Dwayne Johnson was spotted shooting Lizard Music in Brooklyn this week, sporting a dramatic prosthetic transformation into a 70-year-old character known as the Chicken Man. Set photos show Johnson in a tan bucket hat and coat, holding a slice of pizza, walking alongside young co-star Theo Clark Leber, who carries an oversized lizard plush. Kazu Hiro, the artist behind the transformation, recently turned Tom Cruise into a geriatric oil baron for Digger.
Based on Daniel Pinkwater’s children’s book of the same name, Lizard Music follows a young boy who discovers a secret late-night broadcast of lizard musicians, leading him to the eccentric Chicken Man and his 111-year-old chicken companion, Claudia, as the pair set out to uncover a hidden society. The film also stars Regina Hall, Colman Domingo, Rachel McAdams, David Krumholtz, Jeff Goldblum, Alicia Silverstone, Tim Heidecker, Arya Parvathi, and Andrew Dice Clay.
Benny Safdie directs from his own script, marking his second collaboration with Johnson following 2025’s The Smashing Machine, which also involved a significant physical transformation for Johnson, who played UFC Hall of Famer Mark Kerr in what was Safdie’s first solo directorial effort apart from his brother Josh.
Speaking at a 2025 Toronto Film Festival career retrospective, Johnson said it only took Safdie about 45 minutes to convince him to sign on, and that preparing for the role meant shedding 30 pounds of muscle, joking that the hardest part was simply “eating less chicken.” That willingness to repeatedly reshape his body for character-driven roles, rather than leaning on his established action-star physique, continues to position Johnson as an actor actively working to expand his range well beyond the roles that built his career.
Amazon MGM Studios produces, with Scott Stuber and Nick Nesbitt for United Artists, Safdie for Out for the Count Productions, Johnson for Seven Bucks Productions, and David Koplan for Magnetic Fields Entertainment. Lizard Music arrives in theaters December 25, 2027, releasing the same day as Ron Howard’s Alone at Dawn and Nancy Meyers’ Paris Paramount.
With Johnson now fully transformed on set and a crowded Christmas 2027 release date already set, the next thing to watch is how a film built around a man and his century-old chicken fares against two other starry holiday releases arriving the same day.