As exciting as it is that moviegoers may finally see Martin Scorsese and Leonardo DiCaprio’s long-gestating Devil in the White City adaptation, which was acquired by a new studio recently, the pair will first deliver another high-profile thriller based on real events. Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson is also teaming with Scorsese for the still-untitled new feature, and he shared a celebratory post after it landed its official studio home. Something tells me he’s pumped about this one.
Working with a living legend like the Goodfellas and Casino filmmaker is obviously well worth a ton of energetic social media posts at the very least, but that momentous experience has to be all the more enjoyable whenever it’s happening on a project that hits close to home for Scorsese’s collaborators. Such is clearly the case for Johnson here, as he hinted at with his latest Instagram post about the upcoming film, which will likely arrive in theaters after the 2025 movie schedule has concluded. According to the occasional WWE Superstar:
Our Hawaiian crime saga now has a home at 20th Century Fox & Disney. I was a little boy growing up in Honolulu when this real life story was taking place and these real men - ruthlessly did what they had to do for respect, money, power but more importantly - for the reclamation of our Polynesian culture.
As someone who regularly honors his Polynesian heritage, Dwayne Johnson is no stranger to filming projects set in Hawaii, from 2017’s Baywatch reboot to Disney’s 2021 adventure The Jungle Cruise to the upcoming live-action Moana and both animated films. And that’s hardly an exhaustive list.
Not that the biggest draw related to this project is necessarily its filming locations. Especially for an actor who has worked and lived on the islands before. With the rest of his post's message, Johnson addressed working alongside Martin Scorsese as the project comes together behind the scenes, which is the kind of occupational perk that very few people get to boast about. As he put it:
Working closely with Marty as his vision for our story begins to take focus, has been a gift to witness and absorb. I’m honored to work with this inspiring creative team, and even more blessed to call them my friends. More to come. Aloha.
The other creative team members that Dwayne Johnson is referring to are likely fellow co-star and producer Emily Blunt (his Jungle Cruise co-star) and the film's screenwriter Nick Bilton. It was Blunt who reportedly ideated the concept and idea for the project, which she looped Johnson into, and now the latter is set to co-author a book about the subject matter along with Bilton, an already established true crime author.
The story is set to center on a sociable and powerful mob boss who aims to assert himself as a controlling force on the Hawaiian islands by building up a criminal empire that also aimed to project the native lands from mainland corporations and rivals in the underworld.
Johnson will likely next be seen in the MMA fighter biopic The Smashing Machine, in which he portrays the athlete Mark Kerr for another A+ director in Benny Safdie. Stay tuned for more updates about his untitled Hawaii crime thriller.
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