Mike Informer sent this to us from Variety:

WWE stars make film crossover

Hollywood's new leads may be found in the ring

The wiry or geeky stars of "The Matrix," "Spider-Man," "Transformers" or upcoming "Wanted" just won't be able to pull off playing a muscled-up Norse god who wields a massive hammer. No, not even Shia LaBeouf.

And that has the biz quickly realizing it's short on uber-buff action stars, with Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sylvester Stallone out of contention, and even Dwayne Johnson dropping "The Rock" alter ego as he slims down and turns his attention to comedies.

So when World Wrestling Entertainment announced last week a first-look distribution deal with 20th Century Fox for a slate of pics, the timing couldn't have been better.

Its 150-person roster is made up of charismatic, overly muscled athletes who don outrageous costumes and are embroiled in storylines that could out-soap any sudser on daytime TV. And they're only eager to make the leap to movies.

Some, like John Cena, "Stone Cold" Steve Austin and Glen "Kane" Jacobs, already have made the transition in three pics -- "See No Evil," "The Marine" and "The Condemned" -- that WWE has developed, financed and produced since forming its film division in 2002.

Its fourth pic, also to star Cena, is "12 Rounds," an actioner that bows in 2009 under the Fox Atomic label. The production, with Renny Harlin at the helm, begins this month in New Orleans.

The idea is that theatrical releases will bolster WWE's lucrative DVD operation and increase interest in the company's half-billion-dollar-a-year business of live events like Wrestlemania, pay-per-view and TV broadcasts, its websites, videogames, music and other merchandise, including a growing book biz.

Bringing the tough guy back to the bigscreen hasn't been an easy task, however.

"The Marine," WWE Films' biggest success to date, only earned $23 million at the box office. The other two releases collected a combined $26 million worldwide.

WWE says the problem was that it focused on making movies that went after a hard R rating -- violent horror or action pics that would appeal to the males that make up much of the company's fanbase.

But then Stamford, Conn., execs started paying attention to the types of people who fill arenas to watch its events or tune in to its shows like USA's "Monday Night Raw" and "Smackdown" (which recently moved from the CW to MyNetworkTV) -- kids, women and families.

Its target may be 18- to 24- year-old males, but the core aud is actually a broader 12-24 age range, with the rest made up of families. Women make up 30% of its viewership.

Because of that, WWE will now focus on a slate of PG-13 pics that could include broad comedies.

"There's no reason why, going forward, we couldn't do a 'Game Plan' type of film," says Michael Lake, prexy of WWE Films and former head of production at Village Roadshow, who took the post in October, and reworked the company's development slate and tossed out projects.

"We had to refocus where we wanted to go," he says. "There's a strong audience base that is ready for movies that star our guys. A lot of our audience is in the PG-13 area."

Upon taking the job, Lake says he immediately began screen-testing wrestlers and realized "there's a real depth of talent we can use. We want to fashion movies to fit their personalities."

WWE plans to release one pic per year in theaters at a pricetag of $20 million or less and up to four direct-to-DVD titles. All will star WWE athletes, and each pic would be heavily promoted across the company's media properties.

"These guys are action stars already," Lake says. "People still want solid action heroes."

The company has proved successful at creating a crossover star with Johnson launching his film career as a WWE wrestler.

To replicate that kind of success, the company has been pushing its wrestlers outside the ring in unusual ways.

Its female fighters, known as the Divas, recently appeared on Bravo's "Project Runway." WWE stars also turned up on reality shows including "The Apprentice," "Deal or No Deal," "Dancing With the Stars" and "Fast Cars and Superstars."

"We're looking for things that are family-friendly, fun and positions our superstars in the appropriate light. We don't take ourselves too seriously," says Geof Rochester, WWE's exec VP of marketing.

It can't. Not when its wrestlers go by names like Undertaker and spit out bites of apples like Carlito, or when its chairman Vince McMahon body-slams an Irish midget named Hornswoggle, otherwise known as Little Bastard.

"For us, it's all about our superstars," Rochester says. "That's what attracts fans to the product."

What could also attract fans is scripted TV, another area, in addition to films, that WWE will pursue, as a way to "establish these guys not to our audience so much but to outside audiences," Lake says.

"First and foremost, they're performers and some of them secondarily are athletes," McMahon says. "They're really both, but the emphasis is on entertainment. They've been indoctrinated in how to be performers, especially in front of a live audience, which is a tremdendous advantage. The only thing they have to do is bring down their emotions a bit."

WWE needs to try something new to keep existing fans interested and attract new ones.

Company's facing some fierce competition from mixed martial arts and leagues like the Ultimate Fighting Championship and Intl. Fight League that are amassing millions of new fans each year and stealing viewers away from WWE.

"We're not worried about UFC," Rochester says. "We're an entertainment product. There's room for everybody. Our brand has been around for over 50 years and we'll be around for another 50."

Yet WWE is in expansion mode, especially overseas in markets like Latin America (it's been courting Hispanic viewers with wrestlers like Rey Mysterio and Batista). It's also going after China heavily with "the same brand, same characters, same product," Rochester says. "It translates well and travels well."

Additionally, it will launch animated, web-based programming aimed at 6- to 8-year-olds in order to compete with Disney, Nickelodeon and Cartoon Network.

The reactions to its films so far has been a learning lesson, McMahon says.

"We're going to have a much greater Hollywood business," he says. "We're looking forward to learning from everyone out there. That will allow us to have better writers, better scripts."