Film company grapples with wrestler Rock

A Californian film company plans to make a rival version of The Rock's next movie.

The wrestling star has already said he wants to play Hawaii's most famous warrior-king for Columbia Pictures.

But North Shore Pictures now says it is also working on a film about Hawaii's Kamehameha the Great.

And it says it would be wrong not to cast a Hawaiian actor in the title role.

The possible casting of The Rock, who has starred in The Mummy Returns and The Scorpion King, raised some eyebrows in the Hawaiian community because he is of Samoan and African-American ancestry.

North Shore spokesman Gary German said: "We are looking at two actors of Hawaiian descent who will make a great Kamehameha.

"It would be a great taboo for the part of Kamehameha to go to a nationality that was a fierce enemy of the Hawaiians during that time."

The Rock, whose real name is Dwayne Johnson, wants to play the king in a film based on a screenplay by former Maui resident Greg Poirier.

Kamehameha the Great ruled from 1795 to until his death in 1819.

North Shore Pictures said its movie will be titled Kamehameha. The Columbia version is still untitled.