Stanley Tucci is riding high after an Oscar nomination for being the best part of The Lovely Bones, spending the last year platonically romancing Meryl Streep while promoting Julie & Julia, and directing a revival of Lend Me a Tenor on Broadway that's garnered rave reviews. How to follow it up? How about creating a super-soldier?
Marvel has announced that Tucci will play Dr. Abraham Erskine in First Avenger: Captain America, which finally starts filming this summer so that we can finally stop speculating about who they'll cast in it. In the comics Erskine was the German scientist who developed the Super Soldier Serum that transformed puny Steve Rogers (Chris Evans in the movie) into the one-man fighting machine known as Captain America. Erskine is killed off not long after creating Captain America, and while it's unclear if he'll stick around longer for the movie, I wouldn't be surprised if Tucci signed on to play a character who's a goner so he can avoid those titanic 9-picture deals Marvel seems so fond of.
There's really very little to say about this other than "Yay! More Tucci." For all the doubts you may have about Chris Evans as Cap, you can't deny they're building an impressive supporting cast to surround him.
