10-Year-Old Lands Lead Opposite Dwayne Johnson in 'Lizard Music'
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- Theo Clark Leber, a 10-year-old 4th grader from Evanston, IL, landed the starring role of a boy opposite Dwayne Johnson in Benny Safdie's 'Lizard Music' following a months-long casting process.
- Lizard Music is Safdie's follow-up to 'The Smashing Machine' — the A24 sports drama that earned Safdie a Golden Globe nomination — and adapts Daniel Pinkwater's 1976 novel as a live-action/CGI hybrid for Amazon MGM Studios and United Artists.
- The film's plot follows a boy left to his own devices who discovers a secret late-night broadcast of lizards playing otherworldly music, then meets Johnson's eccentric 'Chicken Man' and his 111-year-old chicken Claudia on a journey through 'invisible worlds.'
- Leber's prior credit is a Writers Theatre production of 'Leopoldstadt' in Glencoe, Illinois; he is represented by Matt Fletcher at Arise Artist Agency, Laura Alexander at Talent X Alexander, and attorney Jeff Hynick at Jackoway Austen Tyerman.
- Producers on the film include UA's Scott Stuber and Nick Nesbitt, Safdie via Out for the Count Productions, Johnson via Seven Bucks Productions, and David Koplan of Magnetic Fields Entertainment.
Why it matters: Landing a lead role opposite one of Hollywood's biggest stars represents a career-launching break for a child actor with zero feature credits — the kind of debut that has historically defined young performers (e.g., the young stars cast in 'E.T.' or 'Home Alone'). The casting also confirms Safdie and Johnson are reteaming after the Golden Globe-validated 'The Smashing Machine,' positioning Amazon MGM and United Artists behind a literary fantasy property that combines live-action and CGI.
