What a Rourke-us!

If you’re looking for creepy coincidences look no further then my review on The Wrestler posted yesterday where I said Mickey Rourke was as suited for the role of Ram as Robert Downey Jr was for the role of Tony Stark aka Iron Man. Turns out casting directors made a more significant link to Rourke and Iron Man with Variety reporting he has been cast as a villain in Iron Man 2. According to the rag he will play a heavily tattooed bruiser (no surprises there) who is basically a Russian version of Tony Stark complete with his own arms business. Oh, and he’ll battle Iron Man in his own nuclear powered armored suit. The Hollywood Reporter have gone on to suggest the character, who is at the moment unnamed, will be either The Crimson Dynamo or Whiplash as featured in the comic series. Naturally Robert Downey Jr is returning as Tony Stark, Don Cheadle is replacing Terrence Howard as James ‘Rhodey’ Rhodes, Gwyenth Paltrow is back as Pepper Potts and Samuel L Jackson is playing Nick Fury the super-spy (pictured below). Jackson played Fury in the original Iron Man movie (2008) in a post-credits scene at Tony Stark’s home where he tries to recruit Iron Man to join the Avengers. The casting news that has really got my juices going is Movie Mazzupial favourite Sam Rockwell in the role of Justin Hammer, head of Hammer Industries comic books’ and another of Stark’s main adversaries in Iron Man 2. Seriously, Rourke and Rockwell as foes? Could this movie sound more awesome? Besides The Dark Knight I doubt there has been a cast this diverse and talented for a comic-book adapted movie. The first Iron Man was witty, fun and action packed but not in a hollow Spider-Man kind of way. It was one of my favourite films of `08 and I questioned how they would be able to make a sequel better than the first. Now with the original crew and cast back on board plus the added talents of Rourke, Jackson, Cheadle and Rockwell “wow” pretty much sums up my general response. And who better than Rourke to play a villain? We all know Rockwell is great as a conniving evil-doer (see Charlie’s Angles for further proof) but Rourke has rarely been given the opportunity to play a truly bad dude. Yes, he’s played many a lovable bad guy but I want to see him pure evil darn it! Everyone knows Rourke eats puppies for breakfast with a side of baby seal salad but I can’t wait to see what he can do on screen in this part. With a swashbuckling cast, an awesome predecessor and a 2010 release date, Iron Man 2 is shaping up to be a major blockbuster with meat.