Bad man of Avatar

It’s still another year and a half before James Cameron’s 3-D sci-fi epic AVATAR hits screens, and though they have a long way to go, they’ve managed to keep things relatively quiet so far.

Most of the main cast has been announced, but now we know who’s playing the lead villain, and it’s none other than… Matt Gerald? He’s a secondary player with a filmography of minor roles in movies such as SWAT, IN THE MIX and the wonderfully terrible XXX2: STATE OF THE UNION, but Cameron obviously saw something there to merit main baddie status (hey, who knew Robert Patrick before T2?). Gerald next plays a cop in the adaptation of Chuck Palahniuk’s novel CHOKE.

The digital FX-heavy movie stars Sam Worthington as a war veteran sent to the distant planet Pandora, which is inhabited by a humanoid race with their own language and culture. The Earth visitors find themselves at odds with each other and the indigenous population. Also among the cast are Sigourney Weaver, Giovanni Ribisi, Joel David Moore, Wes Studi, the gorgeous Zoe Saldana, Stephen Lang, CCH Pounder and (unfortunately) Michelle Rodriguez.