It's been approximately 9 billion years since we last saw Gwyneth Paltrow in a large role in a really high profile film. Since appearing in Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow in 2004 (and that wasn't even that high-profile), she's only occasionally cropped up in serious indies, during her breaks from promoting the glories of mung beans. But now Mrs Chris Martin is back, having just signed on to Jon Favreau's take on Iron Man.
Paltrow will play Virginia "Pepper" Potts (cute), Personal Assistant to Tony Stark, aka Iron Man, who builds a big super-powered suit to fight crime -- because he can (Pedant's Note: that's not really why he builds it).
The addition of Paltrow continues the films trend of casting 'proper' actors, rather than hot young faces to draw in the teen crowd, suggesting we can expect serious character work here along with, hopefully, some big action set pieces.
"These are popcorn films designed for broad audiences, but there are multidimensional characters that have brought us the best of luck with actors," Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige told Variety. On board already are Robert Downey Jr as Iron Man and Terrence Howard as his friend Jim Rhodes.