Dwayne Johnson Talks Up Michael Bay's 'Pain And Gain'

Las Vegas welcomed Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson to Paramount Pictures' CinemaCon presentation, where he had pimping this summer's "G.I. Joe: Retaliation" on his mind.

Meanwhile, ComingSoon caught up with Johnson and let him open up about taking part in Michael Bay's long in the works "passion project" between billions-grossing "Transformers" sequels, "Pain and Gain". Johnson promised that Bay's smaller-scale film rooted in the real exploits of "Sun Gym Gang" bodybuilders-turned-kidnappers Daniel Lugo and Adrien Doorbal. The chiseled six-foot-plus former University of Miami defensive end and multi-time WWE Champion, surprisingly, is surprisingly playing neither. He's instead playing caught-up bartender Paul Doyle.

Johnson painted the project as Bay's directional shift.

"It's a smaller-scale movie, not only for Michael Bay, but it's a smaller movie,  but also keep in mind that 'Pain and Gain' has been Michael's passion project for years now so when someone like Michael who visually, stylistically...he's a brilliant, brilliant filmmaker, to be able to take that spirit and engage it in a passion project that he loves," Johnson said. "I think out of that, we're going to find some really special things. I have had the greatest time playing this character, because the craziest part about this is that every day when I wrap - whether it's 3:00 in the morning or 6:00 at night - I go home thinking, 'Jesus Christ, this s**t really happened, all this crazy s**t happened."

The film's budget would indeed make it Bay's lowest-priced feature to date. ComingSoon has promised a more complete recap of their talk with Johnson soon.

Though "Pain and Gain" has been confirmed to also star Mark Wahlberg, it doesn't yet have a targeted release date. Ironically, something else much bigger does have one: Bay said he when officially announced his helming of a third "Transformers" sequel that he and Paramount have targeted that franchise continuation for a June 29, 2014 release - scheduled specifically, he claimed, so that he could finish "Pain and Gain" in the intervening two years.