Posted in: Movies | Tagged: body bags, dave bautista, dogtown, Jason Pearson

Dave Bautista Goes Indie, Will Star in Adaptation of Jason Pearson's 'Body Bags'

Published Wed, 30 May 2018 15:10:05 -0500

Guardians of the Galaxy star Dave Bautista isn't just a professional wrestler who can play comic book characters in Marvel Studios movies. Bautista aims to prove that he can also play comic book characters from publishers other than Marvel. To do that, Bautista will star in Dogtown, an adaptation of the long-running comic book created by Jason Pearson, Body Bags. Punctuality-obsessed Hollywood gossip rag Deadline has the scoop on this news, which sees John Wick 2 writer Kyle Ward attached to write the screenplay.

The movie doesn't have a director yet, but producer Gary Walters says the film will aim to have a budget of $30-40 million, and he hopes it will bring in over $100 million in box office revenue. Walters said that Bold Films, the production company behind the film, wants to make "baby blockbusters," action films that offer an alternative to the typical big-budget blockbuster fare.

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.

Tapping Bautista, already a superstar actor early in his movie career, seems like a smart move. However, the choice of comics might be an odd one, as Jason Pearson recently told Bleeding Cool that Body Bags was "a series that I really hated doing," referring to a still-unfinished Kickstarter. Well, hopefully Bautista will feel differently.

If you're not familiar with the series, but don't want to be embarrassed in front of all your friends who thought you had some kind of comic book cred or something, you can catch up on ComiXology. Here's the description of the first issue:

15 seconds into the future: criminals are protected by so many laws the police are no longer effective. Enter the bounty hunters…or, as they're known on the street, "BODY BAGGERS." When the cops can't take the bad guys down, they hire out to bring the most dangerous fugitives in. Dead or alive.
The action begins when a rival "bagger" goes after Mack (a.k.a. Clownface) the best bounty hunter in the business. Fuel is quickly added to the fire with the sudden arrival of Panda, Mack's estranged daughter. How will the baddest man in Terminus, GA handle a 14-year-old girl determined to follow in her daddy's footsteps, and does she really know what she's getting into?