Early last month, Dave Bautista confirmed on Twitter he was working on an Eternal Warrior movie project with Valiant. However, Bautista was mum on other details including his role in the film.
Bautista is a six time WWE world champion under his ring name Batista. He won the WWE’s World Heavyweight Championship four times and the WWE Championship twice. He still holds the record for the longest reigning World Heavyweight Champion at 282 days. He’s also starred in a number of huge blockbuster films including Guardians of the Galaxy, The Man with the Iron Fists, and Spectre. He will next appear in Blade Runner 2049.
However, we got the scoop when we spoke with Valiant CEO Dinesh Shamdasani at Baltimore Comic-Con this past weekend. He confirmed Dave Bautista will play the Eternal Warrior, Gilad Anni-Padda.
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Not only did Dinesh confirm Dave would be the Eternal Warrior, he told us Dave was “the only person in mind.” He elaborated, “He looks like he has the weight of the world on his soldiers and has been holding that weight for thousand of years.” Dinesh continued, “[He] looks like someone who has been around for thousands of years and has that characterization of the face. Dave has both those qualities. Plus he looks like the character. Plus his ethnicity works. It was the full package.”
They are developing the project in house and haven’t lined up a studio for the movie yet.
As for inspiration for the script, Dinesh told us they were looking at The Valiant and Book of Death. However, he did clarify, “we don’t adapt necessarily a book.” He elaborated on how they view their movie projects differently from their comic books, “If you are new to the movies you understand the full mythology, if you are from the comics and you already know the character, you aren’t watching the story you already know how it’s going to come out. You are on the edge of your seat because you don’t know where it’s going to go.”
The Eternal Warrior looks like it is in good hands with Bautista not only involved in production, but also taking on the role of Gilad. Since Valiant is looking at two of their best stories from the past few years in The Valiant and Book of Death, this movie is definitely on the right track!
Stay tuned for more of our exclusive interview with Valiant Entertainment CEO Dinesh Shamdasani including the Jared Leto/Bloodshot rumors, an update on Ninjak vs The Valiant Universe, and more!