There are a couple of hard and fast rules in Hollywood these days. Every property ever created will be rebooted regardless of how obscure it is. And, Dave Bautista breaking your face is another. When these two indisputable laws combine you get Dave Bautista as Tong Po in the reboot of Kickboxer, called Kickboxer: Vengeance, looking like he’s going to hurt you very, very badly. A couple images have now been released of the wrestler turned actor in his role and he looks ready to hurt everybody.
The original Kickboxer starred Jean-Claude Van-Damme, fresh off the cult success of Bloodsport as a man who trains to become a fighter after his brother is killed in the ring by the ruthless Tong Po. The role of the vicious monster will now be played by Bautista while the lead will be played by martial artist/stuntman Alain Moussi. The image from the film’s official Twitter account is menacing. Dave’s got some seriously wild hair going on back there which is strange because even for long time fans of the guy during his original WWE run he’s never had much hair. He’s been as bald as Drax the Destroyer for years. On the plus side he doesn’t need to hide his tattoos for this role, although he’s either added some new ones himself or had makeup add them in for the role. They’re visible in this second image from Budomate Magazine.
Dave Bautista’s rise to stardom has been an amazing story considering he’s not the guy that was supposed to take the world by storm. He scored a role with major exposure when he joined Guardians of the Galaxy and he hasn’t looked back since. From there he became a part of the new James Bond film, Spectre and he’s rumored to be playing the Kurgan in the reboot of the Highlander franchise. While he hasn’t been in Hollywood nearly as long as The Rock, he’s honestly put together a much stronger resume in a shorter period of time.
Now he’ll be putting some of his previous professional experience to good use in Kickboxer: Vengeance. He won’t be alone, however, as UFC champ Georges St. Pierre will also be featured in the film. We figure Bautista has an advantage since he already knows how to fight for the camera rather than actually fighting people.
