the avengers

While Marvel still searches for the right person to play the Star-Spangled Avenger Captain America, they've also got to find someone to play his arch-nemesis, The Red Skull, in the upcoming Joe Johnston film. The right man should be able to play cold and frightening, not be afraid to tackle one of fiction's most heinous Nazis, and be ready to spend some serious time in the make-up chair.

While some fans may have declared Christoph Waltz the perfect choice (a little too on the nose if you ask me -- save him for Dr. Doom in that eventual Fantastic Four reboot, I say), the folks at Marvel Studios may have their sights set on British actor Hugo Weaving, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

I think Weaving is a very good choice for the part, although it might ruin my fanboy armchair casting of Weaving as The Riddler in Christopher Nolan's third Batman film. The role would reunite Weaving with his Wolfman director, and would be the second comic book film for the actor (he also appeared behind the mask as V in V for Vendetta). The First Avenger: Captain America is currently scheduled for Summer 2011.

It's been known for some time now that Jon Favreau was interested in directing The Avengers should his schedule allow it. When the film's release date was pushed to May 4th, 2012, lots of folks figured the move was done, in part, to allow time for Favs to come in and helm. Earlier in the year, a Marvel spy told AICN the following: "Avengers is delayed a year because of financing issues but also because the plan is for Favreau to helm it. Everybody here loves the guy and he wants to do it, but it would have been impossible for him to do before the date change given his Iron Man 2 commitments. Also partly the reason why he agreed to do the Stark sequel on such an accelerated schedule was so he could get given first dibs on this. It would still be a punishing schedule for him, so hes not firmly confirmed yet, but he is certainly the presumptive director at this point."

Since then, though, it appears things have changed. Favreau will re-team with Robert Downey Jr. following their work on Iron Man 2 as director on Cowboys & Aliens, and he now tells MTV that he won't also be directing The Avengers because schedules just don't work out. Instead, he says he's going to executive produce: "They'll have to [find a different director], because I'm not going to be available", said Favreau. "It's something I'm being the executive producer on, so I'll definitely have input and a say."

During the Iron Man 2 panel at Comic Con, one fan asked Jon Favreau whether he'd be directing The Avengers. Good news for fans out there is that Favs definitely wants to be involved in some capacity, and though he hasn't had any discussions with Marvel yet, he has been keen to what they've been doing for Thor and he said that stuff looks pretty spectacular. Towards the end of his answer, Favs noted that his work on Iron Man 2 will be over and done with by the time anything for The Avengers begins, and so perhaps that was his way of telling fans he's interested in the gig.

For more on the Iron Man 2 panel, read Cinematical's coverage here. Check out video from Comic Con after the jump, along with Favreau's Avengers answer.