The Rock could star in Doom movie

When it comes to beating the underpaid life out of bit-part extras on the silver screen, there are always plenty of actors eager to fill the role. And given his obvious capacity for choreographing this sort of thing - thanks to years of soft-punching his way through the ranks of the wrestling world - Dwayne Johnson, aka 'The Rock', is starting to figure in more and more of them.

Nevertheless, if we told you that The Rock is quite possibly in the frame to star in the oft-rumoured Doom movie adaptation, you'd probably still frown or mutter or do something else to betray your indifference or discontent over the whole idea. Granted, we were never likely to see Christopher Walken or Robert De Niro strolling through the seventh layer of hell gripping a BFG and ordering hellspawn to attach their bloodthirsty hides to the business end of it, but at the same time it's a movie that rights-holder Id Software has long maintained would only be made if it could live up to its legacy.

Can The Rock handle this sort of role? Can anyone, in fact? Who knows for sure, but judging by a report on the website of British movie magazine Empire, we might just be on the cusp of finding out. Speaking in an interview this month, the wrestler-turned-actor, survivor of big-screen turns in The Scorpion King and, most recently, riotous vengeance flick Walking Tall, confessed that he might take up the role for his next project with Universal Studios - if his current project gets pushed back.

Answering a question about Spy-Hunter, another videogame-to-movie adaptation he's about to star in, The Rock said he was "very excited" about the John Woo-helmed film. "It's supposed to be shot in Prague and Amsterdam, but..." he wavered, speaking to Empire, "You know how movie-making is. If we have to push it because of the weather and the Christmas vacation, then I'll probably take another movie with Universal called Doom." When pressed on the subject, he added, "It's based on the game. Where, without giving the movie away, I play the ultimate [censored]."

Hardly a breakthrough, then, but as we all know by now, much of the movie remains [censored] and probably will do for a great deal longer. Over the years we've heard how Id Software licensed the rights on some sort of clever looping time-limited expiration deal, and how writer/producer John Wells and producer Lorenzo di Bonaventura are involved, working with a script from Dave Callaham. Last we heard, British born Enda McCallion was the planned director. But it's still hard to confirm.

As ever though, there's potential and prospects but not a lot of confirmation, and we'll leave it up to you to make your minds up. Still, for anybody itching to see how Doom could possibly translate to the silver screen, the formula is certainly in a far more advanced stage than it's ever seemed before. Is The Rock the face of the first big-screen Doomguy? We'll let you know as soon as we do.