Dwayne Johnson’s Young Rock To Film In Australia

Dwayne Johnson’s Young Rock series, a TV show which will tell the stories of the global icon’s younger years, will be taking its production down under. Young Rock is going to be filming in Australia. Production is supposed to start and end within the next 18 months. The production will take place in South East Queensland and Far North Queensland, a location which has been growing in popularity as titles like Thor: Ragnarok, Aquaman, and Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings are some of the biggest recent titles to work in the area.

“The plan leverages resources from across the three NBCUniversal television studios that are housed under the Universal Studio Group umbrella, including the production infrastructure which will be overseen by leading Australian production company Matchbox Pictures,” NBCUniversal said in a statement (via THR).

“This initiative encapsulates all of the goals we had in mind when we aligned the three studios – Universal Television, UCP and NBCUniversal International Studios – under the Universal Studio Group umbrella,” said Pearlena Igbokwe, chairman, Universal Studio Group. “Not only are we leveraging shared resources and utilizing talent across our three businesses, we are also partnering with the Australian government and Screen Queensland to make a significant investment in our global community and significantly upgrade the studio infrastructure in Brisbane.”

The projects will get to tap into production incentives which are plentiful in Australia. The studio group said it “secured a significant tax credit by combining production resources on the three titles.”

Said Australia’s Minister for Communications, Cyber Safety and the Arts Paul Fletcher: “This demonstrates international confidence in Australia’s world-class production sector and reinforces our country’s great appeal as a COVID-safe location that boasts high caliber facilities and expertise. This pipeline of exciting projects from the Universal Studio Group team has been made possible through our government’s Location Incentive program and showcases the best that Australia’s screen sector has to offer.”

Young Rock “will feature Dwayne as he grows up through life,” NBC Entertainment Chairman Paul Telegdy said. “It’s Dwayne’s life brought to life by a brilliant and soulful writer like Nahnatchka.” An actor to play the younger version of Johnson has not yet been cast.

Executive producers on Young Johnson are Jeff Chiang, Fierce Baby’s Kahn and Jennifer Carreras and Seven Bucks’ Johnson, Danny Garcia, Hiram Garcia, and Brian Gewirtz. Johnson is heavily involved and will appear in several episodes.

(Photo: JEAN-BAPTISTE LACROIX/AFP via Getty Images)