Until recently, it seemed that science fiction was the only genre in which legendary actor John Wayne had not tried his gun-hand. However, a couple news organizations have recently reported that his unseen final sci-fi western movie - "Thunder Riders of the Golden West" - will hit the DVD shelves soon.

"Thunder Riders," about truck drivers on a treasure hunt in an atomic bomb test site, features footage of Wayne shot before his final performance in 1976's "The Shootist."

I'm not against raising artists from the dead. Laurence Olivier's posthumous performance in "Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow" helped transport me to the time period in which that movie took place. The remixing of The Notorious B.I.G.'s music led to an exhilarating collaboration with Eminem in the song "Dead Wrong" several years after the rapper's death.

"Thunder Riders" could fulfill my desire to see one of cinema's most charismatic personalities dispensing frontier justice a la sci-fi. Maybe we'll get to see The Duke repel cattle rustlers with a phaser blaster or hold off wild Comanches attacking a flying saucer-wagon train.

Probably not, though.

But "Thunder Riders" should prove to be an interesting look into a part of Wayne's repertoire that so far only a handful of people have seen.