Dwayne Johnson Transforms Into Septuagenarian Street Performer for Benny Safdie's 'Lizard Music'

Dwayne Johnson underwent a physical transformation into mixed martial arts legend Mark Kerr for his last collaboration with director Benny Safdie, the biopic The Smashing Machine. Now, he's almost unrecognizable in Safdie's next movie, the fantasy family film Lizard Music. The first on-set images from the film have arrived, chronicling Johnson's performance as a septuagenarian street performer in the movie, which is slated to be released next Christmas.

In the photos, Johnson looks to have added about 20 years and lost 30 pounds of muscle to play the eccentric Chicken Man; he's also sporting a bucket hat that, as all readers of the book know, conceals his best friend, an elderly chicken named Claudia. Johnson underwent a five-hour makeup process daily to complete his transformation. The man responsible is veteran makeup artist Kazu Hiro, who also made Tom Cruise into an elderly oil tycoon in Digger. You'll be able to see for yourself when Amazon MGM Studios releases the film in theaters on Christmas Day, 2027.

In addition to Johnson, the movie also stars Regina Hall (One Battle After Another), Tim Heidecker (Us), Alicia Silverstone (Clueless), Andrew Dice Clay (A Star Is Born), and newcomers Arya Parvathi and Theo Clark Leber. It also features the voices of Colman Domingo (Michael), Jeff Goldblum (Wicked), Rachel McAdams (Send Help), and David Krumholtz (Oppenheimer); they'll presumably be playing the lizards of the title, most of whom are named Reynold. Safdie directs and also co-wrote the script with Ronald Bronstein, who he previously collaborated with on Good Time and Uncut Gems.

What Is 'Lizard Music' About?

Based on the 1976 novel by Daniel Pinkwater, Lizard Music centers around Victor, an oddball eleven-year-old who finds himself home alone for a two-week stretch of the summer. After he catches a glimpse of a bizarre, all-lizard band on late-night TV, he goes adventuring to find the source of the TV signal, and is eventually joined in his pursuit by the Chicken Man (played by Johnson), an eccentric street performer, and his trained chicken, Claudia. Together, they seek out the secret invisible island that a race of intelligent lizards call home...but once they've found it, will they ever leave it?