Dwayne Johnson has been quite the busy bee lately. Just in the last year, he’s starred in Journey 2: The Mysterious Island (with another possibly on the way), Snitch, Empire State, G.I. Joe: Retaliation, Pain & Gain, and Fast & Furious 6 (with another definitely on the way). However, he shows no signs of slowing down as production has already begun on his next project, an adaptation of Steve Moore’s graphic novel Hercules: The Thracian Wars.
Today, via First Showing and Johnson’s own Twitter account, we have a few snapshots taken on the set of the currently-shooting film, which include a look at Johnson as the titular character. Granted, they’re not much, but they do give us a small idea as to what the film is going to look like (and perhaps how gruesome it will be given the bloody weapon shown).
The film is being directed by Brett Ratner, who has had ups and downs throughout his career with films like X-Men: The Last Stand, Rush Hour, Red Dragon, and Tower Heist. What has me particularly interested in this project however is the rest of the cast, which includes Ian McShane (Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides), Rufus Sewell (A Knight’s Tale), Joseph Fiennes (Shakespeare in Love), and John Hurt (Alien). Just from these few names, my hopes have started to rise regarding the quality of the project.
The film, which is “an ensemble-action film with a revisionist take on the classic myth set in a grounded world where the supernatural does not exist,” is shooting in Budapest, Hungary from a screenplay by Ryan Condal (his first feature) and Evan Spiliotopoulos (who has surprisingly done mainly animated work).
The question becomes, will it be any good? If they try for something along the lines of the great 300, then perhaps, but if they should venture into the likes of the recent Conan the Barbarian, we could be in for another action-packed disaster. Let’s hope they try their best to aim for the former.
Hercules: The Thracian Wars, which also stars Peter Mullan, Rebecca Ferguson, Ingrid Bolsø Berdal, Aksel Hennie and Reece Ritchie, is scheduled to hit theaters on July 25th, 2014.
Are you excited for the film? Check out the photos below and let us know what you think in the comments!
