Dwayne Johnson is one of the most successful wrestlers turned actors in the business. While he’ll always have a special place in WWE fans’ hearts as “The Rock,” he cooked up an acting career that is just as iconic. Johnson is set to star in two upcoming A24 films, The Smashing Machine and Breakthrough, the latter of which has apparently found its director. According to Deadline, Darren Aronofsky is following up his impessive work on The Whale, which won Brendan Fraser an Oscar, and is in early conversations about being a part of the film. Although sources told the publication that it’s early, Breakthrough would be Aronofsky’s return to working with the company since the 2022 psychological drama.
A24 didn’t comment, but the company will produce and finance the film, and Breakthrough‘s plot is just as interesting as this news. The film follows an alienated young man influenced by a motivational guru. It’s set in Southern California, and the guru’s charm is so intoxicating that it masks his morally questionable methods of manipulation and his own concealed darkness. According to Deadline, Johnson will portray the guru, but casting for the starring role and other members of the cast is still underway. While more information is still to be shared about this production, The Whale was a hit with critics and was praised during the 2022 award season.
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The production on that movie won two Oscars for Best Actor and Best Makeup and Hairstyling. It follows an obese English teacher named Charlie who tries to restore his relationship with his teenage daughter Ellie (Sadie Sink). Charlie (Fraser), who is housebound, abandoned her eight years prior, and his only friend is a nurse named Liz (Hong Chau). It’s based on Samuel D. Hunter’s 2012 play of the same name and premiered at the 79th annual Venice International Film Festival on September 4, 2022. The Whale was released in theaters in the United States on December 9, 2022.
During an interview with BFI in 2023, Darren praised Fraser’s performance, saying, “What’s exciting about Brendan is no one’s seen this side of him. Definitely, no one’s seen this side of him for a very long time. Once a movie star, always a movie star. And it’s just exciting to see that artist come back to life and be given such a complicated character.”
Aronofsky and Johnson Have Upcoming Film Releases
Aronofsky and Johnson have films that’ll be released a little over a month after each other this year. Darren’s latest film is the upcoming crime thriller Caught Stealing, starring Austin Butler, Regina King, Zoë Kravitz, Matt Smith, and more. It’s about a former baseball player who finds himself immersed in the criminal underworld of New York in the 1990s and will be released on August 29, 2025, by Sony Pictures. Johnson will star in a biographical sports drama, an A24 film, The Smashing Machine. With a release date of October 3, 2025, the wrestling icon will portray former wrestler and MMA fighter Mark Kerr.
It’ll also star Emily Blunt as Dawn Staples, Ryan Bader as Mark Coleman, Bas Rutten as himself, Oleksandr Usyk as Igor Vovchanchyn, and more. Benny Safdie (Uncut Gems, 2019) directed, wrote, and co-produced the production.
Source: Deadline
This story originally appeared on Movieweb
