Industrial Light & Magic has announced that it has signed on as the principle visual effects house for the new Iron Man film from Marvel Studios.  ILM's sister company Skywalker Sound will handle the film's sound design at the company's northern California facility, which also houses EFILM's DI suite, which will enable Iron Man director Jon Favreau and crew to design and mix the sound at the same time they color time the picture -- in effect finish sound and picture at the same time at the same location.

Visual Effects Supervisor Ben Snow (Star Wars Episode II, King Kong) will head up the ILM team with Oscar-winning Animation Supervisor Hal Hickel (Pirates of the Caribbean 1, 2, 3).  Long time Hollywood effects maestro Stan Winston designed the new Iron Man costume, which appears to be quite faithful to the suit that Tony Stark wears in the Iron Man comic books.  Multiple Oscar winner Chris Boyes (Lord of the Rings: Return of the King, Titanic) will be in charge of the sound design and mix for the new Iron Man film, which is slated to open on May 2nd, 2008.

The selection of ILM, Skywalker Sound and Stan Winston to work on the Iron Man film indicates that Marvel Studios is determined to invest the money in the Iron Man film to ensure that it has every opportunity to follow the successful cinematic trail blazed by Marvel's top tier heroes, Spider-Man and X-Men.