Gears of War director passing on The Rock due to 'Doom connection'

by Griffin McElroy on Jul 26th 2009 11:30AM

As you may have heard, yesterday's Gearsiverse panel at San Diego Comic Con was light on news regarding the film adaptation of Epic's Gears of War franchise, save for one small detail -- it wouldn't feature Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson in any capacity. Director Len Wiseman forthrightly explained why, and in the process, likely hurt the wrestler-turned-actor's (so, basically actor-turned-actor's) feelings -- he told the crowd that "a Doom connection would not be smart for us."

We highly doubt that most people immediately associate Mr. Johnson's body of work with that first-person romp/cinematic nightmare -- regardless, Wiseman said he's "looking for an actor for the role and then [I'll] put him into shape." Why waste all that time and effort? Dwayne Johnson is already the only human being on Earth that actually looks like one of the space marines featured in Epic's blockbuster franchise. Scar his face up a bit and you're good to go, man.

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Tags: adapation, casting, dwayne-johnson, epic, film, gears-of-war, len-wiseman, Microsoft, movie, sdcc-2009, the-rock, Xbox-360

Reader Comments (170)

Wrestling isn't acting. It's dancing.

who the fuck played doom for the story?

who the fuck watched doom the movie for the story?

yeah i thought the movie was gonna be as good as the game... so i tryied find ways to get it free online when i got it an watched it was very dissapointed

spoiler-----------------------------spoiler
come on why did the rock have to say the star aint suppose to die?
spoiler----------------------------spoiler

to me that was just one of the stupidest things i ever seen in a movie,funny but stupid.

btw if you want that site i got the movie from for free ask as i dont really wanna ruin the blog dooms to good for that well not the movie the movie sucked

ok here it is on the account i will probably not come back to this particular blog
ill probably be to busy playing doom 3 since beat doom 1 and 2 to many times already

Len Wiseman is worried about Dwayne Johnson being in it?

Last time I checked, Len, you've made 4 shitty movies in a row. I'd be more worried about sucking ass again.

The Rock can do more for the success of a Gears of War movie than vice versa.
Let's be honest - gaming movies never enjoy much box office success. Part of that is due to the fact that they're poorly written and focus more on action than plot.

lol Len Wiseman.

Batista (wrestler) is perfect for this role! He IS the Gears of Wars guy, he just lies to people and claims another identity.

I don't get where people see GeOW as this "epic" experience. The story definitely is NOT epic. SNES and Playstation games have had more epic stories than GeOW. The gameplay was not epic to me either. It was duck and cover, pop out and shoot over and over.

That leads me to my next point. Why does this director thinks his movie is going to be so good that Rock can't be in it? What the hell? I think that a part of a good movie lies with a good director so if he couldn't direct Rock to play his role then that's his problem, not Rock's. Just because they have a 'quality' IP to adapt it for the movies doesn't mean it's going to be good.

The Rock would be a perfect Dom Santiago.

Finding someone big, brutish, and as intimidating as Marcus Fenix is going to be a real challenge. The only actor I can see filling those shoes is Mickey Rourke. (ie Marv from Sin City)

I agree with those choices.

Wow dude that is totally insane! I like it!

RT
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I think it would be pretty excellent to see Daniel Craig or Jason Statham playing Baird.

Only problem with that is, it's not going to happen.

Using Craig as an example, we're talking about an A-LIst actor. (Don't think so? Sorry, look at his credentials.)

So, an actor of his status is suppose to play a SUPPORTING ROLE behind The Rock? Or Vin Diesel?

Yeah, that wouldn't even get past his Secretary.

Now, Statham has done his share of B Action movies, but he still has prior films that hold up very well and really show his talent. (See: Snatch, LSTSB) But still, even for the star of 'Death Race' this would kind of be a step down for him, to transition to a supporting role behind Dwayne/Vin. See, Actors can usually clean up nicely in terms of money regardless of their film being good/bad, but they still have their future careers/status to worry about. Can't tell me that doesn't go into account when producers are feeling them out for a role.

Fast & Furious movies are a guilty pleasure of mine, so I'm going to skip over Vin Diesel, I don't think it matters sense the discussion is generally pointed towards Dwayne.

Dwayne Johnson is a terrible actor. You know it, I know it, shit he probably is looking back on Race to Witch Mountain, and even he fucking knows it.

Personally, I think this movie could be good. No, not Best Picture good, but it could definitely be something worth watching more than once. Will it turn out like that? Probably not. The plot (I'm not debating the quality of the game's plot) will probably be butchered, it'll probably be taken down to PG-13 and the gore and violence and hardship that underlies the Gears universe will be made more family-friendly,, Characters will be mis-represented, and I picture them re-using the set for Children of Men or some other near-end-of-the-world movie.

Marcus Fenix = Bruce Willis

There i said it!!!

Vin Diesel = Dom. Dom has a latino air around him

Rock isn't a bad actor. And the role doesn't need that many emotions. Plus, many already envision Rock as Marcus anyway! Why not just have him and save some time!

Wow, pretty dumb move. Dwayne would fit PERFECTLY in the Gears universe.

He is a *decent* actor, a far cry better than most wrestlers and football players who would fit. Plus it would add a hint of "star power" instead of having a movie that already won't appeal to everyone then forcing it into obscurity with random no-names.