I’m not sure how Dwayne Johnson has time for all of his projects. He seems to be consistently busy with no break in sight and it looks like he won’t be getting one anytime soon. The actor has been set to play Kamehameha in The King with Robert Zemeckis set to direct.
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. 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.
The film comes from a spec script written by Randall Wallace, the man behind the screenplay for Braveheart. Several studios bid on the package, but a big reason for the outcome was the comfort level built with New Line and Warner Bros executives Toby Emmerich, Richard Brener and Carolyn Blackwood and Blair Rich on San Andreas. The plan is to shoot the film in 2020, and the auction was conducted while Johnson and his team are in Atlanta where he’s shooting Jungle Cruise for Disney.
This appears to be a bit of a passion project for Johnson who expressed one day playing Kamehameha back when he had a small wall in The Mummy Returns. Johnson’s decision to finally step up to his dream role was made during the filming of Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle that took place in Hawaii. Johnson was at the peak of his star power and had matured as a man and actor, and the feeling was that the time was right. This could end up being a solid departure for the actor who has been primarily known for action fare and light comedy.
