Paramount Pictures has acquired rights to the romantic comedy spec script “The Romantic” with Dave Bautista (“Guardians of the Galaxy,” “Blade Runner 2049”) attached to star in the film.
The story follows bestselling romance author Francine London, who has a secret: she’s actually a six-foot-four mountain of a man named Ed Schwenke.
When Francine’s true identity comes under scrutiny, Ed hires a wildcard of a woman to pose as Francine at a romance fiction convention.
At the same time he must evade a cynical female journalist, who hates romance even more than she hates liars.
No director is attached at present to the project, which has Deborah Kaplan and Harry Elfont producing for Maximum Effort and Bautista’s Dogbone Entertainment label.
Bautista has long spoken about his desire to star in a rom-com, the kind of movie he’s never offered he said and hoped to find one some day. Bautista is also currently weighing an offer for a role in “Road House 2” at Amazon MGM.
Source: Deadline
