As one of the busiest actors in Hollywood, Dwayne Johnson flirts with a lot of projects that end up falling by the wayside, a number that’s grown exponentially over the last few years as he keeps piling more and more blockbuster franchises onto his plate.
At one stage or another, Johnson has been announced for Baywatch and San Andreas sequels, Shane Black’s Doc Savage, Robert Zemeckis’ The King, Alpha Squad Seven, Seal Team 666, The Janson Directive, a new spin on Big Trouble in Little China and much more, none of which made it much further than being given a press release.
However, his Netflix movie John Henry and the Statesmen stands out, in that the man himself debuted a teaser trailer on social media to let us know it was in development, although we haven’t heard a single thing about it since. He was even beaten to the punch by Terry Crews in last year’s John Henry, which earned a 0% Rotten Tomatoes score, but despite all of that, producer Hiram Garcia insisted in an interview with SlashFilm that it remains in the works.
“John Henry and the Statesmen is still totally happening. We just got a new draft in. We’ve been working on it, just wanting to get that project right because of how special it is to us. But it’s definitely happening, and we’ve got a really good draft that just came in that we’re excited about, that we’re going to continue to punch up a bit. But it’s getting closer and closer, and that one is definitely on the horizon.”
Looking at Johnson’s upcoming schedule, it’s hard to imagine his take on the American folklore hero coming together anytime soon, but you have to admire Seven Bucks’ continued determination to make John Henry and the Statesmen happen.