If Dwayne Johnson really is going indie and becoming an artiste after working with Benny Safdie on “The Smashing Machine,” the only logical next step would be to reunite The Rock with Safdie in an even stranger role: The Chicken Man.
Coming very quickly off Johnson’s awards buzz for “The Smashing Machine” and Safdie’s Best Director win at Venice where the film made its world premiere, Safdie and Johnson are reuniting again for a package that would star Johnson and that Safdie would write and direct, an individual with knowledge of the project told IndieWire. It’s about to be shopped to buyers (looking at you A24).
The film is called “Lizard Music,” and it’s based on a 1976 young adult science fiction novel by author Daniel Pinkwater. Suffice it to say, the premise is bonkers. It’s about a boy who stays up late watching TV, he stumbles across a broadcast featuring actual lizards playing music in a band. As he tries to learn more about them, he meets The Chicken Man (Johnson), who is aware of the lizards and may be from outer space and about to lead an invasion. The official logline does little to make it more sensical:
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When a boy left to his own devices stumbles upon a secret late-night broadcast of lizards playing otherworldly music, a hidden door to the extraordinary swings open. His search for answers leads him to the eccentric and whimsical Chicken Man and his beloved companion, a seventy-year-old chicken named Claudia — two kindred spirits who have also glimpsed the impossible. United by this shared vision, they set off on an adventure that begins as a hunt for a hidden society but blossoms into something far greater: a voyage through invisible worlds, unexpected harmonies, and the unbreakable bond between lost souls who discover magic not only in what they find, but in each other.
The Rock playing an MMA fighter in a biopic seems within the realm of possibility, but whatever this is definitely appears to be taking him out of his wheelhouse. Johnson would also produce the film through his Seven Bucks Productions, and he’d be teaming with Safdie and “Smashing Machine” producer David Koplan.
Reviews for “The Smashing Machine” were strong, with IndieWire writing that the film is a “sweet duet between a remarkably unembellished Johnson and a blazingly good, blue-collar and freshly blown-out Emily Blunt.” And though its not your typical awards bait, we also told you to believe the hype The Rock was cooking. A24 successfully charted Brendan Fraser and “The Whale” to an Oscar by rebranding Fraser as a serious actor, and the distributor is using the same blueprint for Johnson.
Deadline first reported the news of the package.
