Director James Gunn officially released a new still of Ronan the Accuser (Lee Pace), via Facebook and Twitter. On Facebook, Gunn wrote, “Lee Pace might be the nicest actor I’ve ever met. Which makes it stranger that he’s playing the biggest dick ever in a Marvel movie.”

https://twitter.com/JamesGunn/statuses/482219303043727360

Official synopsis:

From Marvel, the studio that brought you the global blockbuster franchises of Iron Man, Thor, Captain America and The Avengers, comes a new team — the Guardians of the Galaxy. An action-packed, epic space adventure, Marvel’s ‘Guardians of the Galaxy’ expands the Marvel Cinematic Universe into the cosmos, where brash adventurer Peter Quill finds himself the object of an unrelenting bounty hunt after stealing a mysterious orb coveted by Ronan, a powerful villain with ambitions that threaten the entire universe. To evade the ever-persistent Ronan, Quill is forced into an uneasy truce with a quartet of disparate misfits — Rocket, a gun-toting raccoon, Groot, a tree-like humanoid, the deadly and enigmatic Gamora and the revenge-driven Drax the Destroyer. But when Peter discovers the true power of the orb and the menace it poses to the cosmos, he must do his best to rally his ragtag rivals for a last, desperate stand — with the galaxy’s fate in the balance. Marvel’s ‘Guardians of the Galaxy’ is presented by Marvel Studios. The film releases August 1, 2014, and is distributed by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures.

Directed by James Gunn. Stars Chris Pratt, Zoe Saldana, Dave Bautista, Karen Gillan, Bradley Cooper, Vin Diesel, Michael Rooker, Benicio Del Toro, Lee Pace, Djimon Hounsou, John C. Reilly and Glenn Close.

‘Guardians of the Galaxy’ opens in theaters on August 1st.