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Mickey Rourke, Sam Rockwell To Pump Iron?

Mickey Rourke continues to enjoy a career resurrection! The hard-boiled actor is in talks to possibly star as the villain in Iron Man 2. Director Jon Favreau hopes to start shooting the sequel in Manhattan Beach this spring, with Marvel expecting to release the film on May 7, 2010.

Rourke is in discussions to play a villain named Ivan who is described as Tony Stark's Russian foil. He'll be a gruff, tattooed man who works in the arms trade and eventually goes mano y mano with Iron Man in his nuclear-powered and armored suit. Sam Rockwell is also in negotiations to portray Justin Hammer, a rich business rival of Tony Stark, Iron Man's alter ego. The part of Natasha, Tony Stark's assistant, is still uncast.

The Justin Theroux script, which is being kept a closely guarded secret, is still being written and sources say that Rourke's villain will become Whiplash, who has deadly, technologically enhanced coils.

—The ARTISTdirect Staff
01.08.09