Emily Blunt in Talks to Reunite With Dwayne Johnson in UFC Biopic

Emily Blunt is in talks to join Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson in the upcoming movie The Smashing Machine. 

The film is a biopic about former UFC Champion Mark Kerr (who will be played by The Rock), a fighter who was as infamous for his life outside the ring as he was for his skills as a wrestler and fighter. Blunt is in negotiations to play Dawn Staples, Mark Kerr’s new wife after winning the MMA Championship. As per Deadline‘s report, Blunt’s role in the story will see Dawn struggling to “find her place within Mark’s chaotic and contradictory world.” 

The Smashing Machine is being written and directed by Benny Safdie, one-half of the Safdie brothers, directors of Uncut Gems and Good Time. Benny has broken as an actor as well as a director, taking on high-profile roles in films like Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer and Paul Thomas Anderson’s Licorice Pizza, as well as TV shows like Star Wars: Obi-Wan Kenobi, and The Curse, which he co-directed with comedian Nathan Fielder. Gritty dramas about morally gray (at best) characters are Safdie’s signature, and The Smashing Machine is shaping up to be that breakthrough project for him – and possibly for Johnson, as well. 

The Rock’s career has entered a complicated new era. His box office draw as a movie star has seemingly waned in the last few years: Disney’s Jungle Cruise (2021), Netflix Red Notice (2021), DC’s animated film League of Super-Pets (2022), and DC’s live-action superhero flick Black Adam (2022) were all modest hits (at best), or underperformers (at worst). That stall has pushed Johnson back into more familiar territory: he made a surprise re-appearance in Fast X (2023) after swearing he was done with the franchise (and Vin Diesel); now Johnson has signed on to get his own Fast & Furious spinoff film. “The Rock” kicked off 2024 by making a surprise return to WWE Wrestling, where he’s now involved in one of the main attraction storylines heading into Wrestlemania. It all smells like The Rock is banking on the safest and sturdiest career institutions to carry him right now – but that’s not a safety net that can hold forever. 

It seems like a lost chapter of history right now, but Dwayne Johnson actually made the jump from wrestling to acting by not just banking on his image as the Rock. He took on risky and/or challenging roles and kept peppering them into his slate of films, in between the bigger blockbusters. Hopefully, The Smashing Machine takes him back to that kind of work ethic, because it’s produced some of The Rock’s best work (see: Pain & Gain). 

The Smashing Machine is in development.