Dwayne Johnson’s dream of becoming the face of DC and weaving a whole universe encircling his anti-hero has been shredded by the studio executives. As it seems the studio and The Rock don’t seem to see eye to eye in many facets, with further reports initiating the studio’s exasperation with Dwayne Johnson’s elevating demands before Black Adam‘s release.
With everything circulating regarding Dwayne Johnson’s dispute with Warner Bros. after the failure of Black Adam in theatres, some insiders have apprised more odd and eccentric demands of the actor before the premiere of Black Adam which infuriated numerous bigwigs in the studio.
Tequila takes the focus amidst Dwayne Johnson’s and executives’ disputes
Even ahead of the release of Black Adam, Dwayne Johnson was sure as a gun regarding his movie breaking charts at the box office consequently kickstarting his vision for DC with his over-the-top hyping about the future of Teth Adam and his eventual clash with the Man of Steel. subsequently, his solicitations started to become kind of zany and anomalous to the studio.
The actor made numerous demands to the studio like asking for a producer credit in the DC League of Super-Pets alongside comprising a very odd request to land his brand Tequila Teremana a bar at the Black Adam movie premiere in New York as Teremana has proved to be a highly lucrative venture for The Rock. While his successive demands were becoming a nuisance for the studio, the tequila bar demand was the one which broke the camel’s back, as the studios refused the actor’s wish. WB executives allegedly felt the tequila bar at the premiere would have been out of place for a PG-13 superhero movie.
Black Adam fails in kickstarting the franchise
With the changes that happened at the Warner Bros office, the DC films were also affected. David Zaslav, after becoming the head brought on a lot of changes including the new DC heads. In the midst of these changes, there was no chief authority to stop The Rock from bestowing his enormous vision that he shared for DC and he pitched a multi-arc movie series comprising his eventual battle with Henry Cavill’s Superman.
Johnson’s initial plans were greenlit alongside his enormous demands as the studio was in a very tumultuous state post the merger with Discovery however his vision of taking the center stage has now gone under the weather after the disappointing box office return of $391M out of an overwhelming budget of $235M excluding the enormous marketing campaign which led to a state of disdain between the actor and studio. with one insider stating,
“Dwayne went around everyone, which didn’t sit well, his demands increased and the returns just weren’t there,”
Dwayne Johnson’s lofty plans are now dashed out from the frontline after Henry Cavill was let go from the Superman role by newly appointed DC executives, comprising James Gunn and Peter Safran who are revising the DC in a whole new light and Dwayne Johnson’s tenure as Black Adam seems to have washed off.
Black Adam is now streaming on HBO Max.
Source: Variety
