In true boss fashion, Issa Rae hasn’t stopped working since she made her successful 2016 television debut with HBO hit series “Insecure,” and now the 35-year-old producer and actress is joining forces with Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson for her next project: tackling the wild world of backyard wrestling.
Rae and Johnson join producer, businesswoman, and athlete Dany Garcia as the executive producers of the series, currently titled “TRE CNT” (a.k.a “TRE COUNT”), which will follow young dock worker and struggling wrestler Cassius Jones as he works to create a backyard wrestling promotion. Backyard wrestling, for those who may not be in the know, is an underground sport in which participants use inexpensive equipment to create a low-budget wrestling environment and hold amateur matches.
According to Variety, Jones inherits a lump sum of money and the deed to a house from his grandfather and uses both to jump-start his “hip-hop centric backyard wrestling empire in Houston’s Third Ward (The Tre).”
Johnson, who formerly wrestled professionally as The Rock, will bring his intimate knowledge of the sport to the project. He and Garcia are producing the series under their Seven Bucks production company, which has released films including the recent “Jumanji” remakes starring Johnson and Kevin Hart, “Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw,” and the HBO series “Ballers.”
In addition to developing the to-be-titled series, Rae is currently executive producer for “A Black Lady Sketch Show,” and making the rounds promoting the newest season of “Insecure” as well as her upcoming romantic comedy “The Lovebirds,” heading to Netflix on May 22.
One thing the rising film and TV producer is not working on, however — despite rumors that say otherwise — is a “Set It Off” remake. “Oh, I would never remake a classic,” Rae told reporters when asked of the rumors that she was heading up the project. “I don’t know where that came from.”
