By Nisha Gopalan
What do you do when you’re the fearsome, face-painted henchman to a Sith master, and despite displaying a staggering acumen in the kick-assery arts, you get fatally bisected by a freakin’ light saber? If you’re Ray Park (aka “Star Wars: Episode I” baddie Darth Maul) you continue to get your testosterone on with a small chain of modest roles.
Among them: the tongue-tastic Toad in “X-Men,” a no-good Fed in “Ballistic: Ecks vs. Sever,” and more prominently, Snake Eyes in G.I. Joe: Rise of Cobra and possibly the kung-fu dynamo Iron Fist if/whenever Marvel gets around to making that one.
And now you can add another role to that budding roster, one that will take him into the sword-and-sandles fantasy land of legendary special-effects pioneer Ray Harryhausen. This courtesy of cult writer/director Kevin Van Hook, who previously helmed Park in the TV movie “Slayer.”
“[Park's next one] is a project I’m trying to get off the ground, which is written, that I’m doing in conjunction with Ray Harryhausen,” says Van Hook. “It’s called The Necronauts.”
If the title sounds vaguely familiar, it should: It’s a pun on 1963’s “Jason and the Argonauts,” a film marked by Harryhausen’s pioneering stop-motion throwdown between the titular hero and a gang of skeletons. Park “has agreed to play the sword-wielding sidekick” in this second, more muscular installment of the Jason saga. Here, our hero goes to Hades, recruits a crew of dead folks, and proceeds to unleash all kids of guerilla-style sacrilege on Aries, the god of war.
“So it’s a fun piece,” notes Van Hook. As for the lead? The director & Co. are in discussions with hunky manbot Casper Van Dien (”Starship Troopers”) to play either Jason or, says Van Hook, “a recurring smaller character. There’s [also] talk of making this being a TV series.”
What do you think? Would a potential TV show be a good move for Ray Park? Do you think he’d make a better lead or sidekick? And does this mean Casper Van Dien may be making a comeback? Lastly, what’s your favorite Park role?