His future as Drax the Destroyer might be in question, but Dave Bautista’s career as an action star has nowhere to go but up. The Hollywood Reporter brings word that Bautista has signed on to join Legendary’s Dune remake, based on Frank Herbert’s beloved 1965 sci-fi novel of the same name. Bautista is playing “Beast” Rabban, described as “the sadistic nephew of a Baron who oversees Arrakis.” The project will see Bautista reunite with his Blade Runner 2049 director Denis Villeneuve.
The last attempt at a cinematic translation of Herbert’s novel was released in 1984. That film was directed by David Lynch and starred his future Twin Peaks leading man Kyle MacLachlan. MacLachlan played Paul Atreides, a young nobleman who leads a band of warriors against the universe’s duplicitous emperor. Despite its lukewarm critical reception and abysmal box office performance, Dune has become a cult hit. Syfy released its own TV miniseries adaptation in 2000 and followed it up with a sequel series in 2003. Legendary acquired the source material’s film rights in 2016 and set out to produce a franchise based or Herbert’s work. The author published five sequels to his original novel before his death in 1986.
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So far, the reboot’s cast also includes Timothée Chalamet as Paul Atreides and Rebecca Ferguson as the female lead. Beyond returning as Drax in April’s Avengers: Endgame, Bautista is also slated to appear in a pair of comedies this year. He’ll star opposite Kumail Nanjiani in July’s Stuber and will later headline Peter Segal’s My Spy, which recently wrapped filming. Last fall, he entered talks to join the film adaptation of Fantasy Island in an undisclosed role.
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