Back in 2021, Dwayne Johnson and Emily Blunt successfully fronted the latest adaptation of a classic Disney theme park ride with Jungle Cruise. After the adventurous film brought the two Hollywood actors together as co-leads, they are reportedly working out details on their next project, but no, it’s still not Disney’s Jungle Cruise 2.
Emily Blunt is reportedly currently in discussions to be part of A24’s The Smashing Machine, which is set to have Dwayne Johnson portray MMA and UFC champion Mark Kerr. Per Variety, Blunt is in talks to play Kerr’s wife Dawn Staples, who faces a great deal of difficulty finding her place in Mark Kerr’s “chaotic and contradictory world” during the film. The Smashing Machine will take place in the year 2000, which had Kerr both at the height of his career and dealing with his addiction to painkillers.
The Smashing Machine was officially announced back in December, with Uncut Gems’ Benny Safdie set to write and direct the biopic. Should Emily Blunt join the movie, it will not only bring her back together with her Jungle Cruise co-star, but with a member of her Oppenheimer cast since Safdie was in Christopher Nolan’s sprawling array of talents.
The Rock Movies: A List Of Upcoming Films Starring Dwayne Johnson
Per the source, before Emily Blunt was approached to play Mark Kerr’s wife, she actually heavily encouraged The Rock to make the movie. Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson and Benny Safdie had originally started working on the project back in 2019, but the pandemic placed it on pause. However, once Blunt heard about the project from Johnson and watched the 2002 documentary The Smashing Machine: The Life and Times of Extreme Fighter Mark Kerr, she suggested that he “must” make the biopic.
Following Jungle Cruise’s runaway success back in 2021, Disney quickly greenlit a sequel, but almost three years later, we’ve yet to hear about much movement on it. Instead, we’ve heard about multiple other projects for which Johnson and Blunt have been trying to reunite. Back in 2022, it was reported that the pair were signing up for a movie called Ball And Chain, where they’d play a married couple who get superpowers amidst plans to divorce.
Then this past October, it was reported they were both working on a movie with Amazon Studios and their Jungle Cruise director Jaume Collet-Serra called Kate Warne. The movie will reportedly see Blunt playing the titular woman, who is known as the United States’ first female detective. Of all the projects we’ve heard about in the past few years regarding Blunt and Johnson, The Smashing Pumpkin seems to be picking up steam the quickest, especially considering it’s reportedly going to begin shooting this summer.
Clearly Emily Blunt and Dwayne Johnson enjoyed working together, and while nothing seems to be official just yet, we definitely expect to see them reunite on the big screen again. Check out what other upcoming A24 movies are in the works here on CinemaBlend.
