Dave Bautista has finalized a deal to star in ‘Army of the Dead’, a Netflix original movie to be directed by Zack Snyder (‘Batman V Superman’). Bautista rocketed (no pun intended) to film stardom, playing Drax the Destroyer in Marvel’s ‘Guardians of the Galaxy’ movies, and will reprise the role in ‘Avengers: Endgame’ later this month. (Er, actually that’s not confirmed, but here’s hoping.)
Specifics about Bautista’s role weren’t divulged, but here is a description:
[Army of the Dead] is set amid a zombie outbreak in Las Vegas, during which a man assembles a group of mercenaries to take the ultimate gamble: venturing into the quarantined zone to pull off the greatest heist ever attempted. Zack Snyder and Deborah Snyder are producing, and Ori Marmur and Andrew Norman are overseeing it for Netflix.
The screenplay was written by Joby Harold and Shay Hatten, based on a story by Snyder. The only other cast member announced so far is Adam Celentano.
RELATED: Zack Snyder Is Returning To Directing With The Zombie Film ‘Army Of The Dead’
Bautista is currently filming another lofty science fiction project, Denis Villeneuve’s ‘Dune’, which follows him having appeared in Villeneuve’s ‘Blade Runner 2041’ in 2017. He will be seen in the action thriller ‘Escape Plan: The Extractors’, directed by John Herzfeld, co-starring Sylvester Stallone, Jaime King, Harry Shum Jr., Devon Sawa (THERE’S a name I haven’t heard in 20 years!), and 50 Cent.
Bautista will reunite with his ‘Guardians’/’Avengers’ costar Karen Gillan in the Fox/Disney comedy ‘Stuber’, which is set to hit theaters on July 12, 2019. That picture, about a detective who drags his Uber driver into a case he is working on, is directed by Michael Dowse and also stars Kumail Nanjiani.
Bautista serves as both star and producer of ‘My Spy’ from STX Pictures. The trailer for that just premiered at CinemaCon, but a release date hasn’t yet been announced. ‘My Spy’ was directed by Peter Segal and costars Chloe Coleman.
Though it may be unrelated, reportedly James Gunn wrote the role of Peacemaker into his upcoming movie ‘The Suicide Squad’ with Bautista in mind. But word just emerged that there would be a shuffling of roles for Idris Elba, who had originally signed on to take over Will Smith‘s role as Deadshot. But perhaps with Bautista unavailable, it was decided to shift Elba into that role. But that’s just a guess at this point.
‘Army of the Dead’ will mark Snyder’s first directing job since parting ways with Warner Brothers’ DC Universe, after ‘Justice League’.
Source: Deadline
