ABC/Randy Holmes(LOS ANGELES) — Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson is finally getting a chance to honor his Polynesian heritage onscreen: He’ll portray Hawaiian King Kamehameha in a movie based on the ruler’s life.

Robert Zemeckis, who called the shots on the Back to the Future films and won an Oscar for Forrest Gump, is directing, Deadline reports.

Kamehameha will tell the story of how the ruler united the once-warring Hawaiian islands under one flag. The trade notes that the project is being compared to Braveheart, both because of its historical scope and because it was written by Randall Wallace, who penned the script for the Oscar-winning epic for director Mel Gibson.

Kamehameha is a passion project for Johnson, who was born in California but went to school in Hawaii and who is of Polynesian descent.  It’s a heritage he’s celebrated via the tribal tattoos on his body and with his character in Disney’s Moana.

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