Making his feature debut at age 10, Theo Clark Leber has landed the lead role opposite Dwayne Johnson in Benny Safdie's Lizard Music. An adaptation of Daniel Pinkwater's 1976 novel, the film follows a boy who stumbles upon otherworldly creatures and dimensions.
The story is about a boy (Leber), left to fend for himself, discovering a secret late-night broadcast of lizards playing otherworldly music. The door to another world swings open. He unites with The Chicken Man (Johnson) and his companion, the 111-year-old Chicken, on a journey to find answers for this phenomenon.
Safdie's Out for the Count Productions, Johnson's Seven Bucks Productions, Scott Stuber and Nick Nesbitt's UA, and David Koplan's Magnetic Fields Entertainment are producing the upcoming film.
Safdie and Johnson are uniting back-to-back after their previous collaboration, The Smashing Machine (2025). Safdie was last seen in Christopher Nolan's recent epic drama The Odyssey, in which he starred as Agamemnon, the king of Mycenae.
Johnson, meanwhile, was recently seen in the live-action adaptation of Disney's Moana. He played Maui, the character to which he had lent his voice in the animated franchise. He will next be seen in Jumanji: Open World, directed by Jake Kasdan. He stars opposite Jack Black, Kevin Hart, Nick Jonas, Karen Gillan, Danny DeVito, and Awkwafina.
