At first glance, the man walking through Brooklyn looks like an ordinary elderly New Yorker enjoying a slice of pizza.
He wears a light-colored bucket hat, a beige coat and a patterned tie. His hair is gray, his face is lined with wrinkles, and a white beard completes the transformation.
Walking beside him is a young boy carrying an enormous green lizard toy.
The elderly man is actually Dwayne Johnson, one of Hollywood's most recognizable action stars.
The photographs were taken during filming for Lizard Music on October 20 and published by entertainment outlets including Variety and Entertainment Weekly.
They provide the first substantial public look at Johnson's transformation into a character known as the Chicken Man, an eccentric figure approximately 70 years old.
It is a striking departure from the image the actor has developed through decades of wrestling, action cinema and blockbuster franchises.
The photographs are genuine images from the production, although they should not be confused with finished promotional stills or footage from the completed film.
The Chicken Man is almost impossible to recognize
Johnson's character is not simply an older version of his usual action persona.
The Chicken Man is an eccentric figure who lives with an extraordinarily old chicken named Claudia. Their unusual existence becomes central to an adventure involving a young boy and a hidden world of musical reptiles.
The new set photographs show how extensively Johnson's appearance has been altered.
His face features deep wrinkles, age spots and changes in its apparent structure. Gray facial hair and a wig complete the impression of a considerably older man.
The work was designed by Kazu Hiro, the celebrated prosthetic makeup artist whose previous credits include Darkest Hour and Bombshell.
Hiro is also associated with Tom Cruise's transformation for Digger and previously worked with Johnson on The Smashing Machine.
Those projects demonstrate different uses of prosthetic makeup.
In The Smashing Machine, the goal was to help Johnson resemble a real professional fighter, Mark Kerr. In Lizard Music, the artist has created an elderly fictional character whose physical identity is deliberately removed from the actor's established appearance.
Johnson had previously discussed the lengthy makeup process required for the role, indicating that his daily transformation involved several hours of preparation.
The Brooklyn photographs finally show the result in a practical filming environment.
Johnson also changed his physique for the part
The transformation extends beyond makeup.
During a public appearance at the 2025 Toronto International Film Festival, Johnson discussed reducing his muscular physique to play the much older character.
He said he had lost approximately 30 pounds of muscle, equivalent to about 14 kilograms.
That figure reflects Johnson's own account of his preparation rather than an independently verified measurement of muscle mass.
Nevertheless, the new photographs show a notably less imposing silhouette than the one normally associated with his action roles.
The change follows another demanding performance for Benny Safdie.
In The Smashing Machine, Johnson portrayed MMA fighter Mark Kerr, adopting a physical appearance designed to reproduce a real athlete's body and facial features.
His latest part requires almost the opposite approach.
Rather than emphasizing strength, the Chicken Man's appearance relies on age, apparent frailty and distinctive personality.
That difference suggests Johnson is interested in testing how much of his usual screen identity he can remove while still carrying a major production.
It does not mean that he has abandoned action franchises or commercial blockbusters. His broader career continues to include those projects.
But his renewed collaboration with Safdie clearly represents a willingness to pursue physically and dramatically unfamiliar characters.
What is Lizard Music actually about?
The film's premise is almost as unusual as Johnson's new appearance.
Based on Daniel Pinkwater's 1976 children's novel, Lizard Music follows a young boy who discovers an extraordinary late-night television broadcast.
Instead of ordinary programming, he sees mysterious lizards performing strange music.
Determined to discover where the broadcast originates, the boy begins an investigation that brings him into contact with the Chicken Man and Claudia, his 85-year-old chicken.
Their meeting opens the door to an adventure involving hidden societies, invisible worlds and extraordinary experiences.
The official synopsis emphasizes the friendship that develops between the boy and the elderly man.
They are presented as two lonely individuals who find one another at an unexpected moment, creating a relationship that becomes as important as the fantastical mystery they are exploring.
Theo Clark Leber plays the boy opposite Johnson.
The pairing is already visible in the Brooklyn photographs, which show them walking together while the child carries a large stuffed lizard.
The movie is being developed as a hybrid of live-action filmmaking and computer-generated imagery.
That approach is particularly appropriate for a story featuring musical reptiles and fantastic worlds, although the appearance of those creatures in the finished film remains unknown.
No official footage demonstrating the movie's visual effects has yet been released in the reports accompanying the set photographs.
Benny Safdie is moving into an unexpected genre
Benny Safdie may not be the first filmmaker audiences would associate with a whimsical children's fantasy.
Together with his brother Josh, he established a reputation through tense, often uncomfortable films such as Good Time and Uncut Gems.
Those stories focused on unstable situations, increasingly desperate decisions and characters whose attempts to solve problems frequently made them worse.
Safdie subsequently directed The Smashing Machine, a sports drama starring Johnson as Mark Kerr.
Lizard Music appears to be a significant departure from both the crime thrillers associated with the Safdie brothers and his recent biographical sports film.
Its premise centers on childhood curiosity, eccentric fantasy and the friendship between two unusual protagonists.
Nevertheless, the source material's surreal atmosphere could provide room for an unconventional directing approach.
The available information does not establish whether the finished movie will be predominantly comedic, emotionally reflective or occasionally unsettling.
The central creative challenge will involve translating Pinkwater's strange fictional world into a coherent cinematic experience without reducing its peculiar charm.
Johnson previously explained that Safdie needed approximately 45 minutes to convince him to accept the role.
That account suggests the actor was enthusiastic about the project early in its development.
Their relationship is now producing two dramatically different collaborations: one focused on a real fighter's troubled life, the other on an imaginary elderly man and his extraordinary chicken.
An unexpectedly ambitious ensemble cast
The film also features a substantial supporting cast.
Alicia Silverstone, Regina Hall, Tim Heidecker, Andrew Dice Clay and Arya Parvathi are among the performers associated with the production.
The announced voice cast includes Rachel McAdams, Colman Domingo, Jeff Goldblum and David Krumholtz.
Their participation reflects the unusual mixture of live action and digital animation involved in the project.
However, the producers have not fully explained which voice performers will portray particular animated characters or how extensively they will appear.
It is therefore too early to assign specific roles to the lizards or other fantastic creatures.
What is already evident is the production's interest in combining performers from different areas of cinema and comedy.
Johnson brings mainstream action-star recognition, while the supporting ensemble includes actors associated with independent film, comedy, drama and major Hollywood productions.
That variety seems consistent with the story's unusual mixture of everyday circumstances and surreal discoveries.
Why Johnson's appearance matters beyond the surprise
The response to the photographs reflects an important aspect of Johnson's Hollywood identity.
His physical appearance has been central to his career for decades.
Whether starring in Fast & Furious, Jumanji or Black Adam, Johnson has often played characters whose size and strength are immediately significant.
The Chicken Man disrupts that expectation.
An elderly figure with a gray beard and weathered features does not invite the audience to anticipate extraordinary physical power.
Instead, the character's appeal appears to depend on eccentricity, vulnerability and an unlikely friendship.
A convincing prosthetic transformation can help an actor escape the associations audiences bring to a familiar face.
But the effectiveness of that transformation will ultimately depend on performance.
Looking unrecognizable in a photograph is not the same as creating a fully realized character throughout an entire feature film.
The makeup must work alongside Johnson's movements, voice and interactions with Theo Clark Leber.
That is why the first moving footage will be especially interesting.
It should reveal whether the transformation remains convincing once the character begins speaking, reacting and participating in the film's fantasy sequences.
Christmas 2027 is the current release target
Amazon MGM Studios and United Artists have scheduled Lizard Music for a United States theatrical release on December 25, 2027.
The Christmas release date appears consistent with the family-oriented origins of the source novel, although the film's precise tone has not yet been established through a public trailer.
Production was underway in Brooklyn on October 20, 2026, with Johnson and Theo Clark Leber photographed in costume.
Those sightings confirm active filming but do not establish that principal photography has finished.
An independent French theatrical release date has not been confirmed in the reporting reviewed for this announcement.
The available photographs provide an intriguing first look at the project's central relationship without revealing how its animated creatures or fantastic environments will ultimately appear.
For now, the most memorable image is remarkably simple: a transformed Dwayne Johnson, an ordinary slice of New York pizza and a young boy carrying a lizard almost as large as himself.
For a movie about an elderly man, a mysterious television broadcast and an 85-year-old chicken, it seems like an appropriate introduction.
