EXCLUSIVE: A documentary on rugby superstar Portia Woodman-Wickliffe is coming together through Seven Bucks Productions, the company founded by Dwayne Johnson and Dany Garcia, and New Zealand’s Pango Productions.
The companies announced Friday they have tapped New Zealand-based filmmaker Zoë McIntosh to direct Undeniable: Portia Woodman, a feature on one of the greatest rugby players of all time. Woodman-Wickliffe is a two-time Olympic gold medalist, four-time World Cup winner, and the only player ever to win World Rugby Player of the Year in both the sevens and 15s formats and was named the World Rugby Women’s Sevens Player of the Decade (2010-2020). The legendary Māori athlete is also the leading female try scorer in New Zealand rugby history and the top try scorer in Rugby World Cup history across both men and women.
“The film follows [Woodman-Wickliffe] as she balances fame and injuries,” notes a release, “carrying the weight of her culture on her back and rising to the occasion in a way only a true warrior could.”
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Johnson and Garcia are both former professional athletes themselves and Johnson played rugby for several years during his youth in New Zealand.
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“Portia Woodman-Wickliffe is the perfect trifecta of accomplishment,” said Johnson, co-founder and co-CEO of Seven Bucks Productions. “A true pioneering female athlete, one of the greatest rugby players of all time and a straight up, nonnegotiable GOAT bad ass who leads with grit, heart and pride, for not only women’s sports, but for our Polynesian culture as well. Having lived in New Zealand as a kid and playing the game of rugby, I’ve admired Portia for years – I’m proud and pumped to help share her story with the world.”
The news release highlights the powerful cultural connection behind the documentary project: “Johnson, Woodman-Wickliffe, and the Māori-led Pango Productions and founder Bailey Mackey are united by their Polynesian heritage. Undeniable: Portia Woodman will bring Woodman-Wickliffe’s inspiring story and cultural legacy to global audiences, reflecting Seven Bucks’ deep commitment to championing Polynesian voices across sports, entertainment, music, and beyond.”
Dany Garcia, co-founder and co-CEO of Seven Bucks Productions, observed, “Rugby is built on legacy, identity, resilience and pride, which are exactly the kinds of stories we want to bring to audiences at Seven Bucks Productions. Portia Woodman-Wickliffe is simply one of the greatest rugby players of all time and has fundamentally changed the trajectory of women’s rugby, representing the strength, discipline and cultural reverence that make her story so powerful, and we are honored to showcase her in Undeniable: Portia Woodman.”
Courtesy of Zoë McIntosh
Filmmaker Zoë McIntosh comes to the project having directed Stylebender, a nonfiction feature on another prominent athlete — UFC champion Israel Adesanya — which premiered at the Tribeca Festival, where it was nominated for Best Documentary and earned McIntosh a nomination for Best New Documentary Director. Her additional documentary credits include Dark Tourist for Netflix and You Chose This, developed with the New Zealand Film Commission.
Undeniable: Portia Woodman joins a nonfiction portfolio at Seven Bucks that includes Stuntman, named Best Documentary Feature at the Los Angeles Film Festival; Behind the Attraction (Disney+); Finding Justice (BET); Who Killed WCW? (Vice TV), and Breaking Olympia: The Phil Heath Story, and Rock and a Hard Place, both for HBO.
Seven Bucks describes itself as a “multi-platform company dedicated to storytelling across genres of film, television and sports.” Upcoming projects include the final installment in the Jumanji franchise for Sony and Lizard Music, written and directed by Benny Safdie, for Amazon MGM Studios. Among recent Seven Bucks films are the Academy Award-nominated The Smashing Machine, written and directed by Benny Safdie and starring Dwayne Johnson and Emily Blunt; Red One, Prime Video’s most-watched film debut ever, starring Johnson alongside Chris Evans, Lucy Liu, and J.K. Simmons; Red Notice, Netflix’s second-most-watched film ever, starring Johnson, Gal Gadot, and Ryan Reynolds, and the live-action Moana, starring Johnson and Catherine Laga’aia.
Pango Productions, founded by CEO Bailey Mackey, is an award-winning New Zealand based production company that specializes in telling Māori stories to a global audience.
