"It's my home, and I love being physical. But I was just waiting for the right material to come along," he said. "What impressed me and intrigued me about this was just a straight forward story. Number one, a straight forward story of you took something from me, you took my brother and you killed him. And it's the only thing that I ever loved and the only thing that loved me and now you're gonna pay."
"I also love that it was paying a homage to movies of the '70s. There's no big dazzling special effects, no big CGI green screen work or anything like that. And I can appreciate that in movies because I've made them, but there was something really cool about having something grounded and rooted and no special effects but a big gun and bad men, and they're gonna pay," said Johnson.
/*Billy Bob Thornton*/ also stars in the film as the world weary cop who's assigned to stop Driver's killing spree.
Thornton had taken a few years away from the big screen to focus on his family and music career.
"I woke up one day and said, 'hey there's a recession, I better do a movie,'" said Thornton. "So this one was a good one to do. Dwayne's such a great guy, and George Tillman, the director, is terrific. I have to say after laying off for a couple years this was a great one to come back to."
Thornton will next star in a crime drama for director Walter Hill called "/*St. Vincent*/." And Johnson just finished shooting "/*Fast Five*/," the fifth film in the "/*Fast and Furious*/" franchise.