As I type, Mickey Rourke is reportedly in Russia promoting The Wrestler. Good - it might come in handy for him to research his upcoming Iron Man 2 role as, apparently, the soviet miscreant in Iron Man 2 (Ed. note: Although we don’t have confirmation yet, it seems likely that he’ll be playing the role of Russian villain Crimson Dynamo).

Yep - that’s right. Those sentences were full of confidence and sureness. Rourke has actually signed. Nikki Finke reports “I just heard that ICM has scored its second casting deal for Marvel’s Iron Man 2” and, well, this is the kind of stuff you can trust Finke on.

Rourke’s agent has apparently been wheedling to get their payday boosted, and ultimately with great success. Finke’s word for the good man’s imminent payday is “significant.” No idea what scale Hollywood’s accountants, bankers and bursars are counting on these days, so I’d hesitate before even taking a wild stab at what “significant” might mean. Your idle speculation in the comments, please. Let’s gossip about money.

Now, we can celebrate that Mickey Rourke is going to get a whole heap of moolah; we can celebrate that he’s going to be in Iron Man 2; or we can celebrate both of those things at once. Me, though, I’m just celebrating that his mojo wheel is still spinning and the work, no matter what it is, keeps coming. I don’t expect anything less from Iron Man 2 than I got with Iron Man 1, but that’s still not anything to see eye-to-eye with The Wrestler. For Rourke to end up with some more films of that caliber in his upcoming slate, I guess he better keep signing contracts.

Finke has added that Sony were considering Rourke for the villain’s role in Spider-Man 4. At the very least, that should give comic-bookier minds than mine a clue as to who the Spidey IV bad guy might be. Her use of the past tense rings true too. I don’t think the same actor taking the evildoer role of two distinct superhero franchises will wash with the continuity and canon-hungry fanboys - even while the Spidey films are outside of the interlinked chain Marvel are threading back and forth through The Avengers.

As an aside, let me say that even though I’m absolutely evangelically opposed to all forms of homophobia and can understand and even in most respects support the political voting that helped Sean Penn steal Rourke’s Oscar, Mickey gave the better performance.

Finke notes how the same agency were behind the Sam Jackson “Nine Times a Fury” deal. Seems like ICM have gotten themselves a nice slice of Marvel Pie this last few weeks.

Up next: The Black Widow casting announcement. Bet her payday is nowhere near as significant - glass ceiling and all. Haven’t the pigsy Hollywood dealmakers seen Batgirl’s PSA?