Beyond all shadow of a doubt, the single fastest growing sport in North America is MMA (Mixed Martial Arts) most commonly known by the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) brand. Sports networks are now carrying dedicated segments to the sport, more networks are carrying various promotions… and probably the biggest cultural sign of the sports growth is that superstars from UFC are popping up more and more in movies.
Chuck Liddell appears in The Death and Life of Bobby Z with Paul Walker and Lawrence “What the hell happened to my career since The Matrix” Fishburne. Former Heavyweight champion Randy Couture has a lead role in the upcoming Scorpion King flick “The Scorpion King – The Rise of the Akkadian”, and now word is out that former champ Rich Franklin has scored a lead role. Our friends over at Moviesonline give us this:
Rich Franklin is going to play a super soldier in an upcoming movie called WEAPON that sounds similar in concept to Universal Soldier. Rich Franklin is a former UFC champion who knocked out many a foe before recently being dethroned by Anderson Silva. According to Variety In the pic, a U.S. border patrol agent (Tiffani Thiessen) apprehends a genetically engineered super-soldier (Rich Franklin) but runs into trouble when the soldier’s creator (Bruce Greenwood) starts hunting them down.
Anyone wanna take bets that Franklin ends up bedding Thiessen in the movie? Anyway, this isn’t really a surprise. Franklin is a good looking dude on top of being famous and in great shape. It was only a matter of time before someone threw him in front of a camera. but still… I have no problems with giving a famous MMA fighter a cameo in a movie where he beats people up… but I HATE HATE HATE it when non-actors get leading type roles in films. That’s something I think the Screen Actors Guild should strike over.
