Dwayne Johnson and Issa Rae Team to Executive Produce HBO Show About Backyard Wrestling

*Dwayne Johnson, Issa Rae, and Dany Garcia are joining forces to executive produce a half-hour series for HBO about the creation of a backyard wrestling promotion.

According to Variety, the project is currently titled “TRE CNT” (a.k.a “TRE COUNT”) and hails from writer Mohamad El Masri. Here’s a breakdown of the plot via the publication:

The series focuses on Cassius Jones, a young dock worker and struggling pro-wrestler, who uses inherited life-insurance money for start-up cash and the deed to a shotgun house from his grandfather to start a hip-hop centric backyard wrestling empire in Houston’s Third Ward (The Tre) with the help of his working-class family, neighbors, and friends.

The series will be set in Houston’s Third Ward (which is where ‘The Tre’ comes from).

El Masri will also executive produce.

OTHER NEWS YOU MIGHT HAVE MISSED: A’shanti Gholar: Host of ‘The Brown Girls Guide to Politics’ Podcast Excited About Season 3

Rae currently stars in, executive produces the hit HBO series “Insecure,” which she co-created. The fourth season premiered April 12.

She is also an executive producer on the HBO comedy “A Black Lady Sketch Show.”

Johnson and Garcia executive produced the HBO series “Ballers,” on which Johnson also starred. The fifth and final season aired in October 2019.

In related news, Rae’s “The Lovebirds” comedy co-starring Kumail Nanjiani, is now being released by Netflix after several movie theaters shut down during the COVID-19 pandemic. As a result, movies set to release this Spring have been postponed indefinitely.

“The Lovebirds” was meant to premiere at SXSW and then open theatrically on April 3. The film was pulled from its theatrical release by Paramount in late March due to the coronavirus outbreak.

Directed by Michael Showalter, the romcom follows a couple’s wild journey after a date gone horribly wrong. Rae and Nanjiani are lovebirds who are implicated in a murder and have no choice but to try to clear their names.

“Initially they were written for white people which, plot-wise, would have been a different story,”  said Rae to EW of their characters Jibran and Leilani. “It’s not a story about race but we wanted to acknowledge our race and the fact that we’re an interracial couple.”

“The Lovebirds” will officially premiere on the streaming platform on May 22.

We Publish News 24/7. Don’t Miss A Story. Click HERE to SUBSCRIBE to Our Newsletter Now!