Luca Calvani has signed on to play the lead villain in The Man from U.N.C.L.E. for Warner Bros.

The actor will play Alexander, an affluent Italian shipping heir who smuggled Nazi gold at the tail end of World War II, and is now responsible for the sale of nuclear weapons. He joins a cast that includes Henry Cavill, Armie Hammer, Alicia Vikander, Hugh Grant, Elizabeth Debicki and Jared Harris.

Guy Ritchie is directing from a screenplay by Scott Z. Burns, with Lionel Wigram, John Davis and Steve Clark-Hall prodcuing. The story is set in the early 1960s at the height of the Cold War, centering on CIA agent Napoleon Solo (Henry Cavill) and KGB agent Illya Kuryakin (Armie Hammer), who team up on a mission to stop an evil organization from disrupting the balance of world power through the use of nuclear weapons. Production started earlier this week.

Luca Calvani is best known for his roles in To Rome with Love, When in Rome and The International.