At the time of this writing, the bid for the Iron Man "VIP Experience" is already up to $6,800, and the auction still has six days to go. The winning bidder and his or her damn lucky guest will receive such goodies as a one-day visit to the set of Iron Man 2, a "meet and greet" with the cast, professional photos of the experience, tickets to the L.A. premiere, and a trip down the aforementioned red carpet, plus a walk-on/extra role in the film! A few weeks back, we reported on another benefit auction where you could bid on a trip to the Spider-Man 4 movie set and premiere (sans walk-on role)... despite the fact that there had been no official word on who would be directing or starring in it. That package still ended up going for over $28,000, and they've since announced that Sam Raimi and Tobey Maguire are returning, and may even film the next two movies back-to-back, making the winner of that auction a very lucky man, indeed.

If you're still on the fence about it, check out FilmCrunch's account of a recent Q&A with director Jon Favreau and actor Robert Downey Jr. The two showed up at the Aero Theater for a special screening of Iron Man, after which Downey "continuously lauded" actor-turned-writer Justin Theroux, who's working on the next script. Meanwhile, Favreau "pointed out and confirmed various scenes which hinted at both The Avengers movie (visible S.H.I.E.L.D. logos) and the sequel."

You didn't really need that retirement nest egg, did you?