AceShowbiz -

Not hesitant to reveal the new big screen stint he's up for, Viggo Mortensen has eagerly told MTV that he is close to land a starring slot in "The Road", the film adaptation of the Pulitzer prize-winning novel by Cormac McCarthy.

"...The people making [it] have expressed interest [in me]," the actor informed. "Visually, it's going to be a very beautiful movie. It's a very good story."

Penned by famed playwright Joe Penhall, "Road" follows the post-apocalyptic nightmarish road trip of a man as he attempts to transport his son to safety following a nuclear explosion, battling hordes of starving stragglers and cannibals along the way. Mortensen has pointed out that he is circling the role of the father, which presumably will require him to again become a man of action if deals are really sealed.

"It’s a post-apocalyptic scenario, a wasteland that they’re trying to get through and not be killed by the few remaining packs of marauding humans," he described the story. "They’re trying to get to the coast and find someplace safe and find people who are not crazy criminals or cannibals."