Dwayne Johnson’s played a lot of roles – his most famous, of course, being The Rock for the WWE. Then he shed that moniker to star in The Rundown, where his status as an up-and-coming action star was all but cemented. Then, somewhere along the line, he tripped and fell into revolting kid’s shit. Doing a few guest spots on some Disney Channel shows (seeing him in an episode of Hannah Montana kinda killed me a little inside), and leading a few kids’ movies (none of the three of which I’ve seen), but then he came back with the forgotten-but-not-hated Faster and this weekend sees him getting some good looks in Fast Five. So of course it makes perfect sense that his next role will be as Country and Western Legend Charley Pride in Craig Brewer’s upcoming biopic.
Wait. What?
/Film is reporting on an interview that Charley Pride gave to the Telegraph Journal, in which Pride says that The Rock will indeed be playing the role, as opposed to Terrence Howard, who had been previously attached:
“…But then the ball got fumbled. New management took over the studio that was ready to begin site work on it, and a decision was made to put all their resources behind thrillers – fast actioners. They felt that was where the big box office money was then… Now it’s back on track again but with action and comedy star Dwayne Johnson portraying me in the title role.”
Pride goes onto talk about how he wasn’t sure what to think of the idea but after spending the day with Johnson has since come around to it. Personally, I like it. I’ve been a fan of Johnson’s since he was just Rocky Maivia and it was still called the WWF, so I’m excited to see him in anything that isn’t LCD-kids’ stuff. And even though he’s no classically trained vocalist, the man CAN sing, as has been evidenced in the rings and backstages of almost every WWF/E event he was a part of. Plus it’s always fun when an actor tries to challenge themselves and a purely dramatic role with no reliance on action whatsoever is exactly the kind of challenege Johnson should be looking for. There’s still no title for the film and no details on production, but we’ll keep you posted.