Dave Bautista Has Pitched A Major Video Game Movie Adaptation
Dave Bautista has his sights set on making a wildly popular video game into a big budget movie. He'd be perfect in the lead role
The first thing that actor Dave Bautista sees in the morning is COG soldier Marcus Fenix, looking at him through the mirror. All jokes aside, it’s no secret that Bautista really wants to play Marcus Fenix in a Gears of War movie, so much that he turned down Fast and Furious to pitch a video game adaptation.
As reported by IGN, Dave Bautista revealed during an interview that he turned down an offer to star in the Fast & Furious franchise, trying to pitch a Gears of War film adaptation instead. During a promotional interview for Zack Snyder’s Army of the Dead, starring Bautista in the lead role, the actor explained that he was called into a meeting by Universal Pictures regarding a possible role in the multi-billion-dollar franchise. However, he steered the meeting towards a Gears of War movie adaptation, completely neglecting the offer to star in the Fast & Furious.
This isn’t the first time Dave Bautista turned down a role while pursuing other prospects. In one of his previous meetings with Warner Bros., regarding an undisclosed role, the wrestler-turned-actor attempted to land the role of Bane in WB’s Batman movie. The actor later expressed his opinion that Universal was perhaps “a little put off,” but he doesn’t regret taking his shot. The iconic Drax actor (MCU) said that Gears of War sounds far more interesting to him than Fast and Furious and that he didn’t want to pretend otherwise, especially since Universal now holds rights to Gears of War cinematic adaptation.
A Gears of War movie got stuck somewhere in its development phase in 2007, with writers coming and going from the project until the ownership transferred over to Universal Pictures. The fans of the gaming series have wanted to see the Gears of War movie adaptation ever since the first game was released, with Bautista’s name popping up from the very start.
From what we learned, the actor himself was, and still is, very vocal about his desire to fit the boots of Marcus Fenix and star in the potential movie. In fact, Dave Bautista has lobbied for the role for so long, trying to get the project off the ground, that he was actually added as a playable multiplayer character in Gears 5, the fifth installment in the GoW franchise.
The original Gears of War game released in 2006 for Xbox 360, quickly becoming a top-selling Xbox gaming title. The game was a massive commercial success, selling over three million copies within ten weeks of its release, warranting a PC ported version, as well as five sequels and two prequel gaming titles. In addition, it also spawned several books and comics adaptations, creating a massive storytelling universe that could attract an even bigger audience once translated to the big screen.
Gears of War movie, especially with Dave Bautista as the lead, has a massive potential to level the box office and become an absolute action thriller hit. It’s still unclear why Universal Pictures doesn’t act on that potential, especially since they already have, albeit an unofficial, lead role carved out for them by the franchise’s fandom.
