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Dwayne Johnson is set to play wrestling legend Mark Kerr in A24's The Smashing Machine. The studio is responsible for producing and financing the movie on the MMA fighter. Dwayne Johnson is collaborating with Benny Safdie to produce the movie. A24, the financier for the project, has been in this genre for quite some time. Their upcoming release of The Iron Claw is based on the Von Erich brothers of wrestling fame.
Safdie is expected to be the director and the writer for the MMA champion's movie. While this is not the first time Kerr’s successes have been documented, as he has a 2002 documentary with the same title, the movie has Dwayne Johnson returning to his roots of heavyweight tournaments inside the rings. A24's The Smashing Machine is also the solo directorial debut of Benny Safdie.
A24's The Smashing Machine: Release date info
A24's The Smashing Machine has been announced with Dwayne Johnson playing the lead and Safdie coming in as the director, besides being the writer and co-producer for the show. The project hasn't gone into production yet.
A release date for the movie has not been announced yet. However, updates are likely to arrive once filming starts, both officially and through individual social media posts from the cast and crew. Johnson is expected to be very active on his social media once the project goes into production.
Who stars in A24's The Smashing Machine?
Dwayne Johnson, The Rock, is slated to step into the shoes of the lead character, Mark Kerr. As of now, no other information is available on the cast list for the movie.
While director Benny Safdie has been busy with his acting career of late which included significant roles in Oppenheimer, The Curse and Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret, he is not confirmed to play any character in the movie.
Who is Dwayne Johnson’s The Smashing Machine based on?
As mentioned before, the movie, A24 The Smashing Machine, is a biopic based on the life of wrestler Mark Kerr. Known as an MMA icon, the American former wrestler was the World Vale Tudo Championship tournament winner and two-time UFC Heavyweight Tournament Champion. He had more than a dozen MMA titles to his name.
Some other titles won that he won are the Pride FC Heavyweight Championship, the 1992 NCAA National Wrestling Championship, the 1994 National Freestyle Championship and the ADCC World Submission Championship four times.
His no-holds-barred style of fighting gained him the moniker of the “smashing machine” which was chosen for the title for the A24 movie, as well as a 2002 documentary on him on HBO. The wrestling legend had to further battle addiction, which led to an overdose of painkillers.
Who is producing A24's The Smashing Machine?
The Mark Kerr movie has Johnson and Dany Garcia’s company, Seven Bucks, along with Safdie’s Out for the Count, co-producing the project. They have David Koplan and Eli Bush joining them as the other producers.
Benny Safdie is being represented by WME, Untitled Entertainment and Narrative. On the other hand, The Rock is represented here by WME, Gang, Tyre, Ramer, Brown & Passman and the Lede Company.
While A24's The Smashing Machine has not announced its release date, A24’s other project, The Iron Claw, is slated to drop on December 22, 2023, in the US and on February 9, 2024, in the UK.
