He resurrected his career playing a wrestler and now it appears there’s a chance Mickey Rourke wants to continue the sports theme playing a rugby star, at least according to Wales On Sunday. And not just any old rugby player, as he’s apparently interested in playing a gay rugby player.
According to reports, Rourke met up with Welsh sporting hero Gareth Thomas last week to discuss bringing his story to the screen, with Mickey in the lead role.
Thomas surprised the sporting world last December when the Crusaders and former Welsh international took the decision to come out publicly as being gay, becoming, as Sports Illustrated put it, the world’s only current professional athlete in a team sport who is openly homosexual. Thomas’ story could well be an interesting one for the big screen treatment, as not only could it deal with the pressures of being gay in sports – and also why team sports are so resistant to having openly gay players – but also because he was married to his childhood sweetheart from 2002 to 2007, giving a whole extra dimension to the story.
At the moment it seems film plans are at a very early stage, but a spokesman for Thomas management company said, Mickey Rourke is a big rugby fan and was flying to New York from London recently when he read an article about Gareth and thought he would be the perfect model for a film. Mickey contacted Gareth directly via a mutual friend in rugby league to express his interest and invited Gareth to watch the Jonathan Ross show and to meet him for dinner afterwards. They also add that, “The fact that Mickey is so passionate about doing a moving picture has been really flattering and, although we havent come to an agreement yet, were really hoping it does happen.”
Although the movie could be interesting, it’s difficult to imagine Rourke playing Thomas, not least because he’s 22 years older than the sports star, so perhaps they should get someone else for the main role, while Mickey can be the manager or something.