Malcolm McDowell, has joined the cast of Rogue Pictures' action thriller Doomsday, which is in its final month of principal photography under writer/director Neil (The Descent, Dog Soldiers) Marshall.

The silver-maned and silver-tongued genre vet is having a great year, with his key role on NBC's Heroes (which began its season-ending arc last Monday night) and recently wrapping his turn as Dr. Loomis in Rob Zombie's Halloween update (slated for an August 31st release). In Doomsday, he'll play Kane, the brilliant scientist who is the only true expert on the lethal Reaper virus that an elite group of specialists (led by Eden [Rhona Mitra] and monitored by Nelson [Bob Hoskins]) is battling through what one character calls "hell on earth" to retrieve a cure for.

In Doomsday, a lethal virus spreads throughout a major country and kills hundreds of thousands. To contain the newly identified Reaper, the authorities brutally quarantine the country as it succumbs to fear and chaos. The literal walling-off works for three decades - until Reaper violently resurfaces in a major city. An elite group of specialists, including Eden Sinclair (Mitra), is urgently dispatched into the still-quarantined country to retrieve a cure by any means necessary. Shut off from the rest of the world, the unit must battle through a landscape that has become a waking nightmare.

Doomsday was released March 14th, 2008 and stars Caryn Peterson, Adeola Ariyo, Emma Cleasby, Christine Tomlinson, Vernon Willemse, Paul Hyett, Daniel Read, Karl Thaning. The film is directed by Neil Marshall.