Emily Blunt teases Dwayne Johnson's "terribly exciting role" in Martin Scorsese's new mob movie: "It's the last great American mob story, and I can't believe it hasn't been told yet"

Emily Blunt and Dwayne Johnson in The Smashing Machine
(Image credit: A24/Entertainment)

Emily Blunt has teased her co-star Dwayne Johnson's role in Martin Scorsese's next, currently untitled movie – and she says it's a "terribly exciting role" for the actor, whose choice of acting projects has taken a turn for the dramatic recently.

"We're developing it right now. It's a really astonishing story," Blunt told Deadline. "It's the last great American mob story, and I can't believe it hasn't been told yet. It's a terribly exciting role for [Johnson] to kind of dig into. So, it's being written, we're working on it. And that's the wonderful part, is building it."

Johnson and Blunt (who are currently co-starring in The Smashing Machine, a biopic of wrestler and MMA fighter Mark Kerr, and previously worked together on 2021's Jungle Cruise) will be joined by frequent Scorsese collaborator Leonardo DiCaprio in the film.

When Johnson's casting was first announced, Deadline described the character as "Robert De Niro's Jimmy the Gent character from Goodfellas, but as a ruthless Hawaiian crime boss, based on a real figure, who battled encroaching rivals for control of organized crime in Hawaii." The movie is reportedly set during a "turbulent time" on the island of paradise when "an aspiring mob boss battled rival crime factions to wrest control of the underworld of the Hawaiian islands."

Journalist Nick Bilton is writing the screenplay for the film, which will be Scorsese's first movie since 2023's Killers of the Flower Moon. Starring DiCaprio, Lily Gladstone, and Robert De Niro, Killers of the Flower Moon is set in Oklahoma in the '20s and follows the brutal murder of the Osage people over local oil supplies.

Scorsese's next movie doesn't have a release date yet. While we wait for more updates, check out our guide to the best upcoming movies still to come in 2025.

Entertainment Writer

I’m an Entertainment Writer here at GamesRadar+, covering everything film and TV-related across the Total Film and SFX sections. I help bring you all the latest news and also the occasional feature too. I’ve previously written for publications like HuffPost and i-D after getting my NCTJ Diploma in Multimedia Journalism. 

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