Thanks to his wrestling past, Johnson certainly has the physique to play one of the most fearsome mythical heroes and his popularity is on the up thanks to a scene-stealing turn in Fast Five. He has also previously dabbled in the swords-and-sandals arena with The Mummy Returns and its franchise spin-off, The Scorpion King.
Though we have no details of the film's plotline just yet, we do have a description of its source material, The Thracian Wars, in which Hercules is the tortured lonely hero type, only peaceful when hacking other people to bits in battle. He and his band of warriors are mercenaries and are hired by the King of Thrace, Cotys, to train his men to become the greatest army of all time. All is not well, however, and when Cotys' army begins practicing their newly-acquired skills on innocent men, women and children, Hercules decides to make a stand against the mad king's army. So it's all sounding suitably preposterous really.
The film is set to be directed by Brett Ratner from a screenplay written by Ryan Condol while you can now see Johnson in Journey 2: The Mysterious Island and later this year in G.I. Joe: Retaliation.
Source: Variety
