George Washington Action Movie THE VIRGINIAN in The Works at New Line

Even our first president isn't immune to Hollywood's love of prequels and origin stories. Deadline reports that New Line Cinema has acquired a film called The Virginian that's an action thriller about George Washington before he became President of the United States. Michael Gunn wrote the script, and Donald De Line (The Italian Job, Paun & Gain, Ready Player One) will produce.

The script’s movie potential is best described as Last Of The Mohicans meets Braveheart. A down-and-out, young George Washington — desperate to join the British Army — accepts a dangerous mission to conquer a French fort and save the American colonies.

A few years ago, Darren Aronofsky was attached to direct a rival project about Washington called The General, but we haven't heard much about that project since 2012. Deadline's report says the company that owns it is hoping for it to reteam The Wolf of Wall Street's Leonardo DiCaprio and Martin Scorsese, but since I'm sure practically everyone in Hollywood is hoping to work with those two, I'm not sure how likely it is that they'll bite on The General. In the meantime, The Virginian is waiting on a star and director, so we'll keep you posted. I feel like casting is going to be huge for this one — can we get Dwayne Johnson and Jason Statham in this, please? Either of them as Washington would be great. Maybe they could each play Washington for half the movie. I guarantee that'd get butts in seats.