After breaking out with Thor this summer, Chris Hemsworth has the previously shelved Red Dawn and Cabin in the Woods supposedly hitting theaters this year, but in the meantime he is racking up tentpole after tentpole. He’ll be seen in The Avengers and Snow White and the Huntsman next summer, with Thor 2 to follow in 2013, but he has now slotted another film in his schedule, Deadline reports.

As it was reported late last month, Ron Howard has attached himself to Rush, the Peter Morgan-scripted Formula One racer story of Niki Laude, who was in a bad rivalry with fellow racer James Hunt. In August of 1976, he was in a car accident that almost led to his death, and the screenplay tells of that season and the rivalry that the two of them had.

Hemsworth has begun talks to play Hunt, for the film that would shoot early next year, before The Dark Tower. Universal is likely to acquire the Imagine and Working Title picture. The story sounds interesting, especially coming from Morgan, but Howard has recently failed time and time again to inject any sort of pulse into his films. I hope he can translate the natural charisma Hemsworth holds.

Are you familiar with this story? His Hemsworth a good fit for Hunt?

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