Quick Takes: An ‘Iron Man’ for China

Marvel Studios will release a special cut of the movie “Iron Man 3” specifically for China.

The domestic, Chinese and other international versions of the comic book film will include elements of interest to Chinese audiences — “Iron Man 3” pits Robert Downey Jr.’s industrialist superhero against scientist-villain the Mandarin (British-Indian actor Ben Kingsley, playing a character who was Chinese in the comic books).

But the Chinese version of the film will include additional footage, including an appearance by Chinese actress Fan Bingbing, according to a statement Friday from Marvel and the Chinese media company DMG.

This isn’t the first time a Hollywood production has tailored itself for the fast-growing Chinese film audience. The 2012 Joseph Gordon-Levitt science-fiction film “Looper” employed a similar approach, including footage of Shanghai streets and landmarks only in the Chinese version of the film.

“Iron Man 3” opens in the U.S. on May 3.

—Rebecca Keegan

Crime fight is apparently over

“America’s Most Wanted’ may have come to an end after 25 years.

Lifetime network has confirmed it won’t be picking up the crime-fighting series for one more season.

But the network said it’s developing a pilot for a new project with John Walsh, who created “America’s Most Wanted” in 1988.

Hosted by Walsh, the series was a fixture on the Fox network until its abrupt cancellation in June 2011. During that run, the show helped bring nearly 1,200 fugitives to justice. Lifetime revived the series in December 2011, ultimately airing 44 episodes.

—Associated Press

Redford joins superhero film

Though Robert Redford may be the very platonic ideal of a movie star — a matinee idol from films such as “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid,” “The Sting” and “The Way We Were” — he has of late been involved with smaller-scale, socially conscious dramas. So many were surprised last week by the news that Redford would be appearing in the Marvel Studios comic-book action sequel “Captain America: The Winter Soldier” as a senior leader in the secret government agency of S.H.I.E.L.D.

“I’m doing this film because it’s different. It’s a new thing for me,” Redford explained during a Q&A; as part of the L.A. Times Indie Focus Screening Series this week.

The Academy Award winner was appearing at his own Sundance Sunset Cinema in support of his latest effort as director, producer and star, the thriller “The Company You Keep.” Though Redford, 76, has not previously appeared in a contemporary superhero/comic-book movie like “Captain America,” he added: “I think these films are really powerful. I think they’re great. This is the kind of film I would have loved to see as a kid.”

—Mark Olsen

Lil Wayne blames epilepsy

Lil Wayne says he’s an epileptic and has had seizures for years.

In an interview with L.A.-based KPWR-FM (105.9) Thursday, the 30-year-old rapper said epilepsy caused his health scare this month, when he was rushed to a hospital.

Wayne said he had three seizures in succession.

The Grammy winner says: “I’ve had a bunch of seizures, y’all just never hear about them.”

Wayne says he “could’ve died” and that the recent seizures were a result of “just plain stress, no rest, overworking myself.”

The New Orleans native, whose given name is Dwayne Michael Carter Jr., released his 10th album, “I Am Not a Human Being II,” this week.

—Associated Press