'Hercules: The Legend Begins' Trailer: Kellan Lutz Is Crazy In Love

Here's a new tease for the Great Hercules Smackdown of 2014. Two films featuring the mythological character will hit theaters next year, and the first will be Hercules: The Legend Begins, from Renny Harlin (Die Hard 2, Cliffhanger) and starring Kellan Lutz (Twilight) in the lead role.

This isn't the story of arrogant Hercules having to clean stables to appease daddy Zeus; it's about a badass warrior who also happens to be a lovesick puppy. It seems like 300 meets Gladiator, and then Hercules is reminded that his father was a god, and the powers start to manifest. Check out a trailer below.

(This is a shorter, more official edit of the three-minute trailer we saw a while ago.)

Hercules isn't known as a talker, and I'm sure it was a conscious choice to not have Kellan Lutz speak at all until nearly the end of this trailer. But so much of what we see here (the stuff that isn't fighting) is shots of Lutz staring witlessly as other actors talk and emote. It's pretty funny for a minute, and then the idea of watching it for two hours seeps in. And when he does speak... yeah. When's that Hercules movie with The Rock come out again? (July 25.)

Hercules: The Legend Begins opens on January 10, 2014.

In 1200 B.C. Greece, a queen gives birth to a son, fathered by Zeus, who is destined to overthrow the tyrannical rule of the king and restore peace to a suffering land. But this prince, Hercules, knows nothing of his real identity or his destiny. He wants only the love of Hebe, Princess of Crete, who has been promised to his brother. When Hercules learns of his greater purpose, he must choose: to flee with his true love or to fulfill his destiny and become the true hero of his time.