When he was The Rock, few would have suspected that one day he’d want to go off and become a country music singer, but he does, sort of, as he wants to star in and produce a biopic about black country star Charley Pride.
Charley Pride was one of 11 children born to a family of sharecroppers in Mississippi in 1938. He recorded more than three dozen No. 1 singles and has sold more than 70 million records, even becoming in the early 70s RCA’s most successful performer since Elvis.
The news comes from Pride himself in an interview with the Canadian Telegraph Journal, who says, while talking about the long-in-development movie, “New management took over the studio that was ready to begin site work on it, and a decision was made to put all their resources behind thrillers fast actioners. They felt that was where the big box office money was then Now its back on track again but with action and comedy star Dwayne Johnson portraying me in the title role.”
Like many hearing about this, Pride took some time to come around to the idea of Johnson playing him. “Terrence (Howars, who was previously attached) is no doubt a more in-depth actor academically, but Dwayne is such a force on screen. It startled me a little at first, but he flew down to Dallas and spent a day with me just sitting, talking recently. And when he left it was like parting with an old friend. We had such similar views on so many things.”