Dwayne Johnson to play country singer Charley Pride

Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson will give his thesping muscles a stretch in a planned biopic of country music star Charley Pride.

He'll star as Pride in a forthcoming biopic, which he's also producing.

Suggesting there could be more to Johnson's screen capabilities than high-octane actioners ( Fast Five , Faster ) and family friendly fluff ( The Tooth Fairy , The Game Plan ), the news was announced by Pride himself, in an interview with the Telegraph-Journal (via The Playlist).

Originally the project was earmarked for the Hustle & Flow team of director Craig Brewer and star Terrence Howard, with Pride stating: "Now it’s back on track again but with action and comedy star Dwayne Johnson portraying me in the title role.

"Terrence, it seems, is tied up on other involvements for a few years."

Pride went on to give the erstwhile 'Most Electrifying Man in Sports Entertainment' his blessing: "Terrence is no doubt a more in-depth actor academically, but Dwayne is such a force on screen.

"It startled me a little at first, but he flew down to Dallas and spent a day with me just sitting, talking recently. And when he left it was like parting with an old friend. We had such similar views on so many things."

There's certainly enough dramatic meat in Pride's life story for Johnson to feast on, with a baseball career, army conscription and racial adversity shaping the man before he became a music sensation.

It's not yet known exactly which sections of Pride's life the biopic will focus on, but it'll certainly be a change of pace for Johnson. Could this be his Ray ?

Matt Maytum is the former Editor of Total Film magazine. Over the past decade, Matt has worked in various roles for TF online and in print, including at GamesRadar+. Bucket-list-ticking career highlights have included reporting from the set of Tenet and Avengers: Infinity War, as well as covering Comic-Con, TIFF and the Sundance Film Festival.