Dwayne Johnson to be Benny Safdie's "Chicken Man" in Lizard Music

There are no lies in this world salad: The Smashing Machine team's next project will be Lizard Music starring The Rock as "Chicken Man."

By Matt Schimkowitz | September 8, 2025 | 7:54pm

Courtesy of A24

Film News Dwayne Johnson

Following the success of their film, The Smashing Machine, at the Venice Film Festival, where director Benny Safdie won the Silver Lion, and star Dwayne Johnson received a 12-minute standing ovation, Safdie and Johnson have settled on their next project: Lizard Music. Based on Lizard Music by Daniel Pinkwater, a children’s book and young adult author, the film offers Johnson a chance to return to his gonzo Southland Tales roots. Much like Smashing Machine, the story of MMA fighter Mark Kerr, which echoes Johnson’s relationship with combat sports as a member of a multi-generational pro-wrestling family and board member of UFC owner TKO, Lizard Music also offers Johnson a chance to explore a personal interest. This time, it’s in service of his dream of being Chicken Man, the boyfriend of a 70-year-old chicken named Claudia.

Per Deadline, the film follows a boy who finds a Videodrome channel of lizards playing otherworldly music. In his search for answers, the boy meets the “eccentric and whimsical” Chicken Man and Claudia, who join him on his quest to find the truth behind the mysterious channel. As they traverse the hidden worlds, the boy, Chicken Man, and Claudia learn that the real Lizard Music is the friends they make along the way. “I’m your Chicken Man,” Johnson told Safdie after a 45-minute pitch on the film. Soon, he’ll be the world’s.