The Rock is seriously moving away from his action hero start to his Hollywood career as he continues his child friendly roles. This time he's joining the Disney sequel to the 1975 film Escape to Witch Mountain, the sequel will be directed by Andy Fickman.

The film will see Dwayne Johnson as a Las Vegas cab (taxi) driver who picks up a pair of kids who have magical powers.

Now I don't think he'll be particularly bad in Witch Mountain, but I do find myself wondering where his career is going. For me the high point has been Walking Tall (Filmstalker review) where he gave a strong performance in a pretty decent film, and the question I find myself asking is why he didn't continue on the dramatic vein, I thought he was pretty good at it.

However instead of doing that, or continuing the action hero role he was starting on through the Scorpion King films and his Welcome to the Jungle, he's turned to light, comic roles and child friendly films. Haven't we seen this poorly trodden path with both Arnie and Vin Diesel?

So the story from Variety has me wondering why in the hell they are making a sequel to this 1975 Disney film as well as why Rock is shying away from the more dramatic roles. Perhaps this is just to counter his performance in Southland Tales, because other than that the serious side is gone.