Guy Pearce, who recently starrred in Lockout and who appears in the upcoming Prometheus, is up for a role in the soon-to-shoot Iron Man 3, Variety reports.

Pearce would play Dr. Aldrich Killian in the Shane Black film. In the comics, Killian is a genetic scientist who was a key player in Warren Ellis' 2005 comic book storyline "Extremis", long-rumored to be a focus of the new film's plot. The Ellis tale involves the creation of a nanotech virus.

If he officially signs on, Pearce will join Robert Downey Jr., Gwyneth Paltrow, Don Cheadle and Ben Kingsley on the Marvel Studios and Walt Disney Pictures project, which is beginning production in North Carolina and will, as was revealed earlier this week, will be co-produced in China.

(Photo Credit: Apega / WENN.com)