Toronto: Biopic on Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson's Father in the Works

Indie filmmakers Jonathan and Justin Gajewski are developing 'Ring King' after optioning the life rights to Rocky Johnson, ex-TV wrestler and WWE Hall of Famer.

A biopic of Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson's father, Rocky Johnson, is in the works.

Toronto-based filmmakers Jonathan and Justin Gajewski are developing Ring King, a feature about the Canadian wrestling superstar and father of the top Hollywood action hero after optioning the life rights to Rocky Johnson, now 73 years old.

The Gajewski twins will produce the biopic via their JG Brothers production banner after completing earlier assistant director credits on a host of movies and TV series shot in Toronto, including Suicide Squad, Scott Pilgrim vs. the World and the Minority Report miniseries.

“We are very excited to bring Rocky Johnson’s incredible story to the world,” Jonathan and Justin Gajewski, who are also writing the screenplay for Ring King, said in a statement.

Born and raised in Nova Scotia as Wade Douglas Bowles, and well before he became a star and a onetime world tag team champion in the then World Wrestling Federation, the elder Johnson started wrestling in 1964 as a young man in and around Toronto.

Eventually as a black Canadian in the U.S. during the civil rights movement, Rocky Johnson went on to make his name in the professional wrestling game as a journeyman while fending off racial prejudice and other personal and professional obstacles outside the ring. That included being among the first black wrestlers to demand and receive a contract.

Rocky Johnson retired from the wresting ring in 1991 and was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame.

This story also appears in The Hollywood Reporter's Sept. 7 daily issue at the Toronto Film Festival.