While some of us might harbor some resentment to Brett Ratner for the nearly franchise-killing X-Men: The Last Stand, Brett Ratner has been Hollywood’s generic go-to director for many years now with his filmography including Rush Hour, Red Dragon as as I mentioned above, the X-Men film that I shall rather not name again.
As some of you might know, his next project is Hercules, starring none other than The Rock himself, Dwayne Johnson. His name alone is strong enough to draw audiences into the cinema, for better or worse, as we’ve seen with other franchises like The Scorpion King. He seems quite a good match as Hercules so we can only hope Mr. Ratner is cooking up something very entertaining for all of us.
Today see’s a bit more casting news for Hercules, as Reece Ritchie joins the fray as Lolaus, the cousin of everyone’s strong man. He joins a quite impressive cast which includes Ian McShane, Rufus Sewell, Aksel Hennie, Antje Traue, Joseph Fiennes, Rebecca Ferguson and John Hurt. The film is apparently based on two Steve Moore comic books, titled “The Thracian Wars” and “The Knives of Kush” so hopefully Mr. Ratner has some good source material to draw inspiration from.
The synopsis of The Thracian Wars is as follows, from Comingsoon:
Fourteen-hundred years ago, a tormented soul walked the Earth that was neither man nor god. Hercules, powerful son of the god king Zeus, received nothing but suffering his entire life. After twelve arduous labors and the loss of his family, this dark, world-weary soul turned his back on the gods, finding his only solace in bloody battle. Over the years he warmed to the company of six similar souls, their only bond being their love of fighting and the presence of death. These men and woman never question where, why, or whom they go to fight; only how much they will be paid. Knowing this, the King of Thrace has hired these mercenaries to train his men to become the greatest army of all time. Hercules begins to question King Cotys’ motives when he takes his army out to battle and sees them practice on innocent men, women, and children of their neighbors. Deep in his soul something stirs, but is it enough to stop a mad king and his army of the damned from marching across Greece – or even Olympus itself?!
While I’m not holding my breath for an Oscar-winner, let’s hope Ratner brings us something that might make us forget the past.
Last Updated: April 18, 2013
