After his awe-inspiring performance in Sin City as Marv, I had this crazy idea that Mickey Rourke would start getting juicy parts again. Instead, he ended up doing cameo junk in movies like Stormbreaker or terrible, high-minded flops like Domino. Come on Hollywood! On a personal level the guy may be kind of a mess, but we need more Rourke.
It looks like we’re about to get it. Variety says Darren Aronofsky has hired Rourke to star in his next movie, a drama called The Wrestler. He’s replacing Nic Cage, who had reportedly been brought on board to play a wrestler named Randy “The Ram” Robinson, a name which works even better if you’re doing porn. The film follows The Ram, an over-the-hill ring-wrangler as he tries for one last shot at glory.
Getting in the ring seems to be Aronofsky’s new thing. He’s tried more challenging, original filmmaking with movies like The Fountain and Requiem for a Dream, and for his efforts has been spurned by audiences. So now he’s giving up and doing sports movies, which people will see even if they suck. In addition to this, he’s also supposed to be working on a boxing flick called The Fighter, which stars Brad Pitt and Mark Wahlberg.
