The Rock Casts John Cena In Upcoming Movie

The Rock has announced that John Cena will star in 

The Janson Directive

, an upcoming movie affiliated with Rock's 

Seven Bucks Productions 

company.

In an official announcement posted on his own Instagram, Rock stated:

'Found my star! Congrats to my good bud John Cena on landing the lead role for our movie, The Janson Directive. [...] Thank you for your commitment to the role and remember, as your producer, if you screw up I'm coming to set and droppin' the People's Elbow on ya.'

Rock also revealed that 

The Janson Directive 

has been in the works for years, and is a joint project shared between his own production house, unnamed 'production partners', and Universal Studios.

According to

, Rock himself was initially pencilled-in for the lead role, but his busy schedule made it increasingly unlikely.

The movie is set to be an adaptation of the 2002 novel (also named 

The Janson Directive

) by Robert Ludlum.

Ludlum also authored the Jason Bourne series, which of course led to the movie trilogy starring Matt Damon.

Variety's summary of the novel is as follows:

'The novel follows a former consular ops agent who, after leaving covert operations due to the high number of sanctioned serial killings, goes into business as private security consultant. Teamed with a sharpshooter, Janson only takes assignments that he believes will lead to helping those in need.'

Cena has prior action movie experience, starring in 

The Marine

and 

12 Rounds 

- although recently he has appeared in more comedic roles in films such as 

Blockers

, 

Trainwreck

, and 

Sisters

.