The Smashing Machine, Starring The Rock, Begins Filming In May

PWInsider reports that A24’s The Smashing Machine, starring the Rock, will begin production on May 1. The biopic, which looks at the life of former UFC fighter Mark Kerr, was announced back in December. It has been in development since November 2019, but was delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. It’s based on the 2002 documentary The Smashing Machine: The Life and Times of Mark Kerr..

Rock will also produce through Seven Bucks. Emily Blunt will play Kerr’s wife Dawn Staples. Casting is ongoing for several key roles. Production will end on August 1. For those hoping Rock will wrestle again after Wrestlemania, this will likely put a stop to that until the fall, at the earliest. Benny Safdie will write and direct.

The Smashing Machine will shoot in Los Angeles, New Mexico, Tokyo and Vancouver. Other roles yet to be cast include Bas Rutten, Igor Vovchanchyn, PRIDE owner Nobuyuki Sakakibara and Mark Coleman, who was Kerr’s mentor and trainer. Rutten also trained Kerr and Vovchanchyn fought him in PRIDE.