Watch out, Captain America. You officially have an arch-nemesis. Marvel has announced that they have cast Hugo Weaving as Johann Schmidt, a.k.a. the Red Skull, in their 2011 Captain America flick. The actor already has experience playing the big-screen baddie in action flicks — he voiced Megatron in Transformers and Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen and, of course, starred as Agent Smith in the Matrix films. Captain America: The First Avenger‘s story will focus on Steve Rogers’ transformation into the titular superhero after participating in an experimental program.
Weaving’s Skull will be an update on the Schmidt character that appeared in the comics. He was drafted into the service of the Third Reich and renamed the Red Skull. Production will begin this summer in London with Captain America set to bow on July 22, 2011.
didnt we know this months ago?
Yes we did.
It is good news, though not thrilled with the choice of Cap. Craig Parker would have been a good alternate choice for red skull
actually he was never officially part of the film…they were just in talks with him, but he hadn’t decided to do it until recently.
Indeed, we did – he was the first actor named for the project.
Great choice
Agreed.
definitely has the forehead for it.
I know. With a weak actor (i forgot his name) playing Captain America, they needed a strong villain. Hugo Weaving is brilliant.
weak movies, not weak actor. Sunshine was awesome. Scott Pilgrim will be too
Red Skull > Warren from Buffy
Well this certainly increases the ‘cool’ quotient of this film – and it could use the boost…
again with the using of “bow” as a term for “release” or “come out”, or “open”. really, its just annoying.
agreed
Then stop reading entertainment news as it’s been that way since the dawn of entertainment reporting.
No, it hasn’t actually. As I posted above, there are many other non-annoying terms that one can use. This specific writer thinks it necessary to use that term in all of her “articles”.
“For much of its existence, Variety’s writers and columnists have used a jargon called slanguage or varietyese (a form of headlinese) that refers especially to the movie industry, and has largely been adopted and imitated by other writers in the industry. Such terms as “boffo box-office biz”, “sitcom”, “sex appeal”, “payola”, and even “striptease” are attributed to the influence of the magazine,[4] although its attempt to popularize “infobahn” as a synonym for “information superhighway” never caught on. Its most-famous headline was from October 1929, when the stock market crashed: “Wall St. Lays An Egg”. Another favorite, “Sticks nix hick pix”,[5][6] was made popular—although the movie-prop version renders it as “Stix nix hix flix!” in Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942), Michael Curtiz’s musical-biographical film about George M. Cohen; translated, it means that rural audiences were not attending rural-themed films. Television series are referred to as “skeins”, and heads of companies or corporate teams are called “toppers”. In addition, more-common English words and phrases are shortened; “audience members” becomes simply “auds”, “performance” becomes “perf”, and “network” becomes “net”, for example.”
Yes that’s chopped from Wiki but I’ve been reading Variety for as long as I can remember (RIP, Army). It’s been around since the turn of the (20th) century, making it, I think, the longest running entertainment rag out there. You can have your preference, but the lingo has been around since before the first studio was built in Hollywood.
It’s strange, I don’t remember getting struck by lightning or going 88 mph but it seems we’ve gone back in time about 2 months for this “news story”. Weaving was announced quite some time ago.
Oh great! Will be an updated character huh? Which means he most likely won’t wear his nazi uniform so not to offend some sensitive viewers… lame
What marketing genius picked July 22, 2011? How the heck does “Captain America” not open on 4th of July weekend?
I think that is the weekend of the 4th the next Transformers is slated to be released
I’m with the Cap’n on this one. Competition or not, it’d be like ID4 not opening on Independence Day. Not having the courage to face adversity is antithetical to Captain America, the last boyscout of Marveldom. Or, in the vernacular of my youth: Lame!
I’m still pissed at the casting of Chris Evans as Captain America.
Chris Evans has major potential as Cap. He’ll bring a necessary edginess.
He’s completely forgettable and does not have leading man potential.
Pros: Hugo Weaving is an awesome actor capable of emoting through masks and make-up. Excellent Choice!
Cons: He’s waaay cooler than Chris Evans. I’m not suppose to root for the Nazis, Marvel!
And in other news, Christian Bale has been cast as Batman.
WHAT?!?! Not Adam West?
Remember the early ’90′s Captain America movie where they made the Red Skull Italian? That was a real WTF moment. Too bad Christoph Waltz already signed on as the bad guy in Green Hornet, if any actor seems born to play a certain character, it’s Waltz as the Red Skull. But Hugo Weaving is a good choice too.
Why would Waltz want to be typecast as the go to Nazi?
FINALLY a smart casting choice for this movie.
Weaving has cornered the market on cartoon villainy. I would have thought he’d like a departure from playing a variation on ‘Mr. Smith’. This is when the artist becomes the hack.
Other than villainy, I don’t see a lot of similarities between Agent Smith and The Red Skull.
i dont think you can say that he has cornered the market on villainy. last time i checked his resume included some major non-villianous rols in lord of the rings, and v for vendetta.
Horrible casting. 1000s of better actors for the role, and most of those Germans who wouldn’t have minded portraying a monster like that character. Once again, Marvel just casts a big name and refuses to give an unknown character actor a chance, something we saw in Inglourious Basterds that was uber-successful. Will Weaving come anywhere near Waltz in the villain department? Not at all. Richard Sammel should have been the Red Skull. I’m sure one or two French people would agree with me. He practically PLAYS HIM on Un Village Francais.
I seriously doubt Waltz wants to be typecast as the go to Nazi.
How do you expect to pack in the auds for a character who is not as bankable as Spidey, Supes, and Bats unless you cast big names? Marvel is trying to survive as a studio in a vicious marketplace, not pander to the comic book geekworld’s ideals of ‘perfect casting’ — which, by the way, is rarely universal.
Waltz would have been all wrong for this part. Part of his appeal in “Basterds” was that he was charming and polite. The Red Skull is neither charming nor polite. He’s 100% evil.