Dwayne Johnson Will Rule as Kamehameha in Robert Zemeckis’ ‘The King’
Recalling a time when Dwayne Johnson wasn’t a charismatic headliner is impossible. Even at the height of his professional wrestling career as The Rock (among other monikers), his infectious persona bolstered his popularity. He’s the People’s Champion for a reason.
That personable quality definitely carries over seamlessly into his movie career, which began back in 2001.
As a bona fide action and comedy star, Johnson has built a brand on frivolous films that stretch the limits of imagination. Whether he’s singlehandedly scaling a giant skyscraper or trailing the Fast and Furious family across a myriad of high-flying automobile-related shenanigans, we’re invited to gleefully and satisfyingly suspend belief whenever we watch a Johnson flick. They are generally harmless popcorn entertainment and can be absolutely interchangeable as an indistinct string of goofiness. Case in point:
These are three separate movies pic.twitter.com/ZsqmhJx5vj
— Fallah Bahh fan account (@FalconX9K) February 27, 2018
However, Johnson has finally found the dramatic role of his dreams, and this could prove to be his most vital career choice yet. According to Deadline, Warner Bros. and New Line are going ahead with the war epic The King, and Johnson is slated to lead the charge. He will play the eponymous Hawaiian icon Kamehameha I in the picture directed by Back to the Future filmmaker Robert Zemeckis.
Kamehameha is known as the founder and first ruler of the kingdom of Hawaii, uniting the warring islands. The King is described as a sweeping historical epic based on the true life story of Kamehameha, who fulfilled the prophecy that surrounded his fabled life since birth.
Johnson will produce via his Seven Bucks Productions, along with Dany Garcia and Hiram Garcia. FlynnPictureCo’s Beau Flynn, Zemeckis and Wallace also will produce.
Johnson was once involved in a Kamehameha vehicle back in the early 2000s. The project was set up by Greg Poirier (Rosewood) at Columbia Pictures and eventually fell through. Nevertheless, news about it sparked notable criticism of Johnson’s casting due to his lack of Native Hawaiian heritage. There were even concerns that the film would ignore key elements of local culture such as language, and that the overall narrative would be altered with unnecessary western movie tropes.
Similar concerns have since surfaced in the wake of The King. Twitter threads have separately criticized the white authorship of the movie and called for extensive fact-checking of the story, noting that the film cannot simply portray a colonized and watered down version of Kamehameha’s layered backstory and legacy. Furthermore, as Lilikala Kameeleihiwa — author, historian, and senior professor at the University of Hawaii’s Kamakakuokalani Center for Hawaiian Studies — tells the Honolulu Star-Advertiser:
The hope is that Johnson’s passion for the story will be able to allay some worries about The King. As far as his Instagram post on the matter has revealed, he seems up to the task, stating, “From the day I began my Hollywood career (2001), my dream was to bring this legacy to life.”
(Excerpts) Read More at: FilmSchoolRejects.com and HollywoodReporter.com
