Dwayne Johnson Teases LIZARD MUSIC as "Willy Wonka From the Mind of Benny Safdie"
Dwayne Johnson is getting crazy with Benny Safdie again, and this time the actor is spending five hours in the makeup chair every day to become a man in his 70s for Lizard Music.
Following their work together on The Smashing Machine, Johnson and Safdie have reunited for a very different kind of movie. During an appearance at D23 on Sunday, Johnson confirmed that production is underway and offered a wonderfully strange description of what audiences can expect from the adaptation of Daniel Pinkwater’s novel.
“We’re in full production. It’s called Lizard Music, I’m with Benny Safdie again. That’s my guy,” he said. “Imagine Willy Wonka but from the mind of Benny Safdie.
That description certainly paints a picture, especially when you know what Lizard Music is actually about. Johnson plays a character known as the Chicken Man, an elderly guy who joins a kid on an adventure involving an island populated by sentient, music-playing lizards with their own television broadcasts.
Johnson also had some fun talking about the age of his character and the massive prosthetic transformation required to pull it off.
“And I play a septuagenarian man. Now, I didn’t know what the hell that meant. So, I had to Google it, it means you’re in your 70s. So, we transform, and it’s five hours of makeup every day. We’re with Kazu Hiro, who is a legend in Hollywood. He was also nominated for Smashing Machine, for our prosthetics, and he is helping me transform.”
Production is currently in its second week, and Johnson says taking on the Chicken Man is exactly the kind of acting challenge he wanted to chase.
“So far, we’re in our second week, and it has already been an unbelievable experience. It’s that thing I was telling the kids, ‘Run towards that thing.’
“This is that thing that I ran towards and chased the challenge, and this was a challenge for me. I love Benny, he’s one of my best friends and most embraced collaborators, so I can’t wait for you to see it.”
Safdie previously explained the wonderfully bizarre premise of Lizard Music, which follows a kid whose discovery leads him into a world far removed from ordinary life.
Safdie explained that it's about “a kid who discovers an island of lizards that are sentient, and they play music, they have broadcast TV. And they want him to come and see them. And he teams up with the Chicken Man, who Dwayne plays, and they go on this adventure to find the land of the lizards.”
This sounds like exactly the kind of wonderfully odd movie that could give Johnson the opportunity to disappear into a character in a way we haven't seen much during his blockbuster career. Johnson had previously revealed that he was slimming down for the role.
After The Smashing Machine pushed Johnson into dramatically different territory, Lizard Music looks like another chance for him and Safdie to explore something unexpected, and this could turn into one seriously strange adventure.
And “Willy Wonka from the mind of Benny Safdie” sounds like a pretty fun place to start.
Source: Deadline