Dave Bautista lands lead role in Cooler
Dave Bautista has been cast in 'Cooler'.
The 'Guardians of the Galaxy' actor - who rose to fame as Batista in WWE before swapping wrestling for Hollywood - is set to star in director Drew Pearce’s upcoming action thriller, which marks the start of a deal between Bautista’s Dogbone Entertainment and FilmNation Entertainment's Infrared.
As reported by Deadline, the 53-year-old star will play Ray Sagona, a bouncer who is trying to get back with his family on a journey of redemption.
However, he gets blackmailed into finding a drug-filled safe which was stolen from the club he works at, which sees him travelling across Miami and putting his road to redemption at risk.
Bautista will be reunited with Pearce on the project, having worked together on the filmmaker's directorial debut 'Hotel Artemis', which also starred Jodie Foster, Sterling K. Brown, and Sofia Boutella.
In a statement, the director said: “Dave is one of the most soulful and talented collaborators I’ve been lucky enough to work with — the chance to build an iconic character with him and make the kind of long-dark-night-of-the-soul thriller that I’ve always loved, is too good to be true.
"The fact that we get to do it all in Miami, guided by the epic cultural knowledge of Drake and Future The Prince, is frankly a mindblower.
"And there’s nobody more perfect to be our partner than Infrared, whose creative ambitions aligned perfectly with what we want this movie to be.”
Infrared’s President of Production Drew Simon added: "Drew Pearce is one of the most exciting storytellers in the action genre and we’re incredibly proud to partner with him to bring his dynamic and thrilling vision to the screen.
"With Dave at the center of the story, and the creative minds at DreamCrew on our team, we couldn’t have wished for a better project to launch our Dogbone Entertainment deal.
"This is the type of bold, entertaining project that Infrared is all about and we can’t wait to continue working with this incredible group of people."
