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Justin Theroux will be Zooey Deschanel’s villain in the movie Your Highness directed by David Gordon Green.

Theroux joins Danny McBride, James Franco, Natalie Portman and Zooey Deschanel  in the story that follows an arrogant, lazy prince (McBride) who must complete a mission to save his father’s kingdom. Theroux will play Leezar, an evil wizard with a bejeweled magical staff who kidnaps a princess (Deschanel).

The film, will shoot in Ireland, was written by Ben Best and McBride, who also is producing.

Theroux is a versatile artist who starred in a couple of television shows, and then directed Dedication, which I thought was a great independent movie. Next, he teamed up with Ben Stiller and Etan Cohen to write Tropic Thunder, and then worked on Iron Man 2.  Now, he is back in front of the camera with Highness.  I wonder if he’ll be doing rewrites on the set with McBride; it’s hard not to once you written a couple of scripts. Right Justin?

(Source)

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It looks like Mickey Rourke finally closed a deal to play the Russian villain in Iron Man 2.

Apparently the negotiating was a bit strained when Marvel Entertainment offered The Wrestler star only $250,000 for his first major studio film in years.

My guess is that Rourke’s salary is much better than that now.

According to Variety, Rourke’s encounters with Iron Man star Robert Downey Jr. on the awards circuit sealed his participation in the film. Rourke won the Golden Globe and was Oscar nominated for The Wrestler and Downey got Golden Globe and Oscar nominations for Tropic Thunder, so Downey used each occasion to recruit Rourke.

As the story goes, when Downey, Rourke as well as actors including Frank Langella and Anne Hathaway took part in a roundtable discussion with Newsweek’s David Ansen, Downey interrupted the proceedings, reached across the table and flat out asked Rourke to do Iron Man 2.

And then, Rourke met with Jon Favreau and scribe Justin Theroux and got to be part of the development of his character. He’ll play Whiplash, a character that includes elements from that comic book villain and Crimson Dynamo, another Russian baddie.

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Justin Theroux is an actor turned writer who is negotiating with Marvel Studios to write Iron Man 2, the sequel to this summer’s breakout super box office winner.

Iron Man, Marvel’s first release stoked $566 million worldwide since opening May 2. Written by Mark Fergus & Hawk Ostby and Art Marcum & Matt Holloway and directed by Jon Favreau is in final negotiations to direct the sequel.

Known primarily as an actor — Theroux played a variety of roles from Jesus H. Christ in The Ten, John Hancock in HBO’s John Adams and Evil DJ in Zoolander to the hapless director Adam Kesher in David Lynch’s Mulholland Dr. — Theroux is on a career-changing tear. Last year he directed his first film, Dedication, which I thought was very good, fine acting that comes from a talented director.

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