Seeing as how Dwayne Johnson is so often associated with crowd-pleasing blockbusters like 'Jumanji', 'The Fast and the Furious' and so on, the idea of him starring in a gritty biopic is always going to make headlines.
Johnson announced at UFC 244 that he is set to star and produce in a biopic on Mark Kerr, a two-time UFC heavyweight tournament winner who eventually became addicted to opiate painkillers and was the subject of an intense HBO documentary, 'The Smashing Machine'.
That documentary was pretty graphic, to say the least, with footage of Kerr injecting drugs, the brutal injuries he sustained, as well as Kerr's battles with addictions and eventual treatment and rehab.
Speaking at the press conference announcing the movie to Variety, Johnson said that it would be "a dramatic role, but Mark lives a dramatic life. It’s an opportunity to shine a light on one of our warriors, who not only deserves it, but who has such universal appeal and a universal story."
"Like all of us, and like a lot of these fighters, he battled these demons — these demons of addiction, these demons of mental health, these demons of getting out and the pressure of fighting in front of 50,000 people and what that does to somebody. Here’s a guy who has gone through it all, hit rock bottom, but the best part about Mark Kerr is that, like all of us in this room and all these fighters, these warriors, is that everyday, we get up and we want to do a little bit better tomorrow than we did today."
Obviously, it's early days yet and no director or writer has been attached, but given that it's Dwayne Johnson and the popularity of the UFC, you can imagine it's only going to be a matter of time before it's in cinemas.
