By George ‘El Guapo’ Roush on April 01, 2010
Dwayne Johnson has had a strange career. He was built up to be the next Stallone or Schwarzenegger but after a couple of action films decided he wanted to try other genres to work on his acting. Fans were all wondering if he was going to go back to the genre that put him on the map or if they were going to see their favorite former wrestler wear fairy wings for the next ten years.
Thankfully Dwayne is returning to the genre we love to see him in. I had a chance to go on a set visit for his new action movie Faster, a revenge story about a man called Driver going after the four killers left him for dead and took his brother’s life. The movie co-stars Billy Bob Thorton and Carla Guigino.
This is just a preview piece though. The full set visit will come at a later date. But in the meantime I had a chance to speak with Dwayne ‘formerly The Rock’ Johnson about a couple of his upcoming projects. One of them the talked about for 8 years film project about the Hawaiian King Kamehameha. If you’re not sure who King Kamehameha is, Dwayne talks about him when answering my question and also answers fellow journalist (and gentlemen) James Rocchi’s question about a sequel to The Rundown.
Here’s what Dwayne told the journalists in attendance:
Are you ever going to get to do the Hawaiian King movie you’ve been wanting to do for a long time?
Johnson: We’re developing that now. Ya, it’s very exciting. If you guys don’t know about King Kamehameha, it’s a true story about the king, the ruler of Hawaii, and…I wanna say it’s kind of like Braveheart with him. He was responsible for uniting all the islands of Hawaii. It’s an amazing story.
On behalf of movie nerd America, what do we have to do to get you and Peter Berg in a room together to make a Rundown 2 happen? What do we have to do to make that happen?
Johnson: (laughs) He’s my buddy man. I love Peter. I would love to. It’s interesting because we essentially starterd our careers at the same time. He had that one Vegas movie…
Very Bad Things.
Johnson: Right. Ya, it was fantastic. And I was doing Scorpion King. And we started our careers at around the same time. And you go apart after The Rundown. And I wanted to work in other genres, become a better actor. And he wanted to work in other genres, become a better director. So coming back and working with Peter Berg would be awesome. I would love to. Whether it’s another Rundown or anything else. We’re constantly looking for something to do together.
As always, Dwayne was a gracious (even saying to a female journalist she had to take his seat because it wasn’t right she was standing) and funny guy. He’s really one of the nicest people I’ve ever met in the business. And one of the biggest. Dude could probably bench press my car.
Hopefully things work out once Berg finishes Battleship so he and Dwayne can reunite for another Rundown film.
Look for my set visit piece on faster in the coming months
