The Rock smells what Benny Safdie is cooking

Few had a 2023 as exciting as Benny Safdie. Moving from the charming and warmly received Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret to Christopher Nolan’s Los Alamos for Oppenheimer would be enough to leave anyone content. Yet, Safdie’s biggest turn was yet to come as the co-creator and star of The Curse, his and Nathan Fielder’s all-encompassing HGTV satire that, based on the response, is killing people with cringe. According to a new interview with Variety, all of this is part of Safdie’s newfound freedom as an artist. Having recently ended his creative partnership with his brother and longtime filmmaking collaborator Josh, the Obi-Wan Kenobi star is undertaking a much larger challenge—and by larger, we mean physically.

For the upcoming biopic about MMA fighter Mark Kerr, The Smashing Machine, Safdie will direct none other than Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson. The film is a passion project for Johnson, who is taking a break from “big, four-quadrant movies” to make it, but don’t worry, the Rock still loves making a Red Notice. If he hadn’t been making those kinds of movies, he never would’ve met Safdie. After all, It was one of his four-quadrant co-stars, Jungle Cruise’s Emily Blunt, who encouraged Johnson to make the movie and connected the People’s Champion with her Oppenheimer colleague.

Johnson sees Safdie as a creative equal who “continues to push the envelope when it comes to stories that are raw and real, characters that are authentic and at times uncomfortable and arresting.” These are areas of improvement for the Rock. “I want to push myself in ways that I’ve not pushed myself in the past,” he continued. “I’m at a point in my career where I want to make films that matter, that explore humanity and explore struggle.”

Smashing Machine tells the story of MMA legend Mark Kerr, a former wrestling and UFC champion. The film shares the name of the 2002 HBO documentary about Kerr, which focused on the fighter’s success and his struggles with painkillers. The Rock calls it his “most dramatic role yet” and that “Benny Safdie is the perfect, collaborative, hungry partner for me.”

We just have to hope no one gets cursed on the way to set.