The Toronto International Film Festival is seen as a bastion for artistically adventurous films that tackle tough social, thematic and cultural issues, which is the perfect forum to announce a movie starring Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, directed by McG, produced by WWE Studios and based on a decades-old television series. That's right—the director of "This Means War" and one of the muscle bound stars of the "Fast and the Furious" franchise are teaming to bring the Lee Majors series "The Fall Guy" to the big screen.
The report from the Hollywood Reporter has Johnson, set to begin production on the seventh 'Fast and Furious' installment any day now, starring as the Lee Majors character, who was a Hollywood stunt man and bounty hunter whose two jobs always intersected in some exciting, hilarious way. The series ran from 1981 to 1986 and developed a healthy cult following.
The movie has been attempted for years now, with husband-and-wife producing team Walter Parkes and Laurie MacDonald developing it first at Warner Bros. and then later at DreamWorks, most recently as a Nicolas Cage vehicle to be directed by "Casino Royale" mastermind Martin Campbell. This most recent incarnation will be produced by Parkes, MacDonald, Ashok Amritraj from Hype Park Entertainment and Michael Luisi from WWE Studios. Hyde Park will be shopping the film in Toronto.
"The Fall Guy" will mark a homecoming of sorts for Johnson, who got his start in the WWE as The Rock, a genuine wrestling phenomenon who still manages to dazzle the crowd with his showmanship and raw physicality (trust us, we were at Wrestlemania this year). When we spoke with Luisi earlier this year he said that WWE Studios was looking for the perfect project to make with Johnson, an actor who starred in one of every three movies released this calendar year. Looks like they found that project.
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