Jeff Bridges has become the fourth Academy Award-recognized actor to sign up for Iron Man. He joins Robert Downey Jr. (Iron Man), Terence Howard (Jim Rhodes) and Gwyneth Paltrow (Pepper Potts) in what is the first feature film to be produced independently by Marvel Entertainment. Bridges role will be that of an employee and close confidant of Iron Man's alter ego Tony Stark. According to The Hollywood Reporter he will have a "major role in shaping Stark's life". Marvel's president of production Kevin Feige said this... "He's excited about doing a movie like this, and we're excited to have him in this particular role. There are many facets to this character which I can't discuss, but looking at the spectrum of all of Jeff's roles, this fits in nicely with the man who played 'Starman,' 'Tucker,' 'Big Lebowski' with a little bit 'Tron' thrown in. He went on to say that this casting "rounds out the ensemble" so expect this to be the last of the big name talent who sign up for the movie. I'm impressed. Bridges is a very fine actor who has the Gary Oldman talent of being able to make himself invisible as an actor, so you believe he is each character he is portraying. So 3 out of 4 of Jon Favreau's casting have been positive in my eyes. Only Paltrow's I find a little baffling but I guess they could have done a lot worse and it's not like she can't act..it's just I don't need see her fitting in this universe at all. Filming begins next month, for a May 2nd 2008 release. source - the hollywood reporter, coming soon