UPDATED: Johansson on board as Black Widow, Rourke's in IRON MAN 2 but it's cost Raimi his Morbius?

UPDATED: E! Entertainment have confirmed a February 14th scoop that Scarlett Johansson will play Black Widow, the soviet spy who has a good side in IRON MAN 2. The role firmly sets her up for future movies, including THE AVENGERS in 2012. Nikki Finke claims Johansson screen-tested for the role at the beginning of the year but lost out to Emily Blunt, but now Blunt is travelling with Jack Black's Gulliver, they went back to her and offered Johansson the part. Physically she's not right, her acting style only suits love triangle drama's from what I've seen... it's kinda like asking Marilyn Monroe to play TOMB RAIDER. Blunt was just right for the role... Johansson may be out of her depth here. When an actress like Eliza Dushku lobbied so hard for the role, I think Favreau dropped the ball on this one. A further update, Variety adds that Rourke will be playing both Whiplash and Crymson Dynamo, some kind of mixing of two villains. END OF UPDATE... "A significant" higher offer from Marvel than the $250,000 that was originally put on the table has secured the signature of Mickey Rourke for IRON MAN 2 according to Nikki Finke. rourke-620_1216566c Holding out for a better deal, just as Samuel L. Jackson did with Nick Fury (which won him a big 9 movie contract) has paid dividends for Rourke who was director Jon Favreau's one and only choice from day one. We presume he will be playing Crymson Dynamo, a power armored-wearing Russian agent who is just one of three villains in the piece. Sam Rockwell's Justin Hammer and the as yet cast Black Widow (Emily Blunt had to drop out) make up a trio of trouble for the returning Robert Downey Jr. (Tony Stark). Yesterday, Favreau released an image of himself with cinematographer Matthew Libatique on the construction site of Stark's house... ironman2firstset IRON MAN 2 is gearing up for a production start and those last minute deals are coming through fast, so expect to hear Blunt's replacement soon. Interestingly, Finke claims Sony were considering Rourke for a villain role in SPIDER-MAN 4 before he struck this deal with Marvel. What role for exactly? Well I would suggest as we know Raimi has said many times he has a thing for Morbius that could lead to the character's usage in a future installment, that it would be the living vampire...

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Matt Holmes is the co-founder of What Culture, formerly known as Obsessed With Film. He has been blogging about pop culture and entertainment since 2006 and has written over 10,000 articles.