Colman Domingo, Jeff Goldblum and Rachel McAdams Join 'Lizard Music', and Wait Till You Hear Dwayne Johnson's Role

A secret TV channel, a band of musical lizards and Dwayne Johnson as a man called The Chicken Man. Benny Safdie's next movie just got even more star-studded.

EXCLUSIVE: Colman Domingo, Jeff Goldblum, Rachel McAdams and David Krumholtz have boarded Benny Safdie’s ‘Lizard Music’ in voice roles https://t.co/s6LXIHHHK7

— Deadline (@DEADLINE) October 15, 2026

Colman Domingo, Jeff Goldblum, Rachel McAdams and David Krumholtz have joined Safdie's Lizard Music in voice roles, Deadline reported exclusively on Oct. 15. The film is a live-action/CGI hybrid from Amazon MGM Studios and United Artists. Mid-day, via PTI, also reported the new voice cast.

Meet the new voices

Domingo arrives on a serious winning streak. Deadline calls him a two-time Academy Award nominee who has won an Emmy, an NAACP Image Award and a Gotham Award. His recent work includes playing Joe Jackson in Michael and earning 2026 Emmy nominations for Euphoria and The Four Seasons. And he isn't new to the booth: in 2024 he voiced Norman Osborn in Disney+'s Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man, Deadline notes.

He was also set to be honored with the Vantage Award at the Academy Museum Gala the weekend after the casting news, Deadline reported. Catch up on his look in our Academy Museum Gala best-dressed roundup.

Goldblum most recently played the Wizard of Oz opposite Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo in Wicked and Wicked: For Good, according to Deadline. That famous voice comes with a résumé that includes Jurassic Park, Independence Day, The Fly and Thor: Ragnarok.

McAdams earned an Oscar nomination for Spotlight and most recently starred in Send Help with Dylan O'Brien, Deadline reports. Krumholtz, recently in Supergirl and Oppenheimer, rounds out the new additions.

What Lizard Music is about

Deadline describes the story: a boy, played by Theo Leber, is left to his own devices and stumbles on a secret late-night broadcast of lizards playing otherworldly music. "Thus, a hidden door to the extraordinary swings open," Deadline writes.

His search for answers leads him to an old man, and the boy and the old man become "two kindred spirits who found each other at just the right time," per Deadline. Their adventure starts as a hunt for a hidden society and grows into a journey through "invisible worlds" and "unexpected harmonies."

Safdie wrote the script, which is based on the Daniel Pinkwater novel of the same name, and producers include Safdie, United Artists' Scott Stuber and Nick Nesbitt, Johnson's Seven Bucks Productions and Magnetic Fields Entertainment's David Koplan, according to Deadline.

The twist: The Rock is The Chicken Man

Here's the detail that makes this cast so delightful. The three new stars are joining a lineup that already includes Dwayne Johnson, Alicia Silverstone and Regina Hall, plus Tim Heidecker, Arya Parvathi and Andrew Dice Clay, Deadline reports.

And Johnson's role is the best part. Deadline says the boy's search leads him to "an eccentric and whimsical old man nicknamed The Chicken Man," and Johnson plays him. His beloved companion? An 85-year-old chicken named Claudia.

an eccentric and whimsical old man nicknamed The Chicken Man

Johnson, who Deadline notes is also a producer, as a whimsical old man with a very old chicken? After years of action heroes, that is a casting swerve fans will not see coming.

Deadline didn't say which characters the new voice cast will play, and no release date was included in the report. One thing is clear: with Domingo, Goldblum and McAdams lending their voices, those lizards are going to sound incredible.