Journey to the Center of the Earth was released in 2008 and starred Brendan Fraser, but it was WWE Superstar turned Hollywood’s highest grossing actor Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson who took over the franchise in 2012. The sequel was called Journey 2: The Mysterious Island and also starred Michael Caine.
New Line are now moving ahead with third and fourth instalments in the franchise, with The Rock attached to star in both. Chad and Carey Hayes, the brothers who wrote hit horror movie The Conjuring for the same studio, will pen the scripts for both of these new Journey movies, though there’s no word on a director.
There are also no plot details available as of right now, but the Hayes brothers replace Brian and Mark Gunn (who were hired back in 2012 to write Journey 3), so it appears as if they’ll take the franchise in a new direction.
The Hayes brothers worked with Johnson on San Andreas, New Line’s upcoming earthquake disaster movie, so it could be that he played a major role in them coming on board the Journey franchise. They’re also developing a supernatural action movie called Seal Team 666 for MGM which will also star the actor.
Johnson is also attached to a DC Comics movie for Warner Bros. (believed to be Shazam), so we’ll have to wait and see where all these projects all fit in to his schedule over the next few years.
