Back when I was in Wilmington, they were building a large set on mechanical stilts in one of their bigger stages precariously close to a large under-water tank used for submerged filming. I remember getting psyched about seeing an aquatic Iron Man on screen a few weeks before The Avengers actually hit and introduced Iron Man to the film as he was removing Stark Tower from the Grid.

Thanks to a lucky photo leak, we can now tell you what this set is and why it’ll be getting wet.

It was a internet mini-tradition on Iron Man and Iron Man 2 to have Jon Favreau tweet photos from directing his own movie. The first shot we got from ‘Iron Man 2′ was the build of the Stark Malibu apartment, a large construction on a soundstage focused on the interior of the home (used for the Drunk Tony vs War Machine fight and such):

Now we got a mysterious smart phone picture that was put up on Reddit that shows the ‘Iron Man 3′ version of the Stark Mansion set: a large exterior/interior combo set built on mechanical stilts to elevate it from the floor:

It’s pretty easy to tell from the architecture that we’re looking at Tony Stark’s Malibu home:

That apartment is pretty close to the water. Wouldn’t it be cool if there was a fight between Tony/Iron Man and an Extremis-enhanced individual(s) that caused Tony’s apartment to, in part, fall into the ocean?

Hopefully you think that’s cool, because it’s happening. In ‘Iron Man 3.’

Hey! I have an anonymous source to quote this time, lookit:

“After the leaked set construction photo that appeared on the “Reddit” website comes word that the set is actually built on a very sophisticated gimbals system. This is a set up for total destruction. How do you fight a super hero? Hit him in the most sacred place….his home… villains of Iron Man 3 hit Tony Stark and hit him hard enough for his mansion to fall into the Pacific ocean.”

Thank you source. I will call you M.O.D.O.S (Mental Organism Designed Only for Scooping).

Looks like it doesn’t matter if it’s Stark Tower in New York or his home in Malibu, there isn’t a safe place to hide when everyone knows who you are.

Flee to China, maybe?

Talkin’ ‘Bout Marvel:

Amazing Spider-Man domestic embargo is officially broken, says my e-mail so:

“The Amazing Spider-Man has a fantastic cast, talented director and dazzling action sequences that are all horribly crippled in this mediocre trilogy reboot that is saddled by an unneeded re-telling of the overly-familiar origin story.” <— Me.

But I also think it’s the 2nd best Spider-Man movie of all time (after Spider-Man 2).

More on that from me soon.