Not many would have expected notoriously dispassionate All Blacks coach Steve Hansen to take up the starring role in a movie - but in this case, that's just the way the cookie crumbles.
And if the film's trailers are anything to go by, Hansen's acting prowess as a leather-sporting, motorcycle-riding lone ranger in post-apocalyptic New Zealand is far from half-baked - it well and truly takes the biscuit.
The 58-year-old dons a few-days-old beard and looks completely at home in the role for upcoming movie Apocalypse Steve Hansen - Don't Lose Your Biscuit, which was cooked up for a marketing campaign by Kiwi snack food manufacturer Arnott's.
The premise of the film is that New Zealand has fallen into chaos following the loss of some of Arnott's most beloved snacks - such as popular supermarket items Shapes, Tim Tams and Cruskits.
Current and former All Blacks Ma'a Nonu, Julian Savea, Victor Vito and Israel Dagg, as well as their wives and partners, feature as their cartoon selves in the trailers.
Arnott's likely had to fork out big dough to get those players, Hansen and Kiwi actress and stuntwoman Zoe Bell on board - but they're hoping the big names attract plenty of viewers when the short film premieres at Hoyts cinemas later this year.
Bell, best known for her roles in Quentin Tarantino epics Kill Bill and The Hateful Eight, is directing the film - and she was hugely complimentary of Hansen's acting ability.
"Steve was fantastic to work with and took direction like a pro," she said.
"Working with someone who's a professional coach was always going to be an interesting challenge, but Steve was keen to learn and make the most of the part."
Hansen said the opportunity to be out of the pressure-cooker environment of All Black rugby and doing something different was a pleasant experience for him.
"I thought it would be fun and totally different, outside my comfort zone," he said.
"It was an opportunity to be coached by someone else and learn coaching techniques to take into my own arena. It was a total role reversal.
"I was being coached on how to speak, act, and play a role. I found it invigorating and energising because it was a totally different environment."
Apocalypse Steve Hansen - Don't Lose Your Biscuit will screen at Hoyts cinemas in November 2017.
Newshub.
