I was having a conversation earlier this week with some movie friends and had to balk when someone described Gerard Butler as "great actor." Good actor, fine by me-- he screamed convincingly in a Speedo in 300 and managed a rage-filled American accent in Law Abiding Citizen just fine. But great? Not yet, buster.

Apparently Butler heard me and his upping his game, as he announced on a Baltimore radio show, of all places, that he's getting ready to star in Shakespare's Coriolanus, alongside Ralph Fiennes, William Hurt, Vanessa Redgrave, and Jessica Chastain (Chastain will be featured in Terrence Malick's Tree of Life, which just got pushed back to a release date next year).

As reported by Cinematical, Butler calls it "a passion project" for both himself at Fiennes, even though Butler isn't saying what his role will be. Fiennes is playing the lead, of course, and will be directing; the role best suited to Butler seems to be Tullus Aufidius, Coriolanus' sworn enemy who later teams up with him to lead an attack on Rome. So long as Butler yelling "Rome!" has the same ring to it that "Sparta!" did, we'll be on board.