On October 30, my good friend (and soon to be my producer) Alexander Nevsky defeated 300 competitors to be crowned Mr. Universe.

And here’s a photo he sent me with his trophy in hand! The lovely lady standing beside him is Oksana Sidorenko, who just won the World Fitness Championship herself.

My writing partner Kevin Rice and I are writing Alexander’s upcoming Hercules movie, and I’m so excited I can’t stand it. (As you can see from his outfit, his winning program was based around the heroic exploits of Hercules.)

Some of the greatest bodybuilders in history have played Hercules on the big screen, including Lou Ferrigno and former Mr. Universe winners Steve Reeves and Arnold Schwarzenegger. Our movie will be filled with muscles, magic, swords, monsters, and mythology … and I can’t wait to tell you everything about it.

Hopefully soon. In the time since Alexander asked Kevin and me to write the movie, he has produced and starred in the movie Magic Man (which I got to visit the set of back in 2008), promoted the international theatrical and DVD releases of his movie Treasure Raiders, written and promoted a best-selling book on women’s fitness in Russia, filmed a role in the movie Somewhere by Sofia Coppola (The Virgin Suicides, Lost in Translation), trained for/competed in/placed in the top five in the Russian version of Dancing with the Stars (in which Ms. Sidorenko was his dancing partner), promoted the theatrical release of Magic Man in Russia, and finally trained for — and won! — the Mr. Universe competition a couple of weeks ago.

After some promotion of the U.S. DVD release of Magic Man in early January, we should be ready to get some more movement on Hercules. More news on that and all of Alexander’s other international exploits as it happens! I think 2011 is going to be a wild, busy year. And I like that. A lot.

The Internet Movie Database entry for Hercules: The Beginning has been updated!

Click here to see the names of the writers, who just happen to be me and my friend, Kevin Rice, who are writing the screenplay with its producer and star, Alexander Nevsky. Things are moving, and I’ll tell you about them in more detail when I can.

And it’s more than a little exciting. :)

Alexander recently filmed a role in Somewhere, the new film by Sofia Coppola (The Virgin Suicides, Lost in Translation) starring Stephen Dorff, Elle Fanning, Michelle Monaghan, and Benicio Del Toro.

When I was little, I loved spending the night with my grandparents, Nanny and Pop Vance, in Ramsey, Indiana. While Nanny would cook the best fried chicken ever made, I’d line up all of my Star Wars figures on the kitchen table and tell Pop the story of each and every one of them. And he’d just listen and smile.

Inevitably we’d end up at the Pic-Pac grocery store in New Salisbury to grab one thing or another, and Pop would always buy me the latest issue of Famous Monsters magazine.

Even though the color photo of John Carpenter’s The Thing plastering its bloody self across an Antarctic research station’s ceiling scarred my childhood, I still loved reading the articles and looking at pictures covering everything from classic Universal monsters to Arnold Schwarzenegger’s first Conan movie.

That’s why I’m so excited that some VERY BIG NEWS has been broken on the website of a magazine that was so important to me while I was growing up.

Russian actor, author, writer, producer, and bodybuilder Alexander Nevsky is making a Hercules movie.

And he just told Famous Monsters who’s writing it:

Famous Monsters: Nevsky Still Intending to Explore Hercules

WHAMMY!

I can’t even begin to express how happy and proud I am to be a part of this. My uncle Richard once recorded Conan the Destroyer off of HBO for me, and I watched that tape every day before running around the woods behind my parents’ house with a plastic sword, slaying monsters and saving maidens.

That’s what I want this movie to be.

And I promise it’s going to be awesome.

Thanks to my writing partner, brother, and friend Kevin Rice for convincing me we could write movies.

And HUGE thanks to Alexander Nevsky for believing in Kevin and me by asking us to help him tell this story.

With Alexander and his lovely wife, Katya, on the set of Magic Man last summer in Las Vegas

With Alexander and film legend Robert Davi

Kevin and I have worked really hard on this, and we’re infinitely proud of the plot that does some new and thrilling things with Hercules while honoring the classic mythology. Alexander has given us input, help, and direction every step of the way, and we truly believe this will be something mighty, magical, and massively awesome for action fans old and new.

More news on this as it happens!

For more information about Alexander, his new movie Treasure Raiders arrives on DVD on June 2!

His previous movie, Moscow Heat, is already available. I’ll post reviews of both of them here soon. In the meantime, you can become a fan of Alexander on his Facebook page.