Dwayne Johnson to Star as Hawaiian King Kamehameha in Robert Zemeckis’ ‘The King’

By Dave McNary

LOS ANGELES (Variety.com) – Dwayne Johnson will play Hawaiian king Kamehameha in the historical drama “The King” from director Robert Zemeckis.

Warner Bros. and New Line won an auction for the Randall Wallace script for “,” written about the first ruler of the Kingdom of Hawaii.

Johnson will produce through his Seven Bucks Productions company, along with Dany Garcia and Hiram Garcia. Zemeckis is also producing with Beau Flynn through FlynnPictureCo. Wendy Jacobson will executive produce. The studio plans to shoot the film in 2020.

Kamehameha unified the Hawaiian Islands following a series of battles during the 1790s and took steps to ensure they remained a united realm after his death. Johnson had been eyeing the movie in recent years and decided to move forward on it during the filming in Hawaii of his hit comedy “Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle.”

Johnson has starred in three New Line titles — “San Andreas,” “Rampage,” and “Journey 2: The Mysterious Island.” Zemeckis won the best director Academy Award for “Forrest Gump.” He’s also directed the “Back to the Future” trilogy, “Cast Away,” “Flight,” “The Polar Express,” “Allied,” “The Walk,” and the upcoming “Welcome to Marwen.”

Johnson, Zemeckis, and Wallace are repped by WME. The news was first reported by Deadline Hollywood.

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