Dwayne Johnson is set to trade roles as the king of Hollywood for Hawaiian royalty.
The Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle star has signed on to play King Kamehameha in director Robert Zemeckis new movie for Warner Bros.
According to Deadline, Braveheart screenwriter Randall Wallace has crafted the storyline and he will produce alongside Johnson, Dany and Hiram Garcia and Zemeckis.
Kamehameha became a Hawaiian hero when he united the state’s feuding islands.
Johnson, who is currently shooting Disney’s Jungle Cruise in Georgia, is expected to start filming the blockbuster with Zemeckis in 2020, according to the film news outlet.
It’s a dream come true for the former wrestler, who briefly lived in Honolulu, Hawaii as a child and is of part Polynesian heritage – early in his acting career he spoke of portraying King Kamehameha.
Deadline sources claim Johnson approached Wallace and asked the screenwriter to pen the script and then sent the movie treatment to Zemeckis, who jumped at the opportunity to make the film.
The project was blessed by a high priest while Dwayne was shooting Jumanji in Hawaii.
The Kamahameha film isn’t the action man’s first foray into the lore of the islands – he voiced the character Maui, a legendary demigod in hit 2016 Disney movie Moana. Johnson revealed he based that character on his grandfather, a professional wrestler known as ‘High Chief’ Peter Maivia.
Dwayne was criticised by activists from Hawaii, New Zealand and Samoa for his portrayal of the god, because the animated character was obese, and therefore created a negative stereotype of the Polynesian islanders.
