Gerard Butler has safely rebounded from weepy Hilary Swank romances (why was he in P.S. I Love You anyway?). The latest issue of Empire, the leading British film magazine, has our first look at Butler in Game.

First, let's establish what the movie is about, in case you're unfamiliar. Imagine a World of Warcraft tournament with players controlling real people. Butler plays a character named Kable, who is the high scorer in a game called Slayer, which is the number one game of its kind.

But Kable must've read the Gladiator screenplay, because he wants out of the game, wants his true identity back, and wants to topple to evil system that imprisoned him in the first place and forced him to play this deadly game.

The article says that this photo is Butler, but to me it looks more like Toshiro Mifune, the hero of so many Kurosawa films. We'll take their word for it, though.

Game will be of particular interest to fans of Crank, because it's spun from the fertile minds of that film's creative team, Mark Neveldine and Brian Taylor. As for a release date, your guess is as good as ours. IMDB has it tentatively slated for 2008, Empire reports 2009, and Box Office Mojo doesn't even have the film on their release schedule yet. We'll keep you posted.