During NBC Universal’s presentation at the TCA winter press tour, it was announced that NBC has ordered up a new series called Young Rock, centered on the “formative years” of WWE Superstar and global box office champ Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson.
This 11-episode single-cam comedy is being produced by Nahnatchka Khan (Fresh Off the Boat, Don’t Trust the B) and Johnson himself. Johnson will appear in every episode, but the search is on for a young actor to portray the childhood version of him.
The pilot was co-written by Khan and Jeff Chiang (Don’t Trust the B, American Dad!).
“I have talked about this wild and unpredictable and unbelievable childhood that I had,” Johnson said, via video, to the reporters on hand. “I’ve told many many stories, many of them unbelievable, but all of them true. You’ll find Young Rock wreaking havoc in the streets of Hawaii. Getting arrested doing a lot of things I shouldn’t do. We were evicted off the island and moved, to all places, Nashville, Tennessee,” he shared.
“Imagine me being in downtown Nashville, listening to country music at 15 years-old, buying my first car from a crackhead for $70. We go into my high school years as Young Rock, and my role as a University of Miami football star, until I got beaten out of my position by a young man named Warren Sapp, who went on to become one of the greatest defensive tackles of all time.”
You can see The Rock himself make the announcement on Twitter too, calling the show his “Forrest Gump” years …
My formative years, also known as my “Forrest Gump” years were wildly unbelievable, yet incredibly all true.
Ladies & gents, we bring you our exciting new comedy series, “YOUNG ROCK”. @NBC@SevenBucksProd #FierceBabyProductions pic.twitter.com/1AN8AJ8BnU— Dwayne Johnson (@TheRock) January 12, 2020
The series will be executive produced by Nahnatchka Khan, Dwayne Johnson, Jeff Chiang, Dany Garcia, Hiram Garcia, Brian Gewirtz and Jennifer Carreras.
The show will be produced by Universal Television, Seven Bucks Productions and Fierce Baby Productions.
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Matt Fowler is a writer for IGN and a member of the Television Critics Association. Follow him on Twitter at @TheMattFowler and Facebook at Facebook.com/MattBFowler.
Source: IGN.com NBC Orders Comedy Based On the Life of The Rock