Chris Hemsworth was appointed to portray Hulk Hogan in a proposed cinebiography about the WWE Hall of Famer. Hemsworth was busy adding muscle for the role, but doubts arose among fans about the future of the film.
Supposedly, WWE Hall of Famer Eric Bischoff was pegged to be one of the producers, alongside Todd Phillips, Scott Silver, and John Pollono co-authoring the screenplay. Concerns escalated, though, when Hemsworth last year disclosed uncertainties about the status of the film. These speculations were later validated by Todd Phillips who affirmed that the biopic was permanently shelved.
During a latest appearance on the ‘PBD Podcast,’ Hogan expressed confidence in the film’s potential and stated that the planned biopic with Hemsworth had the capability to bag an Oscar with its exceptional screenplay. Hogan disclosed that a contractual snafu postponed the payment from Netflix. He lauded the script asserting that Scott Silver, famed for rewriting films like ‘The Joker’ and ‘Wolf of Wall Street,’ rated it as his best creation.
Hogan, upon reading the script, admitted its high caliber and its dark nature which, he felt, could strike a chord with the audience. He underscored the significance of the role in Hemsworth’s career, as portraying a real person for the first time could have been a potential Oscar-nominating performance. Unfortunately, after a crucial business deadline was not met by Netflix, Hulk Hogan ultimately decided to retract from the project.
Hogan quoted, “They kind of missed a beat in the contract, you know, so Netflix screwed up. Yeah, there was a payment that wasn’t placed at the right time. The script was amazing! Actually, Scott Silver, who wrote the script for The Joker, Wolf of Wall Street, and a bunch of other movies, said, ‘This is the best thing I’ve ever written.’ When I read it, I thought, ‘Oh my God, this is really good.’ At the time, I was in a space where I told him the positive stuff about wrestling and the negative stuff about wrestling. I spent about three years with this writer, going back and forth. When I read it, it was very, very dark, if that would be the right word, but it was probably what the public may want to see, you know? And when I read it, I thought, ‘Oh my gosh, if this thing comes out…’ There was talk that Chris Hemsworth had never played a real person before and he would probably win an Oscar and the movie too; this thing’s so powerful, very powerful. I said, ‘Oh, that’s great. Everybody’s going to do really great, but then I’m going to be left here, cheese stands alone, and that might be the last thing people remember me for.’ So I just was moving forward at the time, and when they, business-wise, missed a date, there was an option for me to pull out, and I pulled out.”