08 February,2017 10:38 AM IST | | PTI
Wrestler-turned-actor Dwayne Johnson is helping to bring the life story of fellow WWE star Paige to the big screen in a new comedy drama
Dwayne Johnson
Los Angeles: Wrestler-turned-actor Dwayne Johnson is helping to bring the life story of fellow WWE star Paige to the big screen in a new comedy drama.
The "Fast Five" star will return to his ring roots for "Fighting With My Family", which will be based on the British sportswoman's rise to fame within her family of wrestlers. The project was inspired by UK TV documentary "The Wrestlers: Fighting With My Family" and will be written, directed and executive produced by "The Office" co-creator and star Stephen Merchant, reports Deadline.
"Fighting With My Family" will be Merchant's first gig as a solo feature film director, after previously working with comedy partner Ricky Gervais on 2010's "Cemetery Junction." Johnson will serve as an executive producer via his Seven Bucks Productions unit, while he also plans to take on a role in the biographical movie.
Paige, real name Saraya-Jade Bevis, will be portrayed on-screen by "Marcella" actress Florence Pugh, alongside "War & Peace" star Jack Lowden, who will play her brother Zak Zodiac, a fellow wrestler.
Paige and Zak's parents, reformed gangster Ian Bevis and his wife Julia Hamer-Bevis, also used to grapple in the ring under the stage names Ricky Knight and Sweet Saraya - and Johnson first came up with the idea of turning their story into a film back in 2012.
Production on "Fighting With My Family" is due to begin filming in Los Angeles and London later this month.
