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The Rock has signed on to the latest film from the writer/director of 'Sing Sing' and 'Train Dreams'
Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson was open about his hopes of earning an Academy Award nomination for his work on The Smashing Machine. While it never came to be, that doesn’t mean he’s giving that dream up, as the latest project he’s signed up for has award season contender written all over it.
According to reports, The Rock is set to star as a Las Vegas motorcycle stuntman who is diagnosed with dementia in the film Free Byrd from writer and director Greg Kwedar.
The Rock will be playing a motorcycle stuntman with dementia in Free Byrd, the latest film from writer/director Greg Kwedar
Free Byrd will be produced by Ben Affleck and Matt Damon’s production company Artists Equity and directed Kwedar, who has scored consecutive Academy Award nominations for his work on his recent films Sing Sing and Train Dreams. Kwedar will also rewrite the script.
In Free Byrd, Johnson will be starring as “a Las Vegas motorcycle stuntman who conceals his dementia diagnosis from everyone, including his mechanic brother, as he risks everything on one last jump. ”
According to the official logline for the film, Free Byrd “examines and confronts the mind’s vast mysteries and the beauty and power of asking for help before it’s too late.'”
“Free Byrd is a gift in many ways. Emblematic of life’s sacred beauty, as well as life’s harsh and callous reality. The subject matter of Free Byrd has become deeply personal to Greg Kwedar and myself as we’ve started to unpack this fateful journey together,” Johnson said in a statement, according to Variety.
“Artists Equity have been incredible filmmaking and artistic partners, who not only share Greg’s vision for the film, but who are all connected to our story in their own unique and personal ways. When the mind of a loved one begins to slip away, life sure takes on a whole new meaning.”
Kwedar is the exact sort of director who could position an actor to win an Academy Award given the categories his previous nominations have come in.
“It would have been incredible to get nominated for an Oscar. I realized very quickly that it’s a rare thing to reach this pinnacle where you’re even having these conversations. And it’s exciting,” he told Esquire earlier this year.
“It would have been amazing. I wish it happened. But it didn’t. But in no uncertain terms did I ever think, Oh, that doesn’t matter. I always thought it mattered. And it has lit a fire in my spine, which is: Let’s go back to work.”
Both of Kwedar’s previous films — Sing Sing and Train Dreams — earned Best Adapted Screenplay nominations, and as a director he guided Colman Domingo to a Best Actor nomination while drawing widespread acclaim for Joel Edgerton’s career-best performance.
For as talented of a filmmaker as The Smashing Machine writer and director Benny Safdie may be, having previously helmed cult classics such as Good Time and Uncut Gems alongside his brother Josh, he doesn’t boast any of those accolades as a director yet.
The Rock will next be seen in the live-action Moana remake, which hits theaters this weekend and is projecting to underperform at the box office. Later this year, he’ll be starring in the third and final movie in his Jumanji franchise, when Jumanji: Open World hits theaters on Christmas Day.
He’s also attached to Fast Forever, the “final” Fast & Furious movie that’s set to release in 2028 and is set to reunite with Safdie for Lizard Music.
There were also reports last year that Johnson had signed on to star in a Hawaii-set crime drama from legendary director Martin Scorsese that would co-star Leonardo DiCaprio and Emily Blunt, the latter of whom he’s collaborated with on Jungle Cruise and The Smashing Machine.
“Grateful for what’s been the most creatively inspiring time of my career – working closely with my friends and of course, the maestro Marty Scorsese. In the 60’s, 70’s & 80’s the mafia controlled New York, Miami, Chicago, Vegas, and a particularly strong hold on the island I was raised – Hawaii. Much more to come,” he wrote on Instagram in March 2025.
Despite that public update from Johnson, there have been little to no developments on the project since then, with Scorsese instead directing DiCaprio and Jennifer Lawrence in an adaptation of the novel What Happens At Night, which began filming earlier this year and is currently in postproduction, setting up a potential release later this year.