Mickey Rourke, who scored an Oscar nomination for his comeback in The Wrestler and has taken his blows in the ring as a professional boxer in real life, is now considering a role in rugby.

Rourke is reportedly looking to turn the life of openly gay rugby star Gareth Thomas into a feature film. Sports Illustrated recently noted that Thomas is the only openly gay male athlete on a team sport in the entire world. Unlike most gay athletes in team sports who have come out, Thomas is also a major talent, appearing in the record books in all sorts of categories.

But is Rourke the guy to do his story justice? Though Rourke is devoted to his little dogs -- usually chihuahuas -- he's not known as a particularly sensitive guy. When he called a journalist a "faggot," Rourke just ignored calls to apologize over the slur. Mind you, Rourke presumably wouldn't be playing Thomas, since he's 57 years old and Thomas only turns 36 on July 25. (Happy birthday, Alfie! Alfie is his nickname because some teammates insist he looks like the TV character Alf. Maybe Rourke isn't such a bad choice after all.)

Whatever Rourke's role in the project, if it happens, the life of Gareth Thomas will certainly be movie-ready. He was married for four years to his childhood sweetheart, who suffered several miscarriages while trying to have children. Thomas almost died after he had a ruptured artery in his neck in 2006. And of course his career is filled with tough, brutal, highlights and injuries both on and off the field, with Thomas once found guilty of assault in a nightclub along with his teammates. You might call Thomas a poofter, but you'd never call him soft.