Since leaving his professional wrestling career, Dave Bautista has enjoyed considerable success as an actor in numerous action and adventure roles, from James Bond’s Spectre to the Guardians of the Galaxy film series. Now, it looks like he’ll be adding another comic book character to his resume, this time outside the cinematic universes of the Big Two.
Specifically, Bautista appears to be developing a film adaptation based on Valiant Comic’s The Eternal Warrior.
While the film has not been officially announced yet by Valiant Entertainment, there have been hints about the comic publisher’s intentions in the last few weeks. For example, it was recently revealed that Jared Leto is in talks to play Valiant comic character Bloodshot in an upcoming Sony film by the same name. Since this comic character first premiered in The Eternal Warrior comic, fans have somewhat expected the announcement of a live-action adaptation of that comic seriesto soon follow.
Bautista himself has been relatively open about the new film and his involvement in it. Earlier on Twitter, he had this to say about the project in response to his fans:
Glad you asked cuz I'm really excited about EW. We are currently working to get the script fan worthy and then we'll be full on from there. https://t.co/aHO7DVPBVY
— Dave Bautista (@DaveBautista) August 1, 2017
Meanwhile, Valiant Entertainment remains coy about the existence of this adaptation. At most, CEO & CCO Dinesh Shamdasani chimed in with a “vague” response to Bautista’s initial tweet later in the day:
I can neither confirm nor deny that @DaveBautista just revealed a giant secret lol!
— Dinesh Shamdasani (@dinesh_s) August 1, 2017
For those not familiar with the comic series, The Eternal Warrior follows the immortal Gilad Anni-Padda in his quest to protect an ancient line of mystics known as the Geomancers. This lineage of men and women defend the Earth through various supernatural powers like astral projection, telekinesis, telepathy and control of the elements.
So far, speculation seems to suggest that this Eternal Warrior adaptation could connect to another Valiant Entertainment comic adaptation in the works, Archer & Armstrong. This would definitely make sense since in the comics, Armstrong is an alias for one of Padda’s similarly immortal brothers, Aram. If the Leto film doesn’t connect back to its original comic source, at least we’ll see this expanded universe play out directly under the Valiant banner.
What do you think about Bautista tackling another comic franchise? Some rumors also state that Bautista may star as the titular character – if you’re familiar with the comics, do you think this is the right casting choice? Would you like to see someone else in the role? Let us know your thoughts in the comics!
Source: Hollywood Reporter