WIRE Buzz: Dave Bautista vies for Gears of War; Quibi, Alexandre Aja adapt horror manga; more

Today’s WIRE Buzz features a rising genre staple, a horror heavy-hitter’s newest project, and a handful of Will Smiths. What’s not to like?

First off is the pet project of Dave Bautista — or at least it would be if he had it his way. The Guardians of the Galaxy and Blade Runner actor has been fighting to be in the big screen adaptation of the video game series Gears of War. The actor looks uncannily like the lead character in the first three games, Marcus Fenix. But those behind the games and movie just don’t seem to care.

Take a look:

“They’re listening. And they could give AF!” tweeted Bautista, continuing to say that he’d “tried everything to make this happen.” But the movie, which has been a long time coming and recently landed writer F. Scott Frazier, doesn’t even have a director yet — so maybe they’re just not ready to commit to a cast. The prospective film would take place in a different canon than the third-person shooter games, which will soon have spent five entries documenting the battle between humanity and the invasive Locust Horde.

Gears 5 is scheduled for release on Sept. 10.

Next, Alexandre Aja, the horror director who recently scored with critics thanks to his croc-filled flick Crawl, has announced a new project. This, according to a release, will be the Quibi short Tomie, based on the freaky Junji Ito manga of the same name.

Aja will direct the story (written by David Leslie Johnson-McGoldrick), which is about a dismembered high school girl’s murder. In Ito fashion, you don’t get a comic without some body parts scattered around...but that’s not really the story here. If you know anything about Ito, you know there’s something supernatural afoot and that you should probably stay far, far away from Tomie.

No word on when the adaptation comes out, or even if it’ll be live-action.

Finally, some news about that movie with two Will Smiths. Director Ang Lee’s Gemini Man has been in production a long time. We mean a long, long time. But that makes sense, considering the film, about a young clone hunting down his older source, basically constructs an entire Will Smith out of CG.

Now the film has released a new featurette showcasing some of the behind-the-scenes tech that helped create Junior (AKA young Smith).

Check it out:

We’ll take two Will Smiths hitting each other any day, even if technology has to take leaps and bounds to get there. That digital construction, based on performance and not de-aged like in say, the Marvel films, will be closer to the creations of Andy Serkis. And we can’t wait.

Gemini Man hits theaters on Oct. 11.