Dwayne Johnson will be taking some country pride to the silver screen. The actor formerly known as The Rock will top-line and produce a biopic on Black country music legend Charlie Pride.

Terrence Howard was originally supposed to play Pride when the project was announced in 2006. But since then, for unknown reasons, the film was shelved. But in an interview with the Telegraph-Journal, Pride revealed that not only was the movie back on track, with Hustle & Flow director Craig Brewer to helm, but Johnson will be portraying him.

“It startled me a little at first,” Pride admitted to the Telegraph-Journal. “But he flew down to Dallas and spent a day with me just sitting, talking recently. And when he left it was like parting with an old friend. We had such similar views on so many things."

Johnson will produce the project along with Dany Garcia, Randy Jackson and Pride's manager John Daines in association with Sony ATV Music Publishing.

Pride, who is a Country Music Hall of Famer, rose from an impoverished childhood in Mississippi to become one of the few Black country music singers to have phenomenal success in the mostly white music genre. He has charted more than three dozen No. 1 singles and has sold more than 70 million records.

Johnson is currently starring in Universal's Fast Five.

(Photo: Ethan Miller/Getty Images)