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Will Mickey Rourke play Genghis Khan?

According to Mickey, yes. Here's the story from The Wrap:

Is Mickey Rourke preparing to play Genghis Khan for writer-director John Milius?

That's what the "Iron Man 2" star told the Orlando Sentinel in an interview publicizing his villainous turn in the superhero sequel. If true, it would be a bizarre pairing of actor and historical figure, not that Rourke doesn't have the chops to play the fearless warrior.

"I’m playing Genghis," revealed Rourke. "John wrote [the] piece [as] told from the son and grandson’s point of view, how they saw this mythic figure from their family. You see him in flashbacks, back when he was in his mid-40s. And back then, being in your mid-40s was being REALLY old.”

Surprisingly, the 57 year-old actor considers himself an expert horseback rider, saying "I probably ride a horse better than I drive a car," and insists that he'll be well-prepared to shoot arrows on horseback with the help of veteran stuntmen Garrett Warren ("Iron Man 2") and Mark Colburn. Rourke also claims that the production will lens in parts of India and possibly China.

Two years ago, Rourke brought his pet chihuahua, Loki, to various Hollywood events, and one of the things he likes about Genghis Khan is that he was, apparently, a dog lover. "The Mongols used dogs in battle, and dogs rarely made it out of the battle. But in one instance, in this script, [Khan] orders his men – ‘Hold the dogs back.’ He was looking out for the dogs. I like that.”

Rourke sounded excited to work with the legendary screenwriter. “I read his script and you know, the man is known for his tough writing," said Rourke. "He wrote "Conan" and "Dirty Harry" and "Apocalypse Now," and it’ll be interesting to see how he works behind the camera."

Milius also directed 1982's "Conan," as well as 1984's "Red Dawn," a remake of which will be released this summer starring Chris Hemsworth ("Thor"), but he hasn't worked behind the camera since the 1997 TV movie "Rough Riders." Milius has also been developing the historical adaptation "The Chosen Few" with Mark Cuban's 2929 Productions.

As for Rourke, he's been in talks to join Javier Bardem and newly-frequent co-star Jason Statham in Tony Scott's "Potzdamer Platz." Rourke told the Orlando Sentinel that he's been working on a script about motorcycle gangs for 20 years and has been talking to Scott about a Hell's Angels movie. Rourke also revealed that "St. Vincent," a project that would've re-teamed him with his "Johnny Handsome" director Walter Hill, is "not gonna happen."

Rourke is currently in Montreal filming Tarsem Singh's sword-and-sorcery epic "Immortals." He's already wrapped "Passion Play" with Megan Fox and a pair of films with Statham -- Sylvester Stallone's "The Expendables" and Gela Babluani's remake of his own Russian roulette thriller "13."

-He'd be an interesting choice...thoughts?

Iron Man 2 gets a new Poster!

Thoughts?

A new Poster for Iron Man 2 gives us a look at Mickey Rourke as a bad guy!

Thoughts?

Our first look at Mickey Rourke in Iron Man 2

I like how it seems both similar and different to Tony Stark's getup...the thought of Rourke and Robert Downey Jr. going at it is an exciting one indeed...what do you think of Mickey here?

This week is a rough one for DVD Lovers...

Indeed, the only film I can muster any kind of enthusiasm for was barely released in theaters and is seen as a rather large failure. It is however, my PICK OF THE WEEK. It's:
Killshot
It seemed like this film sat on the shelf forever, and it almost never got released. It finally did come out for a few weeks and it was nowhere near as bad a thriller (or a film) as most films that sit unreleased as long as this one did tend to be. All of the cast do a decent enough job, with Mickey Rourke, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Thomas Jane, Diane Lane, and Rosario Dawson giving this more star power than many wide releases. Throw in fair direction by John Maddon and this is a better film than you might expect.
-The only other major release is New In Town, and Renee Zellweger did nothing for her sagging career with this limp romantic comedy.
-Worth a small note is the direct to DVD release of Powder Blue, an ensemble drama ala Crash which was notable when it was first announced for featuring a Jessica Biel nude scene. If that's your sole reason for looking up a movie, this is one to take a look at, though it also has Forest Whitaker, Ray Liotta, Patrick Swayze, Lisa Kudrow, and Kris Kristofferson to boot.
-My Vintage pick this week is an early Emile Hirsch film called The Mudge Boy. This tale of an outsider dealing with loneliness and the death of his mother in an odd way features a fantastic performance by Hirsch and sublime work by Richard Jenkins as his confused father. Check it out, it's a great little film.
-What will you be watching on DVD this week?

Mickey Rourke signs on for a Larry Clarke film!

It's a remake, and Variety has the details:
Mickey Rourke has signed on to star in a remake of classic 1980s Brit gangster pic "Mona Lisa."
Rourke will play an ex-con who takes a job as a chauffeur for a high-class escort. Eva Green is in advanced negotiations to star opposite him.
Bob Hoskins and Cathy Tyson starred in the original 1986 pic directed by Neil Jordan.
Helmer Larry Clark ("Kids," "Wassup Rockers") is writing and directing the remake, which is being produced by Handmade Films with Handmade Films Intl. handling worldwide sales.
Lensing is set to begin in New York in July.
Rourke's deal was brokered by agent David Unger, Bill Sobel of Edelstein, Laird and Sobel and HandMade's Patrick Meehan.
-This could be a brilliant combination of actor and filmmaker....we shall see....what do you think?

The best movie of 2008 comes to DVD this week!

To me at least, this was my #1 of the year (check the archived top 10 list on the Main Page for proof if need be). It's a practically perfect film in my eyes, and the most clear cut PICK OF THE WEEK in a long time. It's:
The Wrestler
What Mickey Rourke and Darren Aronofsky created here, based on the lovely yet sparse script from Robert Siegel, is nothing short of amazing. Rourke gave one of the ten best performances I've ever seen an actor give, Aronofsky did a flawless job of directing (or more appropriately in this case, cinematically observing), and the supporting roles by Marisa Tomei and Evan Rachel Wood are just about without peer for the year as well. The fact that a film like this only got 2 Oscar nominations while other films rake them in is just another reason why sometimes looking harder for quality films can pay off in a big way. I simply can't recommend this film enough to everyone. If for no other reason than getting to hear Bruce Springsteen's amazing title track to the movie, seek out this DVD at once!
-Also out this week we have Frost/Nixon, which while not fantastic, is a very solid flick. It's hurt a bit by pacing problems and unnecessary directorial choices by Ron Howard (which is unusal considering how unobtrusive Howard is), but overall the script by Peter Morgan and acting across the board make it a worthy film to check out. There's the biopic of the Notorious B.I.G. out as well, called, oddly enough, Notorious. It's somewhat standard issue, but it's slightly better than I expected it to be. If you were a fan of rapper, you should enjoy this. Finally we have the Sundance Film Fest graduate The Last Word, which takes an interesting premise (a man who comprises people's suicide notes falls for a relative of one of his employees) and manages to make a fairly bland movie out of it. Check it out if you're curious, but it's nothing special at all.
-My Vintage pick this week is The People vs. Larry Flynt. One of the odder subjects for a biopic/first ammendment rights film, this tale of a pornographer who fought for his rights so that we could live in a country that would protect not only him, but us as well, is a film that works a lot better than you'd ever expect it to. From Courtney Love's terrific performance as Flynt's wife to Milos Forman's directing, it's both an entertaining and important film, one worth watching if you have not already.
-What will you be watching this week on DVD?

Is it actually better to LOSE an Oscar than to WIN one?

This article in Cinematical seems to make the arguement that the great films/performances keep their strength by not winning, using The Wrestler/Mickey Rourke as an example:

The Oscars are history now and soon people won't even be able to remember the winners. But I keep thinking about that Best Actor race that came down to a near-draw between Mickey Rourke for The Wrestler (291 screens) and Sean Penn for Milk (111 screens). My group, the San Francisco Film Critics Circle, simply called it a tie. We agreed that both men gave the performance of their lifetimes. Other critics groups and other year-end awards also split between them; there was no clear consensus. For my annual predictions, I went with my gut on this one: I got the vague impression that, just from the cultural temperature, people were really into Rourke. But Penn won. And now that it's over -- with some hindsight -- it makes perfect sense. The Oscars didn't want to ruin The Wrestler for us.
The Wrestler is just a couple of months old now, but it has already gained a certain type of following. It has actual fans; people love this movie rather than just admire it. Milk has become a good movie for students to watch in school, but The Wrestler is a film that they will choose to watch, in their free time. It's a cult film now. And cult films don't win Oscars. It automatically disqualifies them from cult status. A cult film is something that people discover on their own. If the Academy acknowledges it, then it has been plucked away and turned into something official. It has a stamp of approval, and cult films are all about not being approved.
You can bet that Citizen Kane wouldn't always poll as the best movie of all time if it had actually won Best Picture in 1941. (The actual winner, How Green Was My Valley, is a good film, but it doesn't get nearly the same kind of love.) Think about films like Showgirls (1995), The Big Lebowski (1998), Fight Club (1999), Donnie Darko (2001), Memento (2001) or Brick (2006). Together those six beloved cult films earned a total of three Oscar nominations, and all lost. (Fight Club for Sound Effects Editing, and Memento for Screenplay and Editing.) Part of the fun of enjoying these films on a cult level is the idea of coming to their rescue, pulling them from obscurity and planting our own flag on them.
Additionally, I seriously believe that part of Martin Scorsese's enduring, loyal following from 1972 all the way through 2006 came from the fact that he never won an Oscar, and thus was never officially accepted. (Just look at his Oscar-winner colleagues like Coppola, Schaffner or Avildsen.) Now Rourke is riding on this cult success. Now that he has become our actor and not their actor, we will demand -- and get to see -- him in lots more films. I imagine the odds are only about 50-50 he will ever be nominated again, but won't it be fun to see him going nuts in two, three or even four movies a year? But better still, just imagine if Penn had lost. He'd probably go back to making more angry, message-laden films, hoping for more nominations. But now that he's got two Oscars, he has stopped, smiled and taken a role as Larry Fine in the upcoming Three Stooges movie! That alone will be worth his Oscar victory.
-What do you think? Does this arguement hold water?

Mickey Rourke looks to finally be on board Iron Man 2

Variety has the story:

Mickey Rourke has closed his deal to play the Russian villain in "Iron Man 2."
His involvement was expected (Daily Variety, Jan. 7), but dealmaking was arduous after Marvel Entertainment offered "The Wrestler" star only $250,000 for his first major studio film in years. Rourke's salary will be now better than that.
While his ICM rep, David Unger, battled for more dough, Rourke's encounters with "Iron Man" star Robert Downey Jr. on the awards circuit sealed his participation in the film.los
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.
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."
Rourke also 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 comicbook villain and Crimson Dynamo, another Russian baddie.
Marvel wouldn't confirm Rourke's involvement, but he's planning to join Downey, Sam Rockwell and Samuel L. Jackson, with Scarlett Johansson the frontrunner to play the Black Widow.
-Quite the cast it seems...excited?

Another gig involving Mickey Rourke

This one seems to be a little more risky than the other ones mentioned so far, as per this in Variety:


Alice Braga, Mickey Rourke and Vincent Cassel are set to star in "11 Minutes," an adaptation of the steamy Paulo Coehlo novel that will be directed by Hany Abu-Assad.
Hollywood Gang's Gianni Nunnari is producing, with Craig J. Flores and George Waud as exec producers. Shooting begins June 1 in Brazil and Geneva.
Braga plays a naive girl who is betrayed by her first lover and swears off romance. She becomes a high-priced call girl who works at an upscale gentlemen's club in Geneva. Cassel plays a music exec who gets her hooked on S&M. Rourke plays the club owner.
Italian heartthrob Riccardo Scamarcio is in talks to round out the cast.
The book was a global bestseller translated into 40 languages. Abu-Assad, who made his film breakthrough with "Paradise Now," has rewritten a script by Marcos Bernstein.
Hollywood Gang will fully finance.
Braga just completed the Universal sci-fi thriller "Repossession Mambo." Rourke is coming off "The Wrestler" and is negotiating to play the villain in "Iron Man 2." Cassel was seen in "Eastern Promises" and just won the acting Cesar for French pic "Public Enemy Number One." Scamarcio is coming off the Costa-Gavras-directed "Eden a l'ouest."
For Hollywood Gang, "11 Minutes" becomes one of four 2009 production starts. It produced, with GK Films, the Martin Scorsese-directed "Shutter Island," set for release in the fall. It's in pre-production on WB sci-fi film "The Days Before," with Timur Bekmambetov directing, and on the Tarsem-directed "War of Gods" with Relativity. Also, Hollywood Gang and GK are plotting an April production start for the Scorsese-directed "Silence."

-The director broke through in a big way with Paradise Now, so this could be very good...thoughts?

Trailer for The Informers

Wonder if this film will benefit from Mickey Rourke's newfound popularity:


-This was one of my favorite books growing up...hope it translated well to the screen...