The cast of the Niels Arden Oplev directed action thriller Dead Man Down is really shaping up to be a good one, with Colin Farrell and Noomi Repace already on board to star, and Dominic Cooper in talks to play a role. Now it looks like the movie has its villain.Set to play Farrell’s character’s opposition is Terrence Howard.

Reuniting the original Girl with the Dragon Tattoo’s director Niels Arden Opiev with its star (Noomi Rapace), Dead Man Down will have Farrell playing a man who aims to infiltrate a crime syndicate to avenge the death of his family. Rapace is set to play a “scarred beauty” who knows something about Farrell’s character’s past. Meanwhile, Cooper is in talks to play Farrell’s “partner on the street.”

According to Variety, Howard is joining the film to play the role of Alphonse Hoyt, “a charming but brutal crimelord who is accustomed to being feared but is thrown off guard when a mysterious tormenter (Farrell) starts sabotaging his business from within and picks off his men one by one as revenge for the death of his family.”

I generally associate Howard with good-guy roles, like Rhodey in Iron Man or Djay in Hustle & Flow. Djay wasn’t exactly on the right side of the law in terms of his work, but he wasn’t a villain. We could also go back further and give a nod to some of Howard’s 90’s work, which includes playing Jackie Jackson in The Jacksons: An American Dream (a TV movie I have to watch anytime I come across it), or the drum-playing Louis Russ in Mr. Holland’s Opus. None of these characters were crimelord-types. That said, this sounds a great role for him, and his participation is just one more reason to keep an eye out for this movie.

Dead Man Down begins production later this month.

早前曾有瑞典版《龍紋身的女孩》導演涅爾斯·阿登·歐普勒夫新片消息傳出，這部名為《Dead Man Down》的動作驚悚片頗受影迷關注，影片由J.H. Wyman（《危機邊緣》）擔任編劇，尼爾·H·莫瑞茲（《青蜂俠》、《全面回憶》、《龍虎少年隊》）擔任制片人。男女主角分別由柯林·法瑞爾和導演愛將、原版“龍紋身女孩”勞米·拉佩斯飾演，之后英國男星多米尼克·庫珀（《我與夢露的一周》、《美國隊長》）加盟，如今《綜藝》曝出新消息，好萊塢男星泰倫斯·霍華德將在片中出演大反派。

《Dead Man Down》的背景設置在紐約，法瑞爾扮演的Victor是城中黑幫大佬的得力干將，拉佩斯則扮演一個神秘的、有著復雜過去的美女Beatrice，她對法瑞爾的身世了如指掌，并對他引誘及勒索，其目的則在于復仇。伴隨著陰謀與暴力，兩人之間的情感發生了微妙的變化。庫珀出演法瑞爾的拍檔。

泰倫斯·霍華德扮演的是魅力十足，但冷酷兇殘的黑幫大佬，他殺害了Victor的家人，是所有仇恨的源頭。霍華德近年有影響的角色只有《鋼鐵俠》中托尼·斯塔克的好友Rhodey（第二部中被唐·錢德爾取代），如今能在一部陣容上佳的新片中擔綱反一號，可謂是翻身好時機。他接下來的新片還有羅伯特·雷德福的《你的同伴》（希亞·拉博夫主演）和《在路上》（薩姆·賴利等主演）。