A couple of weeks ago, Dwayne Johnson — otherwise known as “The Rock” to his hardcore wrestling fans — teased his involvement in “a cool movie I’ll make in 2017 with director Shane Black.” The Nice Guys director has long been attached to a film adaptation of the classic character, and his preference for Johnson has been known since March. So when the Central Intelligence actor teased the project in May, it seemed his casting was all but officially confirmed. Thanks to yet another Instagram post by Johnson, however, we can now add the word “officially” before the word “confirmed,” because Doc Savage is definitely one of the many things The Rock will be cooking in the next few years.
Per Variety, Johnson announced the project via Instagram on Memorial Day with a photo of himself, Black, co-writers Anthony Bagarozzi and Chuck Mondry, and Johnson’s producer Hiram Garcia discussing the project. As the actor put it, he’s fascinated with Savage due to his being a “perfect human specimen with a genius level intellect,” “heightened senses” and awesomely weird abilities, like that “he can… identify a women’s perfume from half a mile away.”
“He is literally the master of everything,” writes Johnson, emphasizing that his main attraction to the character isn’t his Superman-like qualities (or the fact that he inspired the original Superman/Clark Kent character in Action Comics). Rather, Johnson loves Savage because “he’s a f*cking hilarious weirdo” who “has zero social graces whatsoever.”
Along with Central Intelligence, which is due this summer, Baywatch and Fast and Furious 8 next summer, and a gazillion other projects, Johnson himself may embody all of Savage’s superheroic qualities from a professional standpoint if he manages to pull off Black’s Doc Savage via his insanely productive schedule.
(Via Variety)
