As followers of Jon Favreau's on-set tweets will know, today is the half-way point in the **Iron Man 2 **shoot as the production starts to take shape. Favreau recently gave Empire a few pointers on Tony Stark's arc as he faces down new villains Whiplash (Mickey Rourke) and Justin Hammer (Sam Rockwell).
"Tony's expected to be a role model and I don't think he's ready to be one. He's under a great deal of pressure and when you're under pressure, I think you find outlets for that. That's one of the tensions of the film: it's one thing to say you're Iron Man, and another thing to actually *become *Iron Man."
And what of Stark's friend and confidant Jim Rhodes? Favreau hinted that Rhodes, now played by Don Cheadle, will be tooling up big-time when he dons his own armoured suit as War Machine. "Rhodesy is definitely stepping up in this film. Let me put it this way: Tony's not the only person with technology in the film."
Meanwhile, Mickey Rourke, who appears as new Iron Man nemesis Whiplash, was back on set last week after a stint with Sly, Li, Lundgren, Statham et al on The Expendables. "I'm having the time of my life!" he enthused about joining the **Iron Man **franchise. "It's been really brutal, because my Iron Man suit weighs 23lb. It's sort of a half-suit, with half my skin showing, with lots of Russian tattoos, because [Whiplash is just] out of a Russian-zone prison."
For more from the set, check out the July issue of Empire.** Iron Man 2** hits cinemas on 7 May 2010.