Dave Bautista passed on Fast & Furious role to pitch a Gears of War movie

Last Updated on August 2, 2021

If there is one thing that is certain about Dave Bautista, it's that he is a man that knows what he wants and no amount of guaranteed box office success will throw him off his career trajectory. To illustrate another example of this, Bautista is revealing that he turned a meeting about taking a role in a Fast & Furious movie into an opportunity to pitch himself for a role in a Gears of War adaptation.

Bautista is currently making the rounds promoting Army of the Dead and during a recent interview with "Collider", he revealed that he was called into a meeting that had to do with him possibly take a role in a Fast & Furious movie but he gradually turned that meeting into pitching his idea for Gears of War:

"I don't make any pretense about it. I had a chance to get a meeting at WB, they were talking to me about this and that and I said 'hey, let's talk about Bane.' That happened to me one other time in my career. They wanted to talk to me about Fast and the Furious, and I said 'I'm not interested, let's talk about [Gears of War character] Marcus Fenix…

Apparently, Bautista has wanted to play Marcus Fenix on the big screen for quite some time. In fact, this isn't the first time, as you can see from the quote, that Bautista has lobbied for certain parts. Bautista walked into a meeting with Warner Bros. to try to convince them to let him play Bane and he has also expressed interest in taking on the DC character Lobo. Again, this is a man that knows what he wants, and I respect it, although some think he should maybe get out of his own way a bit and be more open to certain opportunities. 

It's not clear which Fast & Furious movie was up for, nor is it clear which role he would've played. The fact that Dwayne Johnson is a part of that franchise may keep Bautista away for good since he has made some choice comments about acting careers coming out of wrestling. It's clear that Bautista takes himself seriously as an actor and has mentioned on a few occasions that he wouldn't make some of the film choices that Johnson or even John Cena has made. On the one hand, he has a point. He did end up in the upcoming highly-anticipated update of Dune and he just booked Knives Out 2 but he also did My Spy and I just can't see that film being on his vision board. 

As for Gears of War, a film version is in development with F. Scott Frazier set to write the screenplay. The plan is to set the movie in an alternate reality from the games but there haven't been many concrete updates on the project in a while. Since the film is still in development, there is still time for Bautista to plead his case and I'm sure he will because he seems, above all else, very determined.

Do YOU want to see Dave Bautista in a Gears of War movie?