Former Stargate: Atlantis cast member Jason Momoa has become a hot commodity in the wake of his role as Khal Drogo on HBO's Game of Thrones. He looks to further strengthen his image as an onscreen badass by headlining this summer's Conan the Barbarian reboot and portraying a cop killer in action movie director Walter Hill's new film, formerly known as Headshot.

Momoa will appear opposite Sylvester Stallone and Fast Five's Sung Kang as a mismatched pair of professionals (Stallone is a New Orleans hitman, Kang is a New York police officer), who join forces in order to track down the crooks responsible for murdering their respective partners.

Latino Review says that Momoa is up to play the villainous Keegan in Hill's movie, which is an adaptation of the comic book "Bullet to the Head" by French author Alexis Nolent (who writes under the pseudonym Matz). Oscar-nominee Alessandro Camon (The Messenger) was responsible for scripting the big-screen version of Nolent's violent crime noir series, which is expected to begin production in Louisiana before the month is out.

Thomas Jane (The Punisher) was at one point set to team up with Stallone in Hill's movie, but he was eventually dropped from the cast - reportedly due to Dark Castle production company head Joel Silver wanting the film to feature a multi-racial buddy cop duo, like in Hill's 48 Hours or Silver's Lethal Weapon series.

Although Jane previously claimed that the (currently, officially untitled) film's script is "tailor made" for Stallone, Hill, and himself, it seems that version of the movie is destined to remain a theoretical one. Take that as you will.

While feelings about Jane's incarnation of Frank "The Punisher" Castle tend to vary, most fans seem to agree that he is capable of pulling off the "macho man" act convincingly enough. Kang, on the other hand, leaves less of an impression whenever he is onscreen in the Fast and the Furious movies - not to mention, he doesn't really stack up well against the likes of 48 Hours' Eddie Murphy or Lethal Weapon's Danny Glover. So while they could surprise in the final product, the pairing of Stallone and Kang reads as a weaker teamup on paper than Stallone and Jane.

Nonetheless, with Momoa and Stallone prepped to square off against one another, Hill's new crime drama is still shaping up to be a fast-paced, shoot-em-up thriller that pays homage to buddy-cop movies of the 1980s - similar to how Stallone's The Expendables was a throwback to testosterone-fueled action fests from that decade. Fans just have to wait and see if this particular retro-piece can be as entertaining as its predecessors.

We'll let you know when Hill's crime thriller has secured an official title and release date.

Source: Latino Review