The cast of the Niels Arden Oplev directed action thriller Dead Man Down is really shaping up to be a good one, with Colin Farrell and Noomi Repace already on board to star, and Dominic Cooper in talks to play a role. Now it looks like the movie has its villain. Set to play Farrell’s character’s opposition is Terrence Howard.

Reuniting the original Girl with the Dragon Tattoo’s director Niels Arden Opiev with its star (Noomi Rapace), Dead Man Down will have Farrell playing a man who aims to infiltrate a crime syndicate to avenge the death of his family. Rapace is set to play a “scarred beauty” who knows something about Farrell’s character’s past. Meanwhile, Cooper is in talks to play Farrell’s “partner on the street.”

According to Variety, Howard is joining the film to play the role of Alphonse Hoyt, “a charming but brutal crimelord who is accustomed to being feared but is thrown off guard when a mysterious tormenter (Farrell) starts sabotaging his business from within and picks off his men one by one as revenge for the death of his family.”

I generally associate Howard with good-guy roles, like Rhodey in Iron Man or Djay in Hustle & Flow. Djay wasn’t exactly on the right side of the law in terms of his work, but he wasn’t a villain. We could also go back further and give a nod to some of Howard’s 90’s work, which includes playing Jackie Jackson in The Jacksons: An American Dream (a TV movie I have to watch anytime I come across it), or the drum-playing Louis Russ in Mr. Holland’s Opus. None of these characters were crimelord-types. That said, this sounds a great role for him, and his participation is just one more reason to keep an eye out for this movie.

Dead Man Down begins production later this month.