Actor Hugo Weaving ("The Matrix") has been cast as comic book villain 'The Red Skull' in director Joe Johnston's upcoming adaptation "Captain America: First Avenger".
Johnston has confirmed the 'Red Skull' will be the main villain in the upcoming WW II action adventure, revealing the origins of the character, 'updated' for the film.
Created by writer Joe Simon and illustrator Jack "King" Kirby, the Red Skull was originally introduced in Timely Comics' "Captain America Comics" #1 (1941), as an industrialist named 'Johann Schmidt'. Schmidt was born in a village in Germany, where his mother died in childbirth. After trying to murder the child, but stopped by the attending doctor, the grief-stricken father commits suicide and Johann is orphaned, growing up on the streets as a beggar and thief.
Falling in love with a girl who rejects him and he later murders, Schmidt begins his psychotic journey by becoming a bellhop in a hotel housing the 'Führer', who while scolding an incompetent officer, swears he could create a better officer out of any ordinary dolt, including the bellhop.
The bellhop is recruited, with the Führer personally training Schmidt as his right-hand man, giving him a uniform and grotesque red skull mask. The Skull is appointed head of all terrorist activities, external espionage and sabotage.In the comics, The Red Skull made such an impact on the Allies that the US government created their own equivalent, initiating the clandestine 'Project Rebirth' project that morphed rejected Army volunteer 'Steve Rogers' into 'Captain America'.
The Skull and Cap engaged in numerous skirmishes throughout the European theatre, culminating in a final battle that left the Skull supposedly dead, buried under the rubble of a bombed-out building, with an experimental gas keeping him in suspended animation. 
Marvel Studios/Paramount Pictures' "Captain America: First Avenger", written by "Chronicles Of Narnia" writers Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely, will be produced by Marvel's Kevin Feige, starting June 2010, for a May 6, 2011 release. 
