Dave Bautista has closed his deal to play Kratos in Prime Video’s God of War fantasy drama series.

Series co-studios Amazon MGM Studios and Sony Pictures Television reached out to Bautista and initiated talks shortly after they made a decision to recast the role following original lead Ryan Hurst’s serious on-set injury.

As Deadline reported, Hurst, who had been originally set as Kratos in the adaptation of the popular PlayStation video game, tore a bicep while performing a stunt in late June, four months into the shoot.

Bautista’s casting signals a possible different approach to the character of Kratos, which has been the subject of intense online discourse following the first-look image released in February.

Prep begins this month for a mid-October production start in Vancouver where the show is based. The shoot is starting from scratch. Emmy-winning director Frederick E.O. Toye (Shōgun, The Boys, Fallout), who directed the first two episodes with Hurts, will do the same for the reshoot.

That leaves little time for Bautista to get ready to play the physically demanding role but his extensive background as a professional wrestler is expectted to kick in, along with the work he had done recently for his role in the new Highlander movie, which required him to bulk up.

The ancient mythology-themed God of War, from writer, executive producer and showrunner Ronald D. Moore, began filming in February in Vancouver on a two-season order with the seasons slated to film back-to-back, which remains the plan.

God of War follows father and son Kratos (Bautista) and Atreus (Callum Vinson) as they embark on a journey to spread the ashes of their wife and mother, Faye. Through their adventures, Kratos tries to teach his son to be a better god, while Atreus tries to teach his father how to be a better human.

The titular character of the entire franchise, Kratos is Spartan by birth, and a god by nature. Raised in a martial culture, he rose to command armies in service of his homeland until one day he made a fateful deal with Ares, the Greek God of War and lost his soul in exchange for being victorious in battle. Over the course of ten wildly successful games, Kratos vanquished mortals, creatures and gods alike. In the process, he became an iconic character in pop culture, known for his stoic nature, unchallenged combat skills, and tragic past. In God of War, the live action series, his story will closely follow the path of the last two games as he deals with something new: his ten year old son Atreus. This father and son dynamic began a whole new chapter in the legendary series and will be the heartbeat of the new show.

The cast also includes Mandy Mandy Patinkin as Odin, Ed Skrein as Baldur, Max Parker as Heimdall, Ólafur Darri Ólafsson as Thor, Teresa Palmer as Sif, Alastair Duncan as Mimir, Jeff Gulka as Sindri, Danny Woodburn as Brok, Sonya Walger as Freya, Island Austin as Thrud, Ben Chapple as Magni, Louis Cunningham as Modi, and Evelyn Miller as Gna.

God of War is co-produced by Sony Pictures Television and Amazon MGM Studios in association with PlayStation Productions and Moore’s Tall Ship Productions. In addition to Moore, executive producers include Maril Davis, Cory Barlog, Naren Shankar, Matthew Graham, Asad Qizilbash, Jeff Ketcham, Hermen Hulst, Roy Lee and Brad Van Arragon. Joe Menosky, Marc Bernardin, Tania Lotia and Ben McGinnis co-executive produce.

This marks only the second series-regular role for Bautista following Season 2 of the Apple TV drama See. It reteams him with Amazon MGM Studios after starring alongside Jason Momoa in the film The Wrecking Crew this year and opposite Jake Gyllenhaal in the upcoming Road House 2.

Bautista has several other movies coming up, Alpha Gang, which premieres at the Toronto Film Festival; the animated Ally; and Highlander. He is repped by WME and Jackoway Austen Tyerman.

EXCLUSIVE: With a very hard out of less than two weeks, state legislators in Sacramento are either going to be Scrooge or Santa with California’s film and TV tax incentives for the near moribund L.A. industry.  

It’s a mix result right now with a lot of good intentions, a lot of cooks in the kitchen, and the legislative session ending on August 31. In the last few hours alone, with studios and indies panicked about effectively losing lucrative annual $750 million industry incentives by 2030, a bandaging of the already signed into law mega-measure that caps out business and corporate tax credits over $5 million remains went from launch to back to being stuck on the legislative tarmac.

A deal was in place Thursday morning that would have carved out exception for independent productions and some studio/streamer productions.

However, as the final language was being put in place by Assemblymember Rick Chavez Zbur’s office, legislative leadership told the Hollywood Democrat today they were taking a “different approach,” I’m told.

There are no definitive details on what that new approach is, or whether it could end us as a fast-tracked Trailer Bill, a policy carve out, or something else. However, sources tell me, there was indications from Governor Gavin Newsom’s “team” that Asm. Zbur’s proposal wasn’t what they had in mind.

Officially, probable 2028 POTUS candidate Newsom’s office did not have anything to say about any deal or the end of any deal. Insiders privately are referring to the effort to fix the harms of SB 122 as a “work in progress.”

As elections for City Hall and a new governor heat up, that process may not land so well in SoCal.

An already wildfire ravaged City of Angels has also seen production flight from the home of Hollywood, and around 50,000 film and TV jobs lost in the past four years. Even without projected cutback from a merged Paramount and Warner Bros Discovery, that blast radius has wiped out vendors and delivered a blow to the tax base.

Amidst all that, Asm. Zbur, whose District 51 spans all the way from Glendale to Santa Monica, says he is keeping up the fight against SB 122 with that August 31 drop dead date front and center.

“We’re working very hard with the Governor, legislative leadership, and our partners in the Senate, and I’m optimistic that we are very close to reaching a solution that helps address the impact of SB 122 on California’s Film and Television Jobs Program,” the two-term member told Deadline today.

While staying mum about what went down earlier today and acknowledging the harsh calendar, the lawyer in a past life Zbur offered optimism that the legislative tax credits SNAFU could be fixed in the next week.

“Our priority throughout these negotiations has been protecting the thousands of workers and small businesses that depend on this iconic industry and preserving the progress we’ve made to bring production and good-paying jobs back to California,” he said. “There are still details being worked through, but I’m encouraged by where the conversations are and hopeful we can reach an agreement very soon.”

Besides the limits of the June enacted SB 122, which has seen pushback from the likes of Tinseltown unions and CAA boss Bryan Lourd, there’s also the long-desired effort to enact a wide-ranging post-production tax credits program.

Hoping to both stiffen up jobs here and entice post-production to re-locate to the Golden State, the 35% incentive offering AB 2319 is racing towards a vote in the state Senate by next week once the bill is in final shape.

All of which means what ends up on outgoing Gov. Newsom’s desk to be signed or vetoed by September 30 could prove an inflection or infection point for the entertainment sector.

“The next seven days are critical,” declares Asm. Nick Schultz, who with Sen. Ben Allen is one of the primary pols behind the post-production tax credits legislation.

“We’re literally in the period of speak-now-and-forever-hold-your-peace,” the studio heavy District 44 Democrat adds. “There’s no more time to wait. Now is the time for Hollywood to activate and be as loud as they possibly can to get this thing passed.”

If everything goes to schedule, under the rules of the California legislature, once final amendments are added to the bill, it has to sit “in print” for 72 hours Then the legislation can head to a Senate floor vote – where I hear It certainly has the votes.

Earlier this year, state representatives talked out the post-production credit reaching up to $100 million in allocated incentives across VFX, scoring, mixing and more. That sky-high number is now more realistically envisioned at around $35 million for the first year.

Yet, as close as the post-production credit might be to being added to the California Film Commission administered incentives program, the reality is there is still no actual funding in place for it.

The borderline baroque $352 billion state budget is so tightly wound with its zero-deficit demands that money for such a new credit is nowhere to be seen, no matter how hard Hollywood has advocated for it and, truth be told, desperately needs it to turn the job losses around.

“We are gratified that the Senate Appropriations Committee overwhelmingly voted in favor of a standalone post-production tax credit, and we are pushing hard for its broad bipartisan support in the Senate floor vote,” Editors Guild Local 709 president F. Hudson Miller states. “We need to make sure that AB 2319 is passed, and also that it is fully funded.”

Like a true seasoned politician, the union leader went on to say: “Additionally, we are calling on lawmakers to defend the Film and TV Tax Credit Program 4.0, which would be devastated by the recently imposed caps on tax credits. All three moves are vital and essential to keeping film and TV jobs, and their positive economic effect, from leaving California.”

“Certainly, we would rather be in the spot where we have some funding and we’re going back to secure the rest of it,” Asm Schultz admits of the finances of the post-production flex. “But versus like having absolutely nothing and having to go back fresh next year asking for some initial funding, we’re going to be going through this process of advocating and hopefully negotiating with the governor’s office between January and June of next year.” 

Present deadlines in hand, a lot of this will end up with the next governor.

To that, Deadline reached out to both the campaigns of Steve Hilton and Xavier Becerra for comment.  On both the efforts to undo the tax credits cap and the ambitions for a post-comprehensive production credit. Neither the Republican and ex-Fox News host nor the Democrat and ex-Biden cabinet secretary replied.

We will update if and when we do hear from them.

Amazon is in choppy waters after accidentally leaking Jason Statham‘s latest big-budget action pic Mutiny on its Prime Video service days before the movie is released in theaters.

Deadline understands that the movie was up for a matter of hours earlier this week after a mistake led to it being posted on Prime’s product detail page that typically shows trailers.

Some subscribers couldn’t believe what they were watching. For free. One posted to X: “I’m watching Jason Statham’s new movie Mutiny, streaming on Amazon for free right now. This has to be a huge mistake, right? My theater has showtimes starting this week!”

“Someone is getting fired over at Amazon. They uploaded Jason Statham’s new movie Mutiny on Prime a day before it hits theaters,” another user said.

Lionsgate is releasing the action thriller this weekend in U.S. theaters and is one of a number of buyers understood to be very unimpressed. According to multiple sources close to the project, the film is already being pirated in different territories. That’s a problem for Lionsgate and potentially an even bigger problem for international buyers, some of whom who aren’t releasing until later. We hear the film opened well in France and Middle East yesterday before the leak snafu came to light.

Those companies, like Lionsgate, have put millions into acquiring the film and marketing it. It’s a $50 million-plus net movie. Lionsgate is understood to have paid eight-figures for it. We hear that some cinema chains are also up in arms.

Now the question we’re hearing from those close to the movie is what Amazon, a Premium VOD partner on the pic, can or will do to make good.

“This is an unprecedented situation,” one fuming international buyer told us. “It’s a major f*ck-up. I’ve never been in this situation before. What’s clear is that this is a multimillion-dollar problem for Amazon and buyers will expect a check to be written to help resolve this.”

One person who worked on the project said: “What the hell? There are serious repercussions for distributors here.” Another overseas buyer simply told us: “Oh my god.”

We understand Lionsgate’s anti-piracy team is trying to mitigate the damage. Meanwhile, international buyers are trying to coordinate a formal message to Amazon.

Jean-François Richet directs Mutiny, in which Statham is framed for murdering his billionaire industrialist boss, leaving him on the run as he works to uncover an international conspiracy. Statham produces with Marc Butan.

This isn’t the first time a streamer has got into hot water for being lax over the safety of a movie. Netflix is currently being sued for $105 million after a hard drive of an unreleased Nicolas Cage movie, the World War II thriller Fortitude, was stolen from its office. The lawsuit faults Netflix for losing the copy, but the studio has denied responsibility for the loss, saying it was delivered “without proper industry-standard safeguards.” 

Amazon, Lionsgate, reps for Statham and the film’s producers declined comment on the Mutiny leak.