Director Darren Aronofsky is in talks to collaborate with Dwayne Johnson on another A24 project: the early 2000s-set drama, Breakthrough.
While Dwayne Johnson’s recent attempts to recalibrate the direction of his career as a movie star in no way resemble an episode of the Ricky Gervais comedy, Extras, we’d love to have a peek behind the curtain and see some of the chats he must be having.
Since reaching a nadir with the release of the (largely) unloved festive action comedy Red One and dealing with unflattering stories about on-set behaviour, Johnson seems to be attempting the tricky task of reworking his movie star persona. Next, he’ll be taking what is surely the biggest creative risk of his career, playing UFC fighter Mark Kerr in Benny Safdie’s The Smashing Machine. Judging from the trailer, The Smashing Machine will chart the fighter’s career’s ups and downs, including his struggles with addiction.
Following that, the actor will be working with the legendary Martin Scorsese and Leonardo DiCaprio on on a Hawaii-set crime thriller, which he is also producing and co-writing a book about the real-life events behind the proposed film.
At some point, he’ll also be starring in the A24 crime caper, Breakthrough, and it sounds as though Johnson has managed to bag another directorial heavyweight in the form of Darren Aronofsky, the filmmaker who most recently drew sublime performances out of Brendan Fraser and Sadie Sink in The Whale. Fraser went on to win the Best Actor Oscar for his work.
Here’s a synopsis for Breakthrough, per The Hollywood Reporter:
“In turn-of-the-millennium Southern California, an alienated young man comes under the influence of a motivational guru, whose intoxicating charm masks his morally questionable methods of manipulation and his own concealed darkness.”
We’ll bring you more on this one as we hear it.
