Dwayne Johnson to Star in Movie About WWE Superstar Paige

Wrestling news from the WWE doesn’t normally contain anything cinematic but in an odd announcement, Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson mentioned that he will be teaming with WWE Studios and Film 4 to produce a movie about WWE Superstar Paige.   Another name attached to the project is Stephen Merchant who will be writing and directing the film.  In addition to producing the film, Johnson will also have a part in the movie.

“The Falling” actress Florence Pugh will star as the main character, Paige, whose real name is Saraya-Jade Bevis. Meanwhile, “Dunkirk” actor Jack Lowden is cast as Zak, Paige’s brother. Johnson reportedly will also star in the comedy-drama biopic, but his role is currently unknown.

Here’s the announcement:

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BREAKING: Our @sevenbucksprod is excited to announce production on a cool project we've been working on for years based on a very unique and gritty professional wrestling family and a their daughter's journey into the spotlight of the WWE. "Fighting With My Family" Years ago (2012) while shooting Fast & Furious in London, I was up at 3am (too much caffeine) and stumbled upon a documentary on a UK station about a local wrestling family and their daughter's unlikely journey into the global spotlight. That daughter, is current WWE Women's Superstar, Paige. The family strong element I saw in the doc, is what grabbed my attention. That no matter how crazy life gets, no matter how dysfunctional our families can sometimes be and especially regardless of how much we fight – we're always there for each other when it counts. That's what families do. My gut said there was a great movie to be made so I sent to my agent Brad Slater at WME who loved it. He sent it to my long time ace producer Kevin Misher, who immediately responded to the doc and he thought we should go after one of our favorite writer/directors for material like this, Stephen Merchant. Merchant, being from the UK, locked in to a strong POV and vision of how gritty and heartfelt this film needs to be and the rest is history. Pleasure to partner with WWE Studios and Film 4 to bring this cool story to life. Paige and I both know what it's like to come from a wrestling family who's had it's good and hard times. Her and I have talked about this project for years now and we're all excited to bring her and her family's story to life. Cool casting announcements coming this week! #FightingWithMyFamily #SevenBucksProds #MisherFilms #WWEFilms #Film4 #BevisFamily #SquaredCircleDNA

A post shared by therock (@therock) on Feb 7, 2017 at 9:39am PST

I have to say that I’m pretty intrigued by this.  Not because it’s Dwayne Johnson but because I’m a fan of biopics of people that aren’t necessarily huge stars.  Sure I’ve heard of Paige before but I had no idea that she was from a wrestling family.  I had no idea that she came from a ton of dysfunction.  Also, I’m pretty psyched to see anything that Stephen Merchant writes.  This seems like such an odd project for him to take on considering how humorous he is.  I still think “Hello Ladies” is the most underrated HBO show of all time.

We’ll keep you posted on the progress of this film.