If there is one actor that I can actually imagine playing Hercules, it’s probably Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson. That’s exactly what Brett Ratner thought too, when he cast Johnson in his upcoming film Hercules. The project has just started filming in Hungary and as a result we finally have a cast list and plot synopsis.
Hercules will apparently follow Herc after his famed labors. He’s now a mercenary with five ‘faithful companions,’ strolling around Greece selling his services and intimidating people with his legendary name. But wait! The ruler of Thrace and his (presumably) comely daughter need Herc’s help to defeat a warlord. So Hercules must own up to his past and become the hero that everyone knows he should be.
This sounds vaguely like the plot of Conan the Barbarian, but we’ll let that pass. Hercules is actually based on the graphic novel Hercules: The Thracian War, by Steve Moore and Admira Wijaya. The film will reportedly step away from the supernatural elements of the original story of Hercules – he’s the son of Jupiter (Zeus) and a mortal woman – and move more towards the ‘hero with a troubled past’ narrative that we all love right now. That means no gods and goddesses, everyone. Now I’m sad.
The cast for Ratner’s Hercules is impressive, though, as sword-and-sandals films tend to be. We have Ian McShane, John Hurt, Joseph Fiennes, Rufus Sewell, and Peter Mullan, all on the list. The ladies of Hercules are not quite so well-known: there’s Rebecca Ferguson (The White Queen), Ingrid Bolso Berdal (best known for Hansel And Gretel), Aksel Hennie (Headhunters) and Reece Ritchie (The Lovely Bones). All in all, a pretty good cast, as long as they don’t phone it in.
Dwayne Johnson is not the only Hercules muscling his way into cinemas in 2014, though. Hercules 3D, directed by Renny Harlin (Die Hard 2) and starring Kellan Lutz as a younger version of the hero, will also premiere next year. There’s going to be plenty of musclemen to go around.
Are you looking forward to Hercules? How about Hercules 3D? Or is that too many Hercules films for one year? Let us know what you think.