Sure Mickey Rourke owns a pet Chihuahua, but with his disfigured face and roided up muscles, he seems like he’d be more comfortable traversing a barbaric wasteland than hanging out in coffee bars trading doggie carrying tips with Paris Hilton. The folks at The Wrap disagree, calling the news from Orlando that Mickey Rourke might play Genghis Khan “bizarre”.

The movie’s being written and directed by John Milius, probably best known for his work on Conan the Barbarian. He knows a thing or two about overly-muscled warriors and to me Rourke seems like a natural fit to play the guy who once famously ravished Oshman’s Sporting Goods. Of the project Rourke says, “John wrote as a piece told from the son and grandson’s point of view, how they saw this mythic figure from their family. You see him in flashbacks, back when he was in his mid-40s. And back then, being in your mid-40s was being REALLY old.”

The part will require a lot of physicality from 57-year-old Mickey. He says, “There’s going to be some archery from horseback called for that I have to do, so that’ll be interesting, physically… It’ll be a fascinating experience, maybe shooting in parts of India, they tell me, and China. I’ve never worked in either of those countries, so that’ll be new.”

Weirdly, he’s found a way to mesh his love of tiny, celbutard canine companions with the role. Mickey explains, “One of the things I like about Genghis Khan was his love of dogs. The Mongols used dogs in battle, and dogs rarely made it out of the battle. But in one instance, in this script, he orders his men – ‘Hold the dogs back.’ He was looking out for the dogs. I like that.” Head over to the Orlando Sentinel to read the full interview.

Genghis Khan has been done in movies before, but to my mind, it’s never really been done right. The movies about his story always seem to get too caught up in the reality of the thing and miss out on anything which could be in any way considered, you know, fun. I’m all for history but maybe Milius will find a way to have some fun with the myths around the legendary Mongol who ruled China. Or maybe I should just Netflix Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventures again and leave Genghis to the big kids.