Dwayne Johnson Is Unrecognizable as the Chicken Man in New ‘Lizard Music’ Set Photos

For two decades, Dwayne Johnson has been one of Hollywood’s most recognizable faces, a reliable draw for studios building tentpole movies around him. That makes his role in ‘Lizard Music‘ one of the stranger and more fascinating gambles of his career. It’s a fantasy adventure about musical reptiles, an eccentric old man and a very elderly chicken.

The project reunites him with director Benny Safdie, who directed him in ‘The Smashing Machine’. Safdie won the Silver Lion at the Venice Film Festival for that MMA drama, in which Johnson played fighter Mark Kerr. Plenty of people expected them to follow it with something serious, not a family fantasy with a CGI-heavy hook.

Principal photography began on August 3, 2026, at Trilith Studios in Georgia, with additional shooting planned in New York and Hawaii. That brings us to the latest development, which landed this week. Johnson was photographed filming in Coney Island, Brooklyn, on October 20, 2026, and he looks almost nothing like himself.

Dwayne Johnson filming his new movie Lizard Music In theatres December 25, 2027 https://t.co/two8CG3d70

— CoveredGeekly (@CoveredGeekly) October 20, 2026

Johnson, 54, plays an eccentric older man known as the Chicken Man, and the look is a total departure from his usual physique. In the photos, he wears wispy gray hair, a bushy mustache, a tan bucket hat, a beige coat, a colorful tie and baggy pants. He’s also holding a slice of pizza as he walks beside his young co-star, Theo Clark Leber, who carries an oversized green lizard plush.

🦎🎶 Dwayne Johnson rocks a new look in New York City alongside child actor Theo Liber on the set of his upcoming film "Lizard Music." 📷: Getty https://t.co/WLbBP2H48v

— TMZ (@TMZ) October 20, 2026

The transformation was designed by Kazu Hiro, who also turned Tom Cruise into a geriatric oil baron for ‘Digger’. Johnson has said the role requires about five hours of prosthetic makeup every day. It’s another dramatic makeover after ‘The Smashing Machine’, which also involved heavy prosthetics.

The film is set for release on Christmas Day 2027 from Amazon MGM Studios. The date is later than some early reports suggested, and it gives the live-action/CGI hybrid plenty of time for visual effects. Johnson is also a producer alongside Safdie, Scott Stuber, Nick Nesbitt and David Koplan.

Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson looks unrecognizable on the set of Benny Safdie’s “Lizard Music” in NYC 🎬 🎥: BACKGRID https://t.co/dChbPzIF8n

— Page Six (@PageSix) October 20, 2026

The film adapts Daniel Pinkwater’s cult-favorite 1976 children’s novel of the same name. According to the official logline, a boy left to his own devices stumbles onto a secret late-night broadcast of lizards playing otherworldly music. A hidden door to the extraordinary swings open, and his search for answers leads him to the Chicken Man and his beloved companion, a chicken named Claudia.

The pair then set off on an adventure that begins as a hunt for a hidden society and grows into a voyage through invisible worlds and unexpected harmonies. Johnson’s character is described as a 70-year-old man, and the chicken as a 111-year-old. It’s a deliberately whimsical premise, which is part of what makes the casting so intriguing.

The supporting cast is stacked. Regina Hall, Alicia Silverstone, Tim Heidecker, Andrew Dice Clay and Arya Parvathi are among the stars, and Rachel McAdams and Colman Domingo have also been linked to the film. It’s an eclectic mix, and it suggests Safdie is aiming for something distinctive rather than a standard family movie.

The project also matters to the people behind it. Safdie has said he read Pinkwater’s book to his two sons, and Johnson has said it took only about 45 minutes of convincing from Safdie to sign on. Amazon MGM’s film chief called the story timeless and unique, and she praised the duo’s previous work together.

For Johnson, it’s also part of a broader shift. After years of action tentpoles, he’s now using prosthetics and weight loss to disappear into characters. ‘Lizard Music’ continues that approach, and the Brooklyn photos are a vivid first look at how far he’s willing to go.

Filming was scheduled to wrap on October 21, 2026, according to production tracking, so the cameras are nearly done rolling. We still haven’t seen the lizards, the chicken or any footage, so the first trailer will be the real test. For now, the look alone has people talking.

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