‘Guardians of the Galaxy’ Star Dave Bautista Cast in Adaptation of Dark Horse’s ‘Body Bags’

Comic book fans might know Dave Bautista for his role as Guardians of the Galaxy‘s Drax, but it looks like he could soon be headed to another big-screen adaptation.

Bautista is set to star in Dogtown, Bold Films’ live-action film inspired by the Dark Horse comic series Body Bags. According to Deadline, the wrestler-turned-actor will play the film’s main character, Mack Delgado. Production is expected to begin sometime this fall.

Body Bags, which was created and written by Jason Pearson, follows Delgado, a professional bounty hunter whose life is turned upside down by the arrival of the teenager daughter he never knew he had. The comic acquired quite a lot of attention for its depiction of violence and other shocking material, going on to be deemed “the most controversial comic of the 1990s”.

The film will be penned by John Wick 2‘s Kyle Ward, and be produced by
Hivemind’s Jason Brown and Sean Daniel, alongside Bold Films’ Michel Litvak, Gary Michael Walters, David Litvak and Jon Oakes. Bautista, Rawson Thurber and Jonathan Meisner will serve as executive producers, with Bold Films’ Josh Throne and Svetlana Metkina.

Over the years, Bold Films has produced an array of notable indie films, including Drive, Whiplash, Nightcrawler, and The Neon Demon. But Dogtown will be the studio’s first foray into the comic book adaptation space, and for a good reason.

“This is our first big graphic novel based action movie, which marks an exciting transition at the company,” Walters told Deadline. “We are moving into larger budgets, something that started with Stronger. We want to make baby blockbusters, where you take wall to wall action, and then scalpel back some of that action and inject more plot, theme and character. The hope is to give a big entertainment experience with a lot of ideas and interesting characters. The ambition of Dogtown is to have a Deadpool tone of humor and action, but at its core, Dogtown is a father-daughter love story about a tough man who reconnects with his daughter. That is the spine. We want to make action movies with heart.”

“Dave was born to bring Jason Pearson’s hilarious, subversive, and beloved comics creations to life on the big screen,” Hivemind President and producer Jason Brown said in a statement. “Like Sin City or Kick-Ass, Dogtown has a style all its own – a fast-paced action-comedy that’s as much fueled by adrenaline as its emotional family dynamic.”

Are you excited to see Bautista bring Dogtown to the big screen? Let us know what you think in the comments below.