Dwayne Johnson

Dwayne Johnson

It's not unusual for singers and sports stars to branch out into acting as they try to find success in a second field.

In recent years a sting of wrestlers have also tried their hand at acting... but none has enjoyed the level of success that has come the way of Dwayne Johnson.

The Rock was one of the most popular wrestlers during the late nineties and early noughties which made his transition in TV and film a little easier.

And TV was where he began with Saturday Night Live, That '70s Show and Star Trek:Voyager. But it wasn't long before Hollywood came knocking.

He made his big screen debut back in 2001 when he took on the role of The Scorpion King in The Mummy Returns, a role he reprised a year later in a spin off movie The Scorpion King.

Despite landing his first lead role the reception for the movie wasn't great and it only too $165 million at the global box office.

Undeterred Johnson began carving an acting career for himself as he worked on Walking Cool, Be Cool and Doom.

Doom was another computer game that was adapted for the big screen and saw Johnson work alongside Lord of the Rings star Karl Urban.

Sadly, like most computer game themed movies, it was not a box office success, as it failed to recoup it's budget.

By 2007 he had shaken off he wrestling name The Rock as he topped the U.S. box office in 2007 with The Game Plan.

And since then Johnson has enjoyed a string of box office success as he took the number one spot with Get Smart, in which he worked alongside Steve Carrell and Anne Hathaway, and Race To With Mountain.

And he is back on the big screen this week in his latest family themed movie Tooth Fairy, which also stars Ashley Judd and Julie Andrews.

He takes on the role of Derek Thompson a hard-charging minor league hockey player whose nickname comes from his habit of separating opposing players from their bicuspids.

When Derek discourages a youngster's hopes, he's sentenced to one week's hard labour as a real tooth fairy, complete with the requisite tutu, wings and magic wand.

At first, Derek "can't handle the tooth", bumbling and stumbling as he tries to furtively wing his way through strangers' homes, doing what tooth fairies do.

But as Derek slowly adapts to his new position, he begins to rediscover his own forgotten dreams.

Tooth Fairy is the first movie for Johnson since lending his voice to animation picture Planet 51 last year.

And he has plenty in the pipeline for the rest of 2010 as he stars in Faster with Billy Bob Thornton before starring alongside Mark Wahlberg, Will Ferrell and Samuel L Jackson in cop comedy The Other Guys.

He has a couple of projects in  pre-production including Protection with Julian Scott Urena and the fifth Fast and Furious movie with Vin Diesel and Paul Walker.

The Tooth Fairy is released 28th May

FemaleFirst Helen Earnshaw

 


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