Dave Bautista Was Enthusiastic To Star In This Fantasy Movie That Bombed At The Box Office
by Ryan Scott · /FilmAdd SlashFilm on Google:
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Dave Bautista has truly made a name for himself as an actor. The role of Drax in "Guardians of the Galaxy" changed Bautista's entire life, fully transitioning him from superstar wrestler to A-list actor. He's since branched out to play all sorts of characters, including apocalyptic doomsayers in "Knock at the Cabin" and right wing weirdos in "Glass Onion." He's good at all of it. But the 2025 fantasy bomb "In the Lost Lands," though not a successful movie, excited the actor for a very specific reason.
Directed by Paul W.S. Anderson, "In the Lost Lands" flopped at the box office despite being fronted by Bautista and "Resident Evil" mainstay Milla Jovovich. The film, which adapts a short story by "Game of Thrones" author George R.R. Martin, centers on Gray Alys (Jovovich), a powerful and feared sorceress who's sent by a queen to search for a magical power in the ghostly wilderness of the Lost Lands. With the drifter Boyce (Bautista) serving as her guide, Alys must outwit and outfight both man and demon on her journey.
Speaking to Variety in March of 2025, Bautista explained that the movie gave him the chance to do something new in his career. Namely, he got to play a dark and sexy leading man. Here's what he had to say about it:
"It's a new type of character for me. It's a little outside of my comfort zone. He felt like that cool, dark mysterious gunslinger. I was never really that kind of leading man, then was thrust into this world where Paul was like, 'You're gonna be cool! You're gonna be dark and mysterious! You're gonna be sexy! And you're not only gonna get the girl, you gotta get every girl in the film!'"
In the Lost Lands let Dave Bautista be a sexy leading man
It's easy to see why, on paper at least, "In the Lost Lands" would be appealing to Dave Bautista. He's not one of those actors who does one thing. "Knock at the Cabin" proved he's our best wrestler turned actor precisely because he has a lot of range and is willing to get out of his comfort zone. He doesn't just rely on his size and prowess.
A guy like Bautista could run the risk of always having to play side characters rather than being a leading man. Paul W.S. Anderson gave him the chance to change that and be, well, sexy. It certainly didn't hurt that the source material was provided by George R.R. Martin. Again, on paper, this all seemed like a good idea. In reality, it resulted in what is roundly regarded as the worst adaptation of Martin's work for the screen.
Overall, the movie holds a mere 24% critical approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes and made just $6.5 million at the global box office against a reported $55 million budget. It was, to put it politely, not a success. That said, Bautista isn't the one to shoulder that blame. He was merely an actor taking a job that excited him. He showed up and did his best. Everything else was largely out of his control.
For the sake of seeing Bautista in leading man mode, though, "In the Lost Lands" may deserve a second chance after flopping, especially for hardcore fans of fantasy.
You can grab "In the Lost Lands" on Blu-ray or DVD from Amazon.