Dwayne Johnson will be playing in director Robert Zemeckis’ new historical drama The King as Hawaiian King Kamehameha. 

Johnson has starred in three New Line titles — San Andreas, Rampage, and Journey 2: The Mysterious Island. Zemeckis has won an Academy Award for the best director for Forrest Gump. He has also helmed the Back to the Future trilogy, Cast Away, Flight, The Polar Express, and the upcoming Welcome to Marwen. 

Warner Bros and New Line bought the script for The King written by Randall Wallace. The historical drama is about the first ruler of the Kingdom of Hawaii. After a series of battles during the 1790s, King Kamehameha united the Hawaiian Islands and guaranteed they stayed a united realm after his death. Johnson has been interested in the movie for a couple of years and finally decided to take this project when he was filming in Hawaii for his hit comedy Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle. 

Johnson, Dany Garcia, and Hiram Garcia will produce through Seven Bucks Productions company. Zemeckis will be producing with Beau Flynn through FlynnPictureCo. 

The studio plans to shoot the film in 2020.