Costner Likes Playing Doctor

September 19 -- Kevin Costner just can't seem to stay away from roles requiring an egotistic authority figure who loves weapons of some sort (e.g., baseball bats, scalpels, cannons).

The blowhard actor is in talks to star as a heartbroken doctor in Dragonfly, a $75 million drama to be helmed by Patch Adams director Tom Shadyac, Variety reports.

It would be the second sawbones part in a year for the floundering Costner, who portrays a disaster-relief physician in the upcoming Oliver Stone pic Beyond Borders.

In Dragonfly, Costner would play a doctor who thinks that his late ex-wife is trying to speak to him via the near-death experiences of his patients. How about the suggested working title What Lies Beneath the Sick Sense?

Costner, who didn't exactly wow audiences with his last baseball epic, For Love of the Game, is struggling to find a hit. Will he find it here? Dragonfly director Shadyac found success with Patch Adams, though its soft-shoe sentimentality may be less suitable for Costner than it was for Adams' flexible funnyman Robin Williams.

Shooting on Dragonfly is scheduled to begin in late October, likely right after Costner wraps Beyond Borders.