Dwayne Johnson’s film production company Seven Bucks Production is set to release its latest film, Fighting With My Family in theaters nationwide on Feb. 14.
The film centers around WWE Superstar Paige’s road from growing up in a family of wrestlers to making it all the way to WWE’s main roster, and stars major Hollywood actors like Johnson, Nick Frost, Game of Thrones Lena Headey and Vince Vaughn.
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But while Seven Bucks has rarely had issues getting major studios to buy their other films like Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle, Rampage and Skyscraper, Johnson said in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter this week that no studio wanted anything to do with Fighting With My Family.
The reason? The stigma around professional wrestling.
“We wanted a studio to buy into it, and no one did,” Johnson said “We got passed on everywhere. It was a small British comedy about a crazy wrestling family that wasn’t famous.”
His ex-wife and Seven Bucks co-founder Dany Garcia added “Wrestling is the conduit for Paige’s journey. And that has a certain stigma.”
As a result, the film will be independently distributed by Seven Bucks Productions.
The film is based off the 2012 Documentary The Wrestlers: Fighting with My Family and is directed Stephen Merchant, co-writer and co-director of the original British version of The Office.
Paige’s in-ring career came to a sudden end in December 2017 when she reaggravated a neck injury during a house show match. She announced her retirement shortly after WrestleMania 34 and was moved to a general manager role for SmackDown Live. She quickly became a fan-favorite authority figure for the Blue Brand, but was removed from her position by the McMahon Family in December.
“…I’m just so happy,” she said in an interview with TV Insider while still in that role. “It was a rollercoaster of emotions over two days. WWE has been so fantastic. They still believed I should be doing something and gave me such a big role…Shane McMahon really helped me the first couple of weeks. Then he stepped down, so I could solidify my spot. I have been having so much fun. I love working with the girls and guys.”
When asked by Sky Sports what she wants to do next, Paige floated out the idea of being a manager for an active wrestler.
“At this point, I don’t know. Should I put it out in the universe again? I wanna be a manager for somebody,” she said. “I don’t know who but I would love to do that. If that’s not the case then, I don’t know, I just want to be part of the company. I love this company. I just like to talk a lot. I don’t know if I’m any good at it, but I’ll give it a try.”
