Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson wanted for third ‘Space Jam’ movie

Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson is wanted for the third “Space Jam” movie to follow in the footsteps of Michael Jordan and LeBron James.

The director of the most recent release – “Space Jam: A New Legacy” – would love to see the wrestler turned actor appear in the next instalment of the franchise in the way Michael Jordan and LeBron James did.

Malcolm D. Lee told Entertainment Weekly: “I think the bar has been set so high in terms of the first one with this global iconic superstar in Michael Jordan, and now the same global iconic superstar in LeBron James, who transcends sports.

“Who is that next person to put into that universe? And then you’ve got to find a script and story that’s good enough to not repeat what’s been done but will capture the spirit of it and keep it going … It would be different [with Johnson]. I’m not exactly sure what his skill set would be, maybe he goes back to wrestling. That might be interesting.”

With the new “Space Jam” movie, Lee was looking for a video game feel and to make it an “immersive experience”.

He told SLAM: “For me, it was like. Let’s have as much of a technical and fun video game experience. I wanted to make it a very immersive experience, you know, as if we were all at the game as audience members.”

The director also recalled a humorous story about LeBron channelling a video game for a scene in the flick.

Malcolm said: “I remember one moment, one of our motion capture performances had to throw LeBron an alley-oop, and we put the camera behind the basket. So, it was a very small window to get the shot. So, I said, ‘Hey, don’t throw it too high.’

“And LeBron said, ‘Too high?’ That was after the third take because the first two takes weren’t quite there. So, LeBron caught it kind of high and really just threw his arm back and threw it down and I jumped out of my seat.

“And he didn’t say anything after that, but I know he wanted to say, ‘Was that too high?’ And I loved it because I wasn’t really trying to motivate him, but it was kind of a happy accident.”