On the red carpet at a post-Oscars party, and in speaking with E!, director Jon Favreau revealed that Emily Blunt was now officially out of the Iron Man 2 movie due to the scheduling constraints brought about by Fox’s Gulliver’s Travels – a contractual obligation of Blunt’s. We’ve already commented on the Blunt’s possible replacement – two rumored choices are Scarlett Johansson and Eliza Dushku.

Via The Playlist

“Right now, we’re not doing Iron Man 2,” Rourke told us grimly.

That’s the word from Vulture at Fashion Week (via /Film). We’d previous reported that Rourke playing Crimson Dynamo was ‘inaccurate’ via Downey Jr., but that was presumed a Crimson Dynamo inaccuracy – the leading rumor being that Whiplash would be the replacement. We’ve also heard that Rourke was offered only $250k for the role.

It’s not off the cards yet, but it’s heading down that path – especially with his new role in Sylvester Stallone’s ‘The Expendables’.

Iron Man 2 really is having casting and production nightmares what with Samuel Jackson not happy with his pay and abandoning the Nick Fury role, Emily Blunt being scheduled out of playing Black Widow, Terrence Howard being replaced by Don Cheadle and Jon Favreau not happy with his pay deal either.

Is it cause enough to speculate that Iron Man 2 is having funding problems during the ‘economic downturn’, or are they just tightening their belts a little too much?

With the stirring of Emily Blunt’s filming schedule caused by Fox’s Gulliver’s Travels, it may look like another actress will be brought in to play the sexy Black Widow villain in Iron Man 2.

Earlier this week Eliza Dushku showed an interest in the role on the Howard Stern show whilst promoting Dollhouse, strongly suggesting she had put her name down for the part (via /Film):

“They’re doing Iron Man 2, and I’m so perfect for the Black Widow character, that they just need to get into it. They need to understand… I just learned Russian because I had to play a Russian girl in Dollhouse.”

Today Entertainment Weekly report that Marvel are in talks with several actresses for an Emily Blunt replacement, with Scarlett Johansson on the top of the list, although Marvel obviously cannot confirm anything at this stage.

MTV sat down with Robert Downey Jr. on the set of his new movie Sherlock Holmes and quizzed him about the Iron Man sequel.

When it came to Mickey Rourke and his suggested role as Crimson Dynamo Downey Jr. said “that’s actually incorrect”, giving the impression that said casting announcement was premature. An alternative character that Rourke could be playing is Whiplash. To which Downey cryptically responded he could neither confirm or deny those rumors, “the nerd stuff is top drawer security”.