Dwayne Johnson Starring in ‘King’ Movie, Robert Zemeckis to Direct

Dwayne Johnson now has another film on his long list of projects, with King being added to the slate with Warner Bros.

In King, Johnson will play Hawaiian King Kamehameha on a script from Braveheart scribe Randall Wallace. The two films will operate similarly in terms of their narrative with the exception of King being based on a spec written by Wallace. Seven Bucks Productions’ Dany Garcia, Hiram Garcia, and Johnson will be producing. Flynn PictureCo’s Beau Flynn, Robert Zemeckis, and Wallace will also produce.

Zemeckis, best known for his Back to the Future films, will direct The King.

“Kamehameha is the legendary king who was the first to unite the warring Hawaiian islands, which fulfilled the prophecy that surrounded his fabled life since birth,” Deadline reports. “He took control of Hawaii’s destiny, and gave the islanders leverage in advancing the culture in trading with the foreign ships from Europe that began showing up on the shores of islands that must have seemed like paradise, albeit a sometimes dangerous one as explorers like Simon Metcalfe and Captain James Cook discovered before Kamehameha forcibly unified the islands.”

Warner Bros. won a bidding war which was fueled by comfortability between Toby Emmerich, Richard Brener, Caroline Blackwood and Blair Rich with New Line. It is expected to begin production in 2020. Meanwhile, Johnson and his Seven Bucks team are at work with Disney on their Jungle Cruise film slated for release in 2019.

“To say this is important to Johnson is an understatement,” Deadline’s report goes on. “I can recall it coming up in our very first meeting, late in the evening as he was being made up to play the Scorpion King, in a small role in The Mummy Returns, which became a spinoff and one of his first action starring turns. Johnson was just making the transition from his The Rock wrestling ring persona to acting, and he was very ambitious as he tried to become the first ring star to make that move and be taken seriously. Even then, I recall him saying that his dream was to one day play Kamehameha. Years later, when we did the Playboy Interview in Prague, Kamehameha was still on his mind. This was right after Johnson got that intricate tribal tattoo on his shoulder and chest that told a story about his roots. I recall him saying that he considered going all the way to honor his family by replicating the way his grandfather, Peter Maivia.”

Johnson’s decision to step into the “dream role” was made when he was at work on Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle, which was put together in Hawaii.

Johnson’s upcoming films include Jungle Cruise, a Jumanji sequel, Doc Savage, Red Notice, a San Andreas sequel, and the Fast & Furious spinoff Hobbs & Shaw.