However you feel about wrestling and ultimate fighting, there’s a strange phenomenon in the sport where the theatrics involved with promoting matches has almost become a career in itself, and many a fighter has made the transition to serious acting, some with more ease than others.
Dwayne Johnson (the wrestler formerly know as “The Rock”) made that move seven years ago when he starred in The Mummy Returns and was rewarded with a starring role in its follow-up prequel The Scorpion King. Now there’s a prequel to that movie, the Universal DVD Original The Scorpion King 2: Rise of a Warrior, directed by veteran action director Russell Mulcahy (Highlander, Resident Evil: Extinction) and starring five-time Ultimate Fighting Championship winner Randy Couture in his first major acting role which might have you wondering whether we’re seeing history repeating itself.
Earlier this summer, Couture appeared as a fight announcer in David Mamet’s Redbelt, but it was a fairly small and insubstantial role compared to “Scorpion King 2” in which he plays King Sargon, the evil tyrant responsible for the death of Mathayus’ father, forcing the future Scorpion King (here played by Michael Copon instead of Johnson) to seek revenge.
ComingSoon.net sat down with the ultimate fighting star to talk about the role and what was involved with playing the bad guy to a bad guy in a prequel to a prequel in this growing franchise.
The Scorpion King 2: Rise of a Warrior is available now and you can buy it at Amazon.com. (It’s also available on Blu-ray and in a special Scorpion King Warrior Pack two-pack with the original Scorpion King.)
