Mickey Rourke is too good of an actor to fall back into obscurity, but that can happen if you don't pick your Oscar-nominated follow-up flick carefully.  Just ask Burt Reynolds.  Everyone was raving about a comeback for the guy back when he got a Best Supporting Actor nod for "Boogie Nights" back in 1997 but he couldn't really get anything going afterwards.  Rourke isn't going to let that happen and so he's not only signed on to co-star in "The Expendables" but now Deadline Hollywood Daily is finally confirming that after much negotiation and Marvel's attempted low-balling, Rourke will play the Russian baddie in "Iron Man 2" for a significantly higher but undisclosed sum.

It seems like even with the economic crisis, Marvel is realizing that they're going to have to shell out the cash if they want to keep making the same quality pictures they're coming to be known for.  However, since Rourke is playing a villain, I imagine he didn't have to sign the ridiculous nine-picture deal that Samuel L. Jackson made to play Nick Fury. 

Click here to put more Oscar nominees in your big summer blockbusters.  "Iron Man 2" is currently scheduled to hit theatres on May 7th, 2010.