Friday, February 07, 2014

Can Ronda Rousey carry a movie?

Well, it looks like we might find out in a couple of years. Last night, Justin Kroll of Variety reported that Ronda Rousey has signed with Warner Bros. for two high profile film projects. The first is a supporting role in the film of the popular HBO show Entourage. Variety reports she will shoot her scenes in March. But I think the second film is a lot more interesting because it will be Ronda's first starring role. It's to be a film adaptation of Brad Thor's best selling novel The Athena Project. The book is about a female Delta Force. Ronda likes the book and met with Thor. It is being reported that Warners is about to acquire the movie rights for the book. They actually bought the rights in Nov. 2010 before the book was published but I guess the rights expired. So let's assume that Warners will get the movie rights. They have to get a script. I don't think Thor has ever written a movie script. In fact, this will be his first novel to be adapted to film. Then Warners has to get a director, casting and everything else. Anything can go wrong at any time and the film could get spiked or put into turnaround. So if we ever see this film, it won't be until 2017. The other thing is there are competing female action projects out there. If one of those lands in theaters and bombs, Warners might get cold feet. Gina Carano is starring in one of them. In Sept. 2012, Gina signed with producer Adi Shankar to make what is being described as a female The Expendables. The film doesn't have a title yet. Shankar was a producer on Lone Survivor. Battlestar Galactica's Katee Sackhoff is Gina's co-star and the script is in progress. Meanwhile, the producers of The Expendables including Sylvester Stallone and Millennium Films owner Avi Lerner announced plans to produce a female spinoff of The Expendables called The ExpendaBelles. Yesterday they announced that Legally Blonde director Robert Luketic has come on board. The script was written by two women who have worked with Luketic before. They say they are planning to shoot this summer. No casting yet but maybe Ronda will do it if things don't progress at Warners. Making a big announcement is one thing. Turning that big announcement into something that will be seen at the local Cineplex is a long road that can sometimes be a dead end.

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