Will Sly be Ravana to Keanu's Lord Ram?

A wide net is being cast for stars to play characters in Uru Patel's Hanuman. It doesn't get bigger than this. For LA-based producer Uru Patel's $60 million film Hanuman, the role of Lord Rama is being played by Keanu Reeves. What's more, Salma Hayek may be Sita, and either Sylvester Stallone or Kevin Costner are being considered for demon king Ravana!

The film was to be made by Uru's brother Raju (Rajendra Kumar's son-in-law) four years ago. However, Raju's untimely death put Hanuman on the backburner. Now Uru has revived it and plans to release the film to be directed by Luiz Mendoki globally. Special effects are being provided by Mark Rappaport of The Chronicles of Narnia, 300, War of the World, Shooters, Pirates of the Caribbean and the The Last Samurai fame. And Zack Snyder, director of 300, will give Hanuman his creative guidance.

"In many ways the vision of 300 will take bigger and grander shape in this film," says Mark. For this master of special effects Hanuman isn't merely a mythological monkey king endowed with superhero qualities. "He is God and to create somebody like him will be a huge task. But Hanuman was mischievous; it'll be exciting to bring him to life." A two-minute Rs 125 crore promo of the film will be shot in LA over the next few weeks which will be taken to big studios for a distribution deal.

Says Uru, "We want the world to know about Hanuman .This will be the first Indian production in Hollywood with an Indian soul, but shot on Hollywood terms. Keanu will look good as Lord Rama. He has done a film on Buddha, so he is attuned to Asian culture and traditions." Uru wanted a Bollywood star for Laxman's role, but no star wanted to play second fiddle to Keanu. So Uru signed on model-turned-actor Aseem Merchant. Interestingly, Jackie Chan was to play the role of Hanuman. "He backed out. Now we hear he is making his own film titled Monkey King." Who's playing Hanuman is a well-guarded secret still.