary industrialist whose technology is being used in the Middle Eastern war effort. (Funny, we can't compare him to any present-day eccentrics, just a list of bad guys come to mind.) Director Jon Favreau was the first name talent associated with project, and any doubt as to his ability to bring in a polished, smart-looking film should have been erased by not only the principal cast he got to sign on, but also his plan for the first film of a proposed trilogy (we hear Downey, Paltrow, and Howard signed 3-picture deals). Here's what we know: Stark is taken prisoner is Afghanistan, and that's where he builds the suit; both the grey suit and the red and gold suit will appear; Stark's alcoholism won't be addressed during the first go-round. And a note to old-school comics fans: It's kind of cool that Stark's old split book counterpart,Steve Rogers (a.k.a Captain America) was greenlighted soon after IM began pre-production. While that project seems to be languishing in development-heck, we imagine IM's initial returns might help get the red, white, and blue balls rolling.

Patrick Dempsey is getting the roles that Hugh Grant will no longer consider and for which Hugh Jackman has become too spendy. And we guess this makes Michelle Monaghan the new Sandra Bullock? Anyway, will MoH revive the rom-com genre's failing heart? It's hard to say, especially when the movie will battle Iron Man, which we hear is tracking well with the ladies (not hard to imagine, given the presence of the Gwyneth and RDJ's beefed-up frame). P.S. Whoever first called this 27 Dresses for Guys is clever.

Sorry, Jimmy Fallon, but this is the "Weekend Update" reunion we've been waiting for. After proving themselves week-in and week-out behind the SNL news desk (the last time that program was truly worth wat