Rourke to Flex More than His Acting Muscles in ‘War of the Gods’

I’m not sure if it was this Iron Man 2 still that reminded casting directors that Mickey Rourke is still hitting the gym, but I’m fully expecting for the actor to flex more than his acting muscles as the villain of choice in Tarsem’s War of the Gods. With his inflamed trapezius muscles, Variety reports that he’ll be joining the already set Henry Cavill and Freida Pinto, in the role of King Hyperion. Deadline.com broke the news over a week ago that Rourke was taking on yet another bad guy role. 

Variety has listed Christian Gudegast as the original writer of the film with a Jason Keller writing the most recent draft, but from what I know it is Charley and Vlas Parlapanides who that first penned this mythological tale that concerns the battles waged by Theseus (Cavill), a warrior from Greek mythology, who leads a fight against the imprisoned titans. Among the hooks is that, unlike some mythological tales, gods fight alongside mortals. That moves it into a different historical time than “300” — which concerned the battles of King Leonidas against the Persians. Pinto plays Phaedra, an oracle priestess who must join Theseus.

Tarsem’s commercial work (see his promo reel) should give us an idea of what he is capable of with in this genre of film.