Dwayne Johnson to play country music legend Charley Pride in biopic

Dwayne Johnson is going to star as Charley Pride in a film about the legendary country music star. Johnson is also producing according to an interview that Pride did with the Telegraph-Journal. The project originally was going to be directed by Craig Brewer (Hustle & Flow) with Terrence Howard in the role.

Pride talked about how the project was ready to go..

“But then the ball got fumbled. 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 it’s back on track again but with action and comedy star Dwayne Johnson portraying me in the title role. Terrence, it seems, is tied up on other involvements for a few years.”

Pride has faith in Johnson's ability to give a dramatic performance and says:

“Terrence 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."

Here is a great description of Pride's backround for those of you not familiar:

"While he played guitar from a young age, he actually started out as a professional baseball player in the Negro leagues and seemed to be on track for a professional career when that was derailed after he was drafted into the Army. He tried to give baseball another whirl but soon turned to music and the rest as they say, is history. He slowly built a helluva career but in his early days, his race was kept a secret as the industry (and audiences) were still used to the genre being populated solely by white performers. But it would be his hit song “Just Between You and Me” that would smash the charts and launch him into stardom, also landing him a Grammy Award. But as Pride later revealed in his autobiography he struggled with manic depression for many years. To date Pride has sold over 70 million records is still touring and singing today."

I like Johnson as an actor and am interested to see him in a dramatic lead. I think this is definitely a risky move, but one that can pay off. I really enjoyed Jim Carrey's dramatic performances in The Truman Show and Man on the Moon. Before those roles I was not sure Carrey could pull off drama, but he can. I think that same is true about Johnson, and hope things go well.

What are your thoughts?