Check out our high-res gallery right after the jump!

Chrysler is coming with a new ad campaign that will (hopefully) speak to the heart of its American audience. Looks good!

Iron Man gallery

Iron Man 2 already officially announced for 2010!

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On our watch list: Iron Man (2008)

Marvel Studios has unveiled today its schedule until April 30, 2010, including a sequel for its first sel-founded box-office success. This comes right after the fantastic success of Iron Man, which grossed $102 million over its first four days.

Source: Variety

As you probably all know by now, Transformers 2 has been green lit and will come out on June 26, 2009. As the first one, it will be directed by Michael Bay and produced by Steven Spielberg. Brace yourself, it’s one of our longest articles so far!

Story

While fans all over the world are debating about which Transformer universe will be exploited or which character should or shouldn’t be included, nothing has leaked from the studios. We know that Michael Bay was working on the story himself during the writers strike: “We’ve got our characters all designed. I always write all my scripts, my movies anyway so at least I’ve got something to give the writers. It’s like a template. We have a really good outline so I worked on that.”
The strike being over, the screenwriters (Ehren Kruger for the screenplay, Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci for the story), were able to take over. Bay said that he did that to “make his date” and that he “wasn’t going to let the strike take [him] down”. Bet that was really appreciated in the industry – not that he started to write the story himself, but the way he announced it.

Location

Philadelphia and Detroit have both been rumored to be the new location (instead of L.A), but Detroit seems like a more logical choice, given the rich background of Motor City. Plus… it makes it easier for Bay to get delivered with fresh vehicle from GM every time he destroys a bunch of them. The Transformers 2 script has already been submitted to the Michigan Film Advisory Commission. But this doesn’t rule Cheese-steak city out. IGN.com suggested that the city could be used as a second location, for example to show a more grown-up Sam attending University of Pennsylvania or Girard College, where Michael Bay was seen recently.

Keep reading about the cast, the characters and the product placement after the jump.

Cast

On the poster displayed at the Hasbro booth during the Toy Fair 2008 (found at ASMzine), Shia LaBoeuf (as Sam) and Megan Fox (as Mikaela) are seen on some hill dominating a city, framed by Megatron on the left and Optimus Prime on the right, so we know that the two actors are back… and yes, that’s all we know so far.

The poster as
found on ASM.

The poster
after we tweaked it.

Characters

You can expect the characters to be pretty much the same, but maybe not in the same outfits (yes we’re talking about the robots, not what Megan Fox will be wearing. Although…). Considering what we saw on the Toy Fair poster, and because it can’t really be any other way, we know that, for the robots, Optimus Prime, Megatron and Bumblebee will be there. Ratchet, Jazz, Barricade, Frenzy and Starscream will most probably be involved too.
Michael Bay was quoted on IGN saying: “We can actually make the depth of these characters more fun and a lot more interesting characters.”, and we really hope it happens. The movie needs more depth than the first one.

Product placement and shapes for the Transformers

If the almost exclusive partnership with GM continues, any new car (Pontiac G8 and G8 ute?) the General needs to promote, including the Camaro (this time in production version). Bay could use the new muscle car war even more than in the first episode, showing Barricade (Mustang), Bumblebee (Camaro) and a new Challenger throwing some fisticuffs at each other, or taking it on the road. The Peterbilt will most likely be used for Optimus, but other variations are possible. Creatures -such as Scorponok in the first movie- could be more present, but it’s among the shape shifters like Frenzy that we expect big product placement deals to occur. Microsoft Zune Transformer anyone?

More than 2?

Speaking about Shia LaBeouf, executive producer Steven Spielberg declared that he had signed for “multiple” Transformers installments. So we’re getting the Dinobots too?

Sources: Imdb.com, IGN.com