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My innocuous transition to IESB is now complete as my first posting now makes it official and I'm glad to be a part of the IESB. Update #2!
 We've received a few more images and a short report from Hombre, who's been keeping an eye on the Iron Man set for us. Scroll down to check them out.
Hey Ronnie.
It's been raining up here so production has slowed down a bit. I've been talking to some production people in town about the photos I sent you guys. Seems like they had no choice but to release the Mark I suit picture. Smart move being that Robert Downey is now shooting in that costume on set! Security has been beefed up so much that it might be impossible to grab some more snaps for you.
But you know I'll be dropping you another line if and when I get back on set.
I'm sending you some other pictures I got from the other day. If this movie turns out horrible, it won't be because of the budget, that's for sure!
I've been hearing good things from the crew about director Jon Favreau. It seems the cast and crew are "confident in his vision." This must be a good thing because a lot of the crew seem to bitch on and on about other directors they've worked with before!
Let's hope this weather clears up because I want to see the Iron Man costume do some damage!
Hombre
Update! the Mark 1 Iron Man Costume has been revealed! Take a peek below to see the first actual pic of the "Mark 1" Iron Man costume courtesy Marvel! And be sure to check out IESB's exclusive On Set images in our gallery below!
We've got some great things planned over the next few months. Some you'll be hearing about and some you won't! But that doesn't mean you should fret your little hearts. What matters most to you, the IESB reader, you will most definitely be hearing about. Like this little report that was sent to me from the Eastern Sierra Nevada Mountains.
An old friend has sent in some images and a report from the set of IRON MAN.
Once again, it's great to be here at the IESB. Being that I'm pretty much a contributor-at-large, I'm looking forward to bringing you some more cool stuff in the future. If you want to drop me a line, you can now reach me at
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
. Those of you who have my phone number, that hasn't changed, so you'll still be able to reach me as usual.
In one of the pictures, you can see a blue t-shirted Favreau directing someone. I'm not sure who it is, but you can check out all the images and report below.
Hey Ronnie! I heard that you're now running with the IESB crowd. I hope congrats on the move are in order. If not, sorry! Anyhow, I've got some pictures and a set report from the set of Iron Man. Think of it as a house warming present for you.
 I spend a lot of time up in Inyo County, where nothing exciting usually happens. That's fine by me for the most part, but over the last couple weeks, we've had some visitors from out of town filming IRON MAN! You might have noticed a few pictures on the web a few weeks ago that showed a cave set with ammo and weapons. The set is up in the Alabama Hills near Lone Pine. I've seen the IM signs with the arrows pointing the way to the set hanging around town but haven't had time up until now to check it for myself. I figured you'd want to hear what I've seen and heard as to what's going on up here.
First off, let me tell you about Lone Pine. We have a population of 1,800 people so it's hard not to notice an extra 300+ people in town with trucks, equipment and props. This production is HUGE! I've seen a few sets around the Los Angeles area but nothing as massive as this. This movie has an astronomical budget for sure. The town only has a handful of hotels and they're all booked by the production. The Comfort Inn, Budget Inn as well as a bunch of little motels are all booked with only a few spare rooms left. So if you plan on coming up here in the next couple days, forget it! The famous Dow Villa is being used for the production headquarters. Since this is such a small town, where everyone knows everyone, I know that Terrence Howard, Robert Downey Jr. and Jon Favreau are all staying within walking distance of this hotel. I've even seen them eating at a couple of the local eateries. They seem like very humble guys to be able to walk into a small town and eat and shop in and around town.
The Dow Villa does have some history. John Wayne used to stay there many years ago when he filmed a lot of the old Westerns up here. In fact, Iron Man is filming up in the Movie Lane Rd. area where Bonanza, Maverick, Star Trek and tons of old westerns were shot. There are smaller productions that use this area as well for commercials and such and I've learned from the crew that there are other productions headed into town to film some horror stuff in the next couple of months.
This being a small town, you overhear things. For instance, I overheard that the Mark III Iron Man suit looks awesome and that Stan Winston has really outdone himself. Someone mentioned that the suit was Red, Gold and Black with some impressive hydraulics and pistons on the back of the suit where you'd expect to see muscles. But that doesn't make sense being that the suit is Red and Gold in the comics, of course, assuming that Favreau is being loyal to the comic book. Or maybe he's seen one of the older versions of the suit. What do you think? His description of the hydraulics systems, chest plate and back do seem pretty detailed to be making it up. But this contradicts another story that I overheard. There were a couple guys walking in front of me one night discussing receiving the final suit from Stan Winston in another couple weeks. I feel so torn. I don't know who to believe.
This is what I know about the sets. There are two different set locations. The first being the rocky cave area that was seen on the web last week. This is being shot deep up Movie Lane Road off of Whitney Portal Road. It's not too difficult to get on the set being that a few friends of mine are working security! The other night, after production wrapped for the day, I drove right up to the set and had a poke around. Don't get me wrong, there is a ton of security, but most of them are locals hired to play security for a couple of weeks.
Right when you get to Movie Lane Road, you come across one of many base camps. There's a bunch of production trucks and trailers. During the day, I noticed a fleet of white ¾ ton vans being used for transporting cast and crew back and forth from the various base camps and hotels. There was a black luxury SUV, I think that it was an Escalade, being used to transport the VIP's including Downey Jr. and Terrence Howard.
There must be around 70 different production trucks parked along Movie Land Road for a stretch of about five miles. I really couldn't see too much of the sets because I drove through the location after sunset but I did see about a dozen beige Humvees and at least one large beige military style ambulance.
Earlier in the day I was able to peek into one of the wardrobe trucks and saw a bunch of camo fatigues that I am also assuming belong to Stark security.
The second location is off Highway 136 passed a little town named Keeler about 15-20 miles away from Lone Pine. This location is a Military Base that I was told is supposed to be located in Afghanistan and will have tons of action in it.
I also heard that that they are changing locations next week. They're going to be shooting inside Edwards Air Force Base and eventually Las Vegas. They're also going to be filming interiors at someplace called Downey Studios.
I took a hiking trip up into the canyons where they're filming and managed to grab a few snaps for you! Now, before anyone else gets the bright idea of coming up here to do the same. I recommend you don't. I came across two rattle snakes, a bunch of scorpions and a gila monster! I'm not the most experienced hiker/climber around but I know enough to never go back up there!
In the scene that they're filming, you can see a group of soldiers on foot running back to their hummers. You can see that there is actually one hummer that has already been blown to smithereens! I wish I could have stuck around longer, but it took two hours just to get to the spot and couldn't risk getting stuck out in the dessert after dark on foot!
I was told that last week there was a bunch of scenes shot that included an ambush and tons of explosions. I would guess that the scenes I saw filming on Monday are part of the same scenes from last week.
So I hope you appreciate the pictures guys because I'm never doing that again!
You can call me Hombre!
In case you guys are wondering what this place actually looks like, we pulled it up on Google Earth for ya! Check that out here.
Plus, you can check out more information on the city of Lone Pine, not to be confused with its neighbor Big Pine, by clicking here.
Plus all the history you will ever need on Alabama Hills by clicking here.
Production wraps in Lone Pine/Alabama Hills on the 15th of April, just might be worth a road trip.
Click on the images below to view the high rez versions!
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