Toby Jones Cast as Arnim Zola in CAPTAIN AMERICA
More Captain America casting! Toby Jones who played Capote in Infamous, he also had a nice little role in The Mist, and Frost/Nixon is currently in negotiations with Marvel to play the evil scientist Arnim Zola in Joe Johnston's Captain Amercia.
In the Marvel universe Zola was a biochemist during World War II who became one of the first human genetic engineers in history after finding papers and equipment used by the offshoot race of humanity, the Deviants. He found a ready home among the Nazi party, who saw his actions as the ability to ensure the existence of a master race.
Jones joins the already cast Chris Evans as Captain America, Sebastian Stan as Bucky Barnes, Hayley Atwell and Peggy Carter and the other villain in the film Red Skull played by Hugo Weaving.
Jones is a fantastic actor and would make a great addition to this movie. Now here's a detailed history behind the character Arnim Zola for those of you who don't really know who he is. Check it out and let us know what you think about Jones being cast in the role!
Arnim Zola was a biochemist who began his experiments in genetic engineering in the late 1930s upon discovering a cache of ancient scientific papers in his ancestral castle in Switzerland. The documents, brought to the castle by Zola's ancestors during the Crusades, were written in the ancient language of the Deviants, a strange offshoot of mainstream humanity who had been performing genetic research for millennia. After decoding the papers, Zola used the advanced knowledge contained therein to perform experiments to create artificial life. Soon succeeding in fashioning even more sophisticated lifeforms, Zola became the first human genetic engineer in history, his work predating that of the High Evolutionary by about a decade.
Among Zola's original accomplishments was the construction of a brain pattern-imprinting device by which the essence, memories, and personality of the one mind could be totally transferred to another. Soon a completing this device, he went to Adolf Hitler with it, hoping to secure funds from Nazi Germany to expand his research. Hitler was intrigued by Zola's work and submitted himself to Zola's treatment. Consequently, when Hitler was slain in his bunker by the android Human Torch, he was able to project his mental essence into a clone brain in Zola's laboratory.
Born with a frail, dwarfish body, Zola used his scientific skills to genetically fashion a new stronger body for himself. Having done so, Zola used the mind-transferrance technique he devised to project his mind into the cloned brain of his new body, a brain that he situated in the chest cavity where it would be more protected. Since the brains of all of his genetic creations were grown from cells of his own, he can mentally project his intelligence into any of his creations.
Later, Zola cloned various bodies for his patron, Adolf Hitler, to enable the Nazi leader to survive in various guises in the decades since his physical death.
In recent years, Zola's experiments were financed by another master Nazi, the Red Skull. Under the Skull's auspices, Zola produced such advanced genetic creatures as Primus and Doughboy. Despite the nature and scope of his work, Zola managed to keep his existence a secret for decades until he encountered Captain America in the jungles of Central America where he was conducting some experiments for the Skull. Zola abducted Captain America to his stronghold in Switzerland but the Avenger managed to escape. Zola also assisted the Red Skull in his plan to recreate the Cosmic Cube. Finally severing ties with the Skull, Zola recently attempted to raid Northwind Observatory in order to confiscate Dr. Bruce Banner's various scientific discoveries. This effort ended in failure, and Zola was apparently destroyed in an explosion. Whether or not he is truly dead, however, remains to be seen.