Extry! Extry! Hugo Weaving to Play Captain America Nemesis Red Skull

So there you have it, the first casting news pertaining to the much anticipated THE FIRST AVENGER: CAPTAIN AMERICA. It was announced by director, Joe Johnston, a few weeks back that he would be using The Red Skull as the film's primary antagonist. I knew very little about the character myself, but the important details are that he's Hitler's right-hand man, birthname Johann Schmidt, and he wears a red skull helmet for intimidation and propaganda purposes.

I like the character for the film, but I'm not sure how I feel about Weaving portraying him. I suppose I'm in favor of it, but he's already done the iconic supervillain thing with Agent Smith in THE MATRIX. I don't mean to suggest that you can only play one villain in a long career, I just mean that, having seen him in such a role, I can already foresee where he might take the Red Skull character. He'll use his unique and serious voice to show us that he's an angry and evil sort. On the other hand, Weaving did manage to pull off a decent performance in V FOR VENDETTA whilst behind the confines of a mask, so maybe he is the right man for the job. This would be a chance for the actor to reunite with his THE WOLFMAN director, which wasn't exactly a successful union, but I hope the high stakes will result in some improvement.

However you feel, this news is exciting because it tells us that legitimate casting is imminent for the Captain America film, due out July 22, 2011. I'm still crossing my fingers for a decent Steve Rogers, but only time will tell.

For now, here's some footage of the sonofabitch at work:



Here's the address for where the news broke at The Hollywood Reporter: http://www.heatvisionblog.com/2010/03/captain-america-villain-hugo-weaving-as-red-skull.html?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter