Dave Bautista Up for Role in 'Fantasy Island' Movie

With his time in the Marvel Cinematic Universe possibly coming to a close, Dave Bautista is already looking to the future with a new gig that will adapt a television classic for the big screen.

The movie version of Fantasy Island has already drawn talent such as Michael Pena and Jimmy O. Yang, but now Bautista is booking a trip for the mysterious new film according to the Hollywood Reporter.

The new film is set to be directed by Jeff Wadlow, who was previously attached to X-Force and last directed the horror film Truth or Dare. The report indicates that this new take on Fantasy Island will be a "tonal mix of Westworld meets The Cabin in the Woods."

The original series was a surreal mix of morality tales, where the mysterious Mr. Roarke would allow guests of the island to live out their fantasies — most often to disastrous and dangerous results. This would show the guests the errors of their ways, and they'd leave the island with a new lease on life having endured the experience.

This lends itself to the horror genre that they seem to be leaning into here, which makes sense as this is coming from Blumhouse Productions.

Peña is set to play Mr. Roarke in the new iteration, taking on the role made famous by Ricardo Montalbán. Bautista will be playing an antagonist, though based on the events of the movie he could actually be the heroic character in the film.

The indicates that Bautista's character will be a former guest who has since been forced to remain on the island, and that he'll be working to expose Mr. Roarke's secrets.

Bautista has had a good run of films so far, starring alongside Jodie Foster in Hotel Artemis and Ryan Gosling in Blade Runner 2049. And it looks like he's securing his future beyond Marvel.

He's set to reprise his role as Drax in next year's Avengers 4 and was going to begin filming Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 early in 2019, but that film has been delayed indefinitely after Disney fired director James Gunn.

Bautista has publicly supported Gunn since, even going so far as to hint that his time working for Disney and subsequently Marvel could be coming to an end if they don't use Gunn's script for that film.

"Where I'm at right now is that if [Marvel] don't use that script, then I'm going to ask them to release me from my contract, cut me out or recast me," Bautista said to Shortlist. "I'd be doing James a disservice if I didn't."

"Nobody's defending his tweets, but this was a smear campaign on a good man," Bautista explained. "I spoke to Chris Pratt the day after it happened and he's a bit religious so he wanted time to pray and figure it out, but I was more like: f-ck this. This is bullsh-t. James is one of the kindest, most decent people I've met."

There is no release date attached to Fantasy Island yet.