Dwayne Johnson‘s big career pivot to serious acting (after years of mixed reactions to various blockbusters) sounds like it is paying off and linking up with filmmaker Benny Safdie (one half of the talent sibling team, The Safdie Brothers) as his new mixed martial arts drama “The Smashing Machine” is releasing next month, and a new inside look/behind-the-scenes video has arrived online.
The buzz surrounding the movie after debuting at the Venice Film Festival was deafening (Safide walking away with the Silver Lion award for his impressive directing) and seemed to support Johnson’s wise/worthwhile choice to take on a more substantive character, that being MMA fighter Mark Keer, with co-star Emily Blunt playing Kerr’s then-wife Dawn Staples. Kerr’s true story of substance abuse of painkillers (linked to his fighting career) and navigating the fight world (around the early days of the UFC) certainly felt like a role tailored to Johnson’s strengths.
An official logline courtesy of A24:
“The Smashing Machine” is the powerful story of pioneering mixed martial arts/UFC fighter Mark Kerr. Kerr helped grow the sport’s popularity in its early days, but the fights’ brutal demands took a toll, eventually leading to painkiller addiction. The constant need to travel, since the most lucrative early matches were always in Japan, didn’t help either.
We assume that stemming from the strongly positive reactions/reviews to “The Smashing Machine,” Johnson and Safdie aren’t waiting around, as they’ve decided to reunite for a feature adaptation of Daniel Pinkwater‘s “Lizard Music.” Johnson is also set to play a California guru in the gestating A24 thriller “Breakthrough,” which could see him directed by Darren Aronofsky (“Caught Stealing”), continuing that streak of character-driven work, which we can’t wait to see come together.
You can watch the latest promotional featurette video below as “The Smashing Machine” is hitting theaters on October 3, but will be arriving earlier on September 22 in select theaters.
- Christopher Marc
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