These days, it seems like Sam Worthington only has to get out of bed and leave the house before film studios are laying heroic roles at his feet. The latest? A plan to play H Rider Haggard’s literary hero Allan Quartermain.
According to the Heat Vision Blog, Worthington has gotten himself attached to DreamWorks’ new take on the character, who was the hero of Haggard’s **King Solomon’s Mines **and the follow-up, named for him.
The new project, currently just called Quartermain, takes the basic plot of Mines and tweaks it heavily, setting it in a time when humanity has departed the Earth. Our hero returns to the planet and sets off on a new adventure on a planet-wide scale. But then that's all in a day's work for Worthington, who will, if he takes the role, be stepping into shoes last filled by Sean Connery in that film we don't talk about*.
Timecop’s Mark Verheiden wrote the draft of the script that got development started, and now Miles Millar and Alfred Gough, the writing/producing team behind I Am Number Four (and, er, more worryingly The Mummy: Tomb Of The Dragon Emperor) are shepherding the film on its quest to the screen. Worthington is also making his first stab at producing a movie.
Now what they really need is a director – someone find Rob Cohen and make sure he’s nowhere near it...
*OK, League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. Happy now?