Shooting is finally set to commence on Black Adam next month, close to fifteen years after Dwayne Johnson first signalled his intentions to play the comic book antihero. It’s been a long and winding road to get to this point, and throughout it all the leading man has remained the one constant, although it would be an understatement to say he’s a much bigger star now than he was when he first began circling the role.
The 48 year-old is arguably the biggest actor on the planet, and he’s definitely the highest-paid, while his Seven Bucks empire has expanded well beyond the silver screen, with NBC’s Young Rock having recently premiered. Not to mention Johnson has also broadened his business portfolio into tequila, energy drinks and even a football league that’s failed twice already.
The point is, he’s a very powerful man within the industry, and insider Daniel Richtman is now claiming that The Rock wants full creative control on Black Adam, not to mention any spinoffs that it may generate in the future. Obviously, with cameras rolling as soon as next month, these details will have been hammered out behind the scenes a long time ago, and you can bet seven bucks of your own that Johnson has been calling the majority of the shots since day one.
After all, he’s heavily involved in every one of his onscreen projects from conception to post-production, and was instrumental in the hiring of Joker cinematographer Lawrence Sher, not to mention his Jungle Cruise director Jaume Collet-Serra and Rampage writer Adam Sztykiel, although the latter’s screenplay has since been given a polish by The Mauritanian scribes Rory Haines and Sohrab Noshirvani. Black Adam is very much Johnson’s show, and he’ll be looking to ensure it delivers exactly what the fans are expecting.