‘The Godfather, Only in Hawaii’: The Rock and Martin Scorsese to Team Up in New Gangster Film

After changing the direction of his career with Heart of a Fighter: The Smashing Machine, leaving action films aside to delve into drama, Dwayne Johnson will work with one of Hollywood’s most renowned directors: Martin Scorsese.

After Fighter’s Heart, The Rock stars in Martin Scorsese’s new film

Martin Scorsese is developing a crime drama starring Dwayne Johnson, Leonardo DiCaprio e Emily Blunt. The film is set in Hawaii, described as a cross between Goodfellas and The Departed.

According to information from Deadline, the film directed by Martin Scorsese and written by Nick Bilton follows a ruthless Hawaiian crime boss, inspired by a real person, who fought rivals for control of organized crime in Hawaii.

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“The Godfather, only in Hawaii”

In an interview with Fotogramas.es, Dwayne Johnson commented on the new project. “I’m developing a gangster film with Martin Scorsese, so I’m excited”.

It’s a very interesting project: imagine The Godfather, but set on the Hawaiian Islands. It’s the last great mob story that hasn’t been told yet. We are very excited about this

The Rock gave more details on the story in an appearance on The Pat McAfee Show (via ComingSoon.net). “Nappy Pulawa is considered the big boss of Hawaii”.

He was the boss who commanded all the islands, but he had to do it in a very ruthless, strategic and, at the same time, intelligent way. But also remember, we had the Japanese yakuza, the Chinese triads, the Korean gangs, outside influence, American gangsters coming from Las Vegas trying to take over Hawaii, it was a hotbed of violence. What this man did was a reflection of how people felt at that time. In the 50s and 60s, when everyone was coming in, taking over Hawaii and breaking it up. He said, ‘This ends, and this all ends now.’ And he took back control

It was The Rock himself who took this story to Martin Scorsese. “We pitched the idea and he loved it. He was amazed that this story had never been told… The idea of ​​telling this story with Scorsese; nobody does gangster movies better than Martin Scorsese. He’s the greatest of all time. He’s on Mount Rushmore with directors. Nobody does it better. But I think what really excited him about this project was the idea of ​​a man who stands up – yes, a gangster, yes, a kingpin, and yes, ruthless – but it also rises up to recover what was stolen, which was culture and land”.