EXCLUSIVE: Colman Domingo, Jeff Goldblum, Rachel McAdams and David Krumholtz have boarded Benny Safdie‘s Lizard Music in voice roles.
The Amazon MGM Studios’ and United Artists’ (UA) live-action/CGI hybrid film cast also includes previously announced star and producer Dwayne Johnson, Theo Leber, Alicia Silverstone, Tim Heidecker, Arya Parvathi, Regina Hall and Andrew Dice Clay.
The film will follow a boy (Leber), left to his own devices, who stumbles upon a secret late-night broadcast of lizards playing otherworldly music. Thus, a hidden door to the extraordinary swings open. Leber’s search for answers leads him to an eccentric and whimsical old man nicknamed The Chicken Man (Johnson), and his beloved companion, an 85 year-old chicken named Claudia. The boy and the old man become two kindred spirits who found each other at just the right time.
United by a shared vision, they set off on an adventure that begins as a hunt for a hidden society but blossoms into something far greater: a voyage through invisible worlds, unexpected harmonies, and the unbreakable bond between lost souls who discover magic not only in what they find, but in each other.
Safdie wrote the script, which is based on the Daniel Pinkwater novel of the same name.
Producers include UA’s Scott Stuber and Nick Nesbitt, Out for the Count Productions’ Benny Safdie, Seven Bucks Productions’ Dwayne Johnson and Magnetic Fields Entertainment’s David Koplan.
Two-time Academy Award nominee Domingo has won an Emmy, NAACP Image and Gotham Award. His recent film work includes portraying Joe Jackson in Antoine Fuqua’s Michael and starring in Steven Spielberg’s Disclosure Day alongside Emily Blunt. This weekend he will be honored at The Academy Museum Gala with their Vantage Award. Previously, he starred in and executive produced Sing Sing, directed by Greg Kwedar, earning Academy Award, Golden Globe, Bafta, Critics Choice, and SAG nominations for the role. On television, Domingo recently starred in Season 3 of HBO’s Euphoria and Season 2 of Netflix’s The Four Seasons, earning 2026 Emmy Award nominations for both performances. Upcoming is Jaume Collet-Serra’s Netflix series An Innocent Girl.
Domingo is co-writing an original live-action Princess Tiana movie for Disney, inspired by the 2009 animated film The Princess and The Frog. He also led the limited series The Madness, created by Clement Virgo. In 2024, he voiced Norman Osborn in the Disney+ animated series Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man. He is also attached to star and executive produce “Headlands House”, a thriller limited series in development at Netflix. Domingo is represented by Liebman Entertainment, WME, Schreck Rose Dapello Adams Berlin and W|K Public Relations.
Recently co-starring as The Wizard of Oz with Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo in the Jon M. Chu’s Wicked and Wicked: For Good, Jeff Goldblum is an Oscar-nominated director for his short feature film, Little Surprises. Goldblum’s film credits include The Big Chill, The Grand Budapest Hotel, The Fly, Independence Day, Jurassic Park, and Thor: Ragnarok. For television,, he has been Emmy nominated for his work on Will and Grace and for his National Geographic/Disney+ offering The World According to Jeff Goldblum, which he also executive produced. Jeff Goldblum is represented by CAA, Constellation Media Group and Hansen, Jacobson, Teller.
Rachel McAdams was nominated for an Academy Award for her role as Sacha Pfeiffer in the 2015 film, Spotlight, directed by Tom McCarthy. McAdams most recently starred in the 20th Century Studios film Send Help alongside Dylan O’Brien, which was released earlier this year. Rachel McAdams is represented by Magnolia, WME, Narrative and Howard Fishman.
David Krumholtz was most recently seen in DC Studios’ Supergirl and will next be seen in Paramount’s football underdog story Mr. Irrelevant, out Christmas Day. Krumholtz starred in the Academy Award-winning feature Oppenheimer for Universal Pictures. Additional film credits include the Bruce Springsteen biopic Deliver Me From Nowhere, Bob Byington’s Lousy Carter, Down With The King, The Coen Brothers’ The Ballad Of Buster Scruggs and Hail Caesar!, I Saw The Light, The Judge, This Is The End, Sausage Party, Oliver Irving’s Ghost Team, Superbad, Columbia Pictures’ Walk Hard, and Universal’s Oscar-winning Ray. Television credits include CBS’ NUMB3RS, The Santa Clause, The Deuce, Apple TV+’s The Studio, The Plot Against America, and The White House Plumbers. Krumholtz is represented by Paradigm, Untitled, and Sloane, Offer, Weber & Dern.