Vin Diesel and Dwayne Johnson may not be the best of friends, but they keep taking pointers from each other’s careers. After Johnson leapt off his Fast Five performance to become a Diesel-esque action star of movies like Skyscraper and San Andreas, now it looks Diesel like is taking a page out his co-star’s book.
Back in 2018, Johnson starred in Rampage, a sci-fi/action/giant monster film based on the 80s video game of the same name. Now Diesel is teaming up with that film’s writer – Ryan Engle – to star in a film also based on a similar popular throwback game of sorts; Rock ‘Em Sock ‘Em Robots.
The film will follow a father and son who form an unlikely bond with an advanced war machine. It sounds a little like that Hugh Jackman Real Steel movie from the last decade, but there’s probably also plenty of Transformers inspiration in there, especially Bumblebee.
The project is in the works at Universal and Mattel, with the latter really trying to push their products into film projects since rebranding in 2018. Films based on Barbie, Masters Of The Universe, Hot Wheels and even Uno are in various stages of development.
Practically every piece of IP that was popular in the past is getting its own movie at this point, so why not Rock ‘Em Sock ‘Em Robots? People like Diesel and fighting robots, it’s not rocket science. This announcement also comes on the heels of similar giant fighting movie Godzilla vs Kong performing admirably well in cinemas around the world, probably not a coincidence.
As the Fast & Furious franchise begins to draw to a close (we think), Diesel is going to likely want another franchise to hang hit hat on. Maybe this is it.
#Peace.Love.RockEmSockEmRobots
