Iron Man 3 Signs Guy Pearce As Second Villain

Guy Pearce, currently starring in Lockout and looking forward to his stint in the late-summer tentpole Prometheus, has been signed to appear as Aldrich Killian in Iron Man 3, reports Variety. He joins Oscar-winner Ben Kingsley as the second villain in the upcoming Marvel sequel, its first post-Avengers release, which will begin filming in North Carolina and China later this month or early next. In Warren Ellis' Extremis storyline, on which the movie is at least partially based, Killian is the inventor of the malignant nanotech at the center of the story, and ends up running afoul of Iron Man when he sells it to terrorists. Pearce joins not only Kingsley, but Don Cheadle, Scarlett Johansson and perhaps even Mark Ruffalo, all reprising their roles from earlier Marvel movies in the picture. Iron Man 3 will hit theaters on May 3, 2013.