Back in November there was a report that Marvel was planning a spin-off for the Iron Man character War Machine. According to the story, the studio was putting out a pitch to writers the script the film, but we haven't heard anything about it since...until now.

MTV caught up with Iron Man 2 star Don Cheadle at the Sundance Film Festival, where he's promoting his newest film, The Guard, and the actor revealed that forward progress has been made with the project. According the Cheadle, Marvel is currently working on the project and he "thinks" they hired a writer, though he doesn't seem to know who. When asked about the possibility of the character showing up in Joss Whedon's Avengers, however, he seemed much more confident, saying, "I don't think [James Rhodes/War Machine] shows up in that."

Frankly, the biggest thing to take away from this story is that Cheadle seems to be totally out of the loop when it comes to upcoming Marvel projects, though the lack of War Machine in The Avengers would explain why he wasn't on stage at last year's Comic Con. This concept seemingly goes all the way back to last February, when the actor said flat out that there wouldn't be a spin-off. Perhaps somebody should clue him in - I really don't want to see a third person play Rhodey.