Hugo Weaving is in negotiations with Marvel Studios to play the villain Red Skull in Joe Johnston's The First Avenger: Captain America.  While we all know how well Weaving can play a villain (don't we, Mr. Anderson?), comics fans may not know how great he would be as Captain America's arch-nemesis, so here's a brief bio:

Johann Schmidt worked as Hitler's right-hand man in 1941, specifically in the areas of terrorism, espiopnage, and sabotage.  Wearing a hideous red skull mask, Schmidt became a figure of Nazi propaganda.  The effect of this propaganda was so powerful that America was forced to counter and gave the super-soldier serum to Steve Rogers and created Captain America.  The two then clashed throughout World War II. Red Skull has no superhuman abilities but possesses genius-level intellect.

I know Mr. Weaving is a perfectly genial fellow, but I have no problem envisioning him as a red-skulled Nazi.  With his ability to play pure malice and scorn, Weaving may have finally found a suitable follow-up baddie to the unforgettable Agent Smith.  Heat Vision says that the deal is in a delicate stage but we should know how it works out in the next day or so.  Now if we could just find a Captain America...

Hit the jump for more fun facts about Red Skull

Here's his abilities via Marvel's official bio page:

The Red Skull was a genius at military, political, and subversive strategy. His brilliance was comparable to that of Napoleon. The Red Skull was a fine hand-to-hand combatant, although he was never a match for Captain America. The Red Skull was also a skilled marksman with various forms of handguns.

And here's a little on his weapon of choice:

The Red Skull's most infamous weapon was his so-called "dust of death." The chemical composition of this powder is unknown, but it kills a victim within seconds of making contact with the victim's skin, causing the skin on the victim's head to tighten, shrivel, and take on a red discoloration, while causing all the hair on the victim's head to fall out. As a result, the victim's corpse appears to have a "red skull" for a head. While committing murders with this weapon, the Skull often hummed, whistled, or played a tape recording of Chopin's funeral march, which was also the Skull's trademark music when he committed murders in the early 1940's. The Skull could fire his "dust of death" from a special handgun.