Dwayne Johnson will play steel-drivin' man John Henry in Netflix film
It's a good time to be a fan of The Rock, because he's cranking out a ton of projects over the next few years, including John Henry and The Statesmen.
- Co-author of two Gen X pop-culture encyclopedia for Penguin Books. Won "Headline Writer of the Year" award for 2017, 2014 and 2013 from the American Copy Editors Society. Won first place in headline writing from the 2013 Society for Features Journalism.
Dwayne Johnson, seen here in The Fate of the Furious, is sure keeping busy.
Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson is adding yet another giant role to his resume. He'll star in John Henry and the Statesmen for Netflix , he announced Tuesday. In the film, Johnson will lead a group of "the most popular folklore figures and legends from different cultures around the world."
Johnson himself will work as a producer and also play steel-driving' man John Henry, who in the famed folk song defeated a steel-powered drill in a race that led to his death. In a Facebook post announcing the project, Johnson also remembered his father singing to him the 1960s Jimmy Dean hit, Big Bad John, about a similar heroic miner.
"Gonna be a lot of fun bringing these legends to life," Johnson wrote. "My childhood hero. The steel driving man, JOHN HENRY. And his disruptive band of international folklore legends, THE STATESMEN."
The film will be directed by Jake Kasdan, who worked with Johnson on 2017's Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle. No release date was given.
Johnson has to be crazy-busy. He has at least four movies in the works for 2019, including wrestling comedy Fighting With My Family; Fast & Furious spinoff Hobbs & Shaw; and Jungle Cruise, which is based on the Disney theme-park ride. Beyond that, he's starring in a 2020 film about Hawaiian King Kamehameha, and Red Notice, an action film with Wonder Woman star Gal Gadot.
He's also been cast as DC comic book hero Black Adam, the nemesis of superhero Shazam, and will receive a solo film as that character sometime after the solo film Shazam, starring Zachary Levi, comes out in 2019.
He's also starring in the sequel to Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle, set for a December 2019 release.