"Lord of the Rings" Actor to Play Villain in Captain America Movie

[Brian Damage]

Marvel Studios has zeroed in on Hugo Weaving to play the villainous Red Skull in “Captain America.”

Joe Johnston is directing the movie, which remains in search of the actor to play Steve Rogers, Captain America’s alter ego.

In the Marvel comics, Red Skull has been Captain America’s archenemy since 1941, when he engaged in espionage and sabotage as Hitler’s right-hand man. In his final battle with the superhero, he was buried under the rubble of a bombed building but — as would occur later with Captain America — fell into a state of suspended animation. Both were revived in modern times.


The character was the villain in the low-budget 1990 “Captain America” movie.

The dealmaking with Weaving is in a delicate stage that will play out in the next day or so. Agencies grouse that Marvel plays hardball in the negotiating process and also demands multi-movie commitments, though the latter usually applies to actors playing its heroes.

If a deal happens, it would reunite the actor with Johnston, with whom he worked in the recent horror thriller “The Wolfman.” The CAA-repped Weaving already is known to genre fans as bad guy Agent Smith of the “Matrix” movies and elf ruler Elrond of the “Lord of the Rings” trilogy.

http://www.heatvisionblog.com/2010/0...red-skull.html