The Smashing Machine is beefing up its cast.
Bellator MMA champion Ryan Bader, who also won Season 8 of The Ultimate Fighter back in late 2008, is headed to Vancouver to star alongside Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson for what is expected to be a 2025 release. Hollywood leading ladies Emily Blunt and Lyndsey Gavin are also attached to the project, directed by Benny Safdie.
Johnson is currently training MMA to prepare for the role.
“Putting the MMA game on pause for a bit as I head to Vancouver for about three months,” Bader wrote on Instagram. “Excited to be a part of an amazing project by Benny Safdie, The Smashing Machine. Giving ode to a couple legends of the sport, Mark Kerr and Mark Coleman, the highs and the lows that come with this crazy ass sport.”
Bader, 40, knows a thing or two about the highs and the lows.
If you’ve seen the 2002 documentary directed by John Hyams, also titled The Smashing Machine, there’s probably no reason to watch a Hollywood actor with no fighting experience try to recreate the compelling and often times unsettling story of Mark Kerr.
But hey, Johnson really wanted to be an MMA fighter and loves his vanity projects.