Dwayne Johnson has traded his signature muscles for movie magic once again. The actor was spotted in Brooklyn on Tuesday filming his upcoming movie Lizard Music, and his transformation is nothing short of astonishing.
Dwayne Johnson’s Lizard Music gets first look
New set photos reveal Johnson as a 70-year-old man known as the Chicken Man, complete with a tan bucket hat and coat. The Hollywood superstar walked alongside young co-star Theo Clark Leber, who carried an oversized lizard plush, while Johnson held a slice of pizza. The dramatic prosthetic work comes from acclaimed makeup artist Kazu Hiro, who recently transformed Tom Cruise into a geriatric oil baron for Digger.
Now, Johnson’s latest collaboration with director Benny Safdie follows their 2025 movie The Smashing Machine, where the actor played UFC legend Mark Kerr. Speaking at the Toronto Film Festival the same year, the actor revealed he shed 30 pounds of muscle for the role. “I’m so excited to get a chance to hopefully transform again like I was able to do in Smashing Machine,” he said. “[It means] eating less chicken.”
Lizard Music, based on Daniel Pinkwater’s children’s book, follows a young boy who discovers strange lizard musicians on late-night TV and befriends a peculiar man with an elderly chicken. The hybrid live-action and CGI film stars Rachel McAdams, Colman Domingo, Jeff Goldblum, Alicia Silverstone, Regina Hall, David Krumholtz, and Tim Heidecker alongside Johnson and Leber.
Amazon MGM Studios will release Lizard Music theatrically on Christmas Day 2027. Scott Stuber and Nick Nesbitt produce for United Artists, with Safdie producing through Out for the Count Productions, Johnson through Seven Bucks Productions, and David Koplan through Magnetic Fields Entertainment.
Johnson said agreeing to the project required minimal persuasion from Safdie, claiming their conversation lasted “about 45 minutes” during the Toronto Film Festival talk (via Variety). Now, fans will get to see how the entirety of it plays out.
