The Rock’s on a roll
Hollywood’s highestpaid actor Dwayne Johnson is not afraid of doing some heavy lifting. Here’s a look at the whopping 26 projects he has lined up
Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson currently has 26 movies in development. That is a staggering amount of work, possibly equalled only by crippling-debt-era Nicolas Cage. On paper, it looks like a tremendous amount of resources will go into developing all of these scripts. In reality, though, that’s unlikely to be the case, because Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson only really makes three types of film: the ironic action comedy, the kids’ movie and the disaster epic.
In fact, you can probably guess what happens in all of those forthcoming films just by looking at their names. With this in mind, let’s go through his project list on IMDb and take a guess at the plots from the titles.
DOC SAVAGE
Johnson stars in an ironic action comedy adaptation of the closest thing he could find to Indiana Jones, after he failed to secure the rights of Indiana Jones.
SEAL TEAM 666
This has a number in the title, so it might be a gritty drama about Navy Seals. Then again, that number is 666, so it might be an ironic action comedy about some soldiers punching the devil.
THE JANSON DIRECTIVE
Johnson plays Janson Directive, a tough soldier or spy or fireman who has to save his family in a knockabout ironic way while dressed up as Humpty Dumpty or whatever. I mean, really?
FIGHTING WITH MY FAMILY
Now, this is either going to be a knockabout action comedy about hilarious domestic disputes, or a harrowing kitchen-sink drama about the emotional toil caused by a lifetime of familial resentment Just a guess, but let’s go with the first one.
SAN ANDREAS 2
Sequel to San Andreas (above). Just when Johnson has finished putting the world back together after the events of the first film, it’s destroyed again by another earthquake. He vows to dig to the centre of the earth and punch some magma in the mouth.
SKYSCRAPER
Either a) a disaster film where Johnson plays a lift attendant tasked with saving his family from a burning skyscraper, or b) an ironic action comedy remake of the little-seen 1996 Anna Nicole Smith vehicle.
JUNGLE CRUISE
Johnson plays Jungle Cruise, a man who enjoys nothing more than cruising in the jungle. One day his hovercraft is attacked by hundreds of alligators, and all the trees catch fire, and he — alongside a woman of such indeterminate age that it’s never really clear whether she’s his wife or daughter — has to machine-gun his way out.
ALPHA SQUAD SEVEN
Tricky. Since this film has a number in the title, it could be a gritty wartime drama. Then again,
Alpha Squad Seven abbreviates to ASS so it’s probably an ironic action comedy.
BLACK ADAM
If I’ve got this right, Johnson dips his toe into the dwindling stocks of unadapted superhero characters to play one of DC’s least-known baddies, the primary antagonist of Shazam!
SHAZAM!
If I’ve got this right, The Rock Johnson dips his toe into the dwindling stocks of unadapted superhero characters to play one of DC’s least-known goodies, the figure who protects the world from Black Adam. Wait, what?
JOURNEY 3: FROM THE EARTH TO THE MOON
One of Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson’s films for kids, which flits inconsistently between slapstick and foot-of-the-bed ultra-sincerity.
RACING DREAMS
A racing car driver has a dream: to become the world champion at driving racing cars. Johnson plays the car, because there’s no way a man of his size would ever realistically fit in a driving seat.
TAKE MY WIFE
Johnson stars in an ironic action-comedy remake of a beloved piece of entertainment, in this case a reboot of Taken in which Bryan Mills calls up a series of human traffickers and asks them to abduct his family.
UNTITLED LARRY HILLBLOM PROJECT
This is a weird one. Larry Hillblom was the billionaire co-founder of the courier company DHL, and a man who, after he died in a mysterious plane crash, was discovered to have spent years indulging in south-east Asia. He was by all accounts a terrible man, which suggests that this one might not actually be an ironic action comedy.
BOOST UNIT
Johnson plays Boost Unit, a tough but kind-hearted car thief who punches buildings, or something.
BIG TROUBLE IN LITTLE CHINA
Johnson stars in an ironic action-comedy remake of a beloved piece of entertainment, in this case a film he should absolutely not have been allowed to go anywhere near.
MUSCLE BEACH
Loved Baywatch, but sad that Johnson didn’t just stand in one place lifting things over and over again in it? This is just the movie for you. UNTITLED JERRY BRUCKHEIMER/DWAYNE JOHNSON PROJECT
Johnson stars in an ironic action-comedy remake of a beloved piece of entertainment, which in all likelihood is Pirates of the Caribbean.
RAMPAGE
Johnson stars in an ironic action-comedy remake of a beloved piece of entertainment, in this case a 1986 coin-operated arcade game.
TEDDY BEAR
Another kids’ film. Johnson plays a teddy bear, which is funny because he is a muscular man in his mid-40s.
UNTITLED DWAYNE JOHNSON ACTION COMEDY
That’s Untitled Dwayne Johnson Ironic Action Comedy to you, sir.
SON OF SHAOLIN
Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson plays a Buddhist monk who has to punch his way out of a maximum security jail to save his family from wolves.
NOT WITHOUT HOPE
Johnson pulls three words out of a tombola machine at random. “Sure, I can make an ironic action comedy out of this,” he says. “I’m pretty good at them by now.”
UNTITLED WRESTLING COMEDY
This one might be the comedy drama directed by Stephen Merchant, which would be weird, because that also has the title
Fighting With My Family. The likelihood is that this is a duplicate.
This whole list is nonsense, isn’t it? God, I’m wasting my life.