WWE Legend Batista is set to produce and star in “Cooler,” a new action thriller movie.
We noted last week that Batista’s Dogbone Entertainment has signed a first-look deal with FilmNation Entertainment’s newly-formed productionInfrared. “Cooler” is the first project to come out of the new deal, according to Deadline.
Batista will star as Ray Sagona, a South Beach bouncer who is on the brink of finding redemption and getting his family back. When a drug-filled safe is stolen from the club he works at, Sagona is blackmailed into finding it before the Miami Police narcotics bureau comes to retrieve it on a Sunday night. Now, as Sagona’s past and present collide in ever-more dangerous ways, Sagona must survive an epic 36-hourr odyssey across Miami Beach to get the safe back… one final Herculean task on his journey towards absolution.
Production on the movie is scheduled to begin in the summer of 2023. Drew Pearce will direct the movie off his own script. Pearce will also produce through his Point of No Return banner, along with Batista’s Dogbone Entertainment. Drake, Future the Prince and Jonathan Meisner will produce via their DreamCrew label, while Drew Simon and Sam Speiser will produce for Infrared. Ian Fisher and Toby Harvard are executive producing on behalf of Point of No Return. Infrared is also financing the film and handling worldwide sales.
“Dave is one of the most soulful and talented collaborators I’ve been lucky enough to work with — the chance to build an iconic character with him and make the kind of long-dark-night-of-the-soul thriller that I’ve always loved, is too good to be true. The fact that we get to do it all in Miami, guided by the epic cultural knowledge of Drake and Future The Prince, is frankly a mindblower. And there’s nobody more perfect to be our partner than Infrared, whose creative ambitions aligned perfectly with what we want this movie to be,” said Pearce in a press release.
“Drew Pearce is one of the most exciting storytellers in the action genre and we’re incredibly proud to partner with him to bring his dynamic and thrilling vision to the screen. With Dave at the center of the story, and the creative minds at DreamCrew on our team, we couldn’t have wished for a better project to launch our Dogbone Entertainment deal. This is the type of bold, entertaining project that Infrared is all about and we can’t wait to continue working with this incredible group of people,” added Infrared’s President of Production Simon.
Pearce previously worked with Batista when he debuted as a feature writer/director with the “Hotel Artemis” action crime movie from 2018, which also starred Jodie Foster and others.
The Animal will next be seen this holiday season in Netflix’s “Glass Onion: Knives Out 2” movie, which recently received rave reviews from its Toronto International Film Festival premiere. He is currently filming the “Dune” sequel, and also has Marvel’s “Guardians of the Galaxy 3” coming out on May 5, 2023. Batista recently wrapped M. Night Shyamalan’s “Knock at The Cabin,” which will be released in theaters on February 3, 2023. Batista is also set to star and produce in Netflix’s “Unleashed” movie in 2023, and will also shoot the MGM Lethal Weapon-esque buddy cop comedy film with Jason Momoa, which was originated in an August 2021 tweet
by the former WWE Champion.Stay tuned to WrestlingHeadlines.com for more.
Follow Marc on Twitter at @this_is_marc. Send any news, tips or corrections to us by clicking here.