Cameras are rolling today on Dwayne Johnson’s first-ever Netflix original film. Last year, the streaming service picked up the package for Red Notice—which included the script, Johnson, and director Rawson Marshall Thurber—for a pretty penny, and subsequently put together an ace trio in the lead. Johnson is joined in the cast by Wonder Woman herself Gal Gadot and Ryan Reynolds. Johnson has ties to both actors onscreen. Gadot, of course, had a role in the Fast & Furious franchise and Reynolds most recently had a scene-stealing cameo opposite Johnson in the spinoff Hobbs & Shaw.
Red Notice is described as a globe-trotting action heist thriller based on an original idea by Thurber, and was previously poised to be made by Universal which produced Thurber and Johnson’s actioner Skyscraper. But when Universal became nervous about the growing budget for Red Notice, Thurber shopped the project to Netflix and the streamer picked it up rather quickly—at a hefty price. Reports pegged the budget at $130 million, which doesn’t include a reported $20 million salary for Johnson and eight-figure deal for Thurber. And that’s before you add Reynolds and Gadot into the mix.
Netflix reportedly hopes to launch a franchise with Red Notice, and honestly what studio wouldn’t want a film series headed up by Johnson, Gadot, and Reynolds?
Johnson broke the news of the filming start on his Instagram, which teases the plot: In the world of international crime, an Interpol issued RED NOTICE is a global alert to hunt down and capture the world’s most wanted. The world’s greatest art thief. The world’s greatest tracker. The world’s greatest conman.
Your guess is as good as mine as to who’s playing who, but this one should be interesting. After making a name for himself in the comedy realm with films like Dodgeball and We’re the Millers, Thurber directed Johnson in Central Intelligence and followed that up with his Die Hard-inspired Skyscraper. I’m curious to see him put his stamp on the heist genre, and again you can’t really ask for a more charismatic cast than the one he’s got here.
After Red Notice, Johnson moves directly into shooting his big DC Comics debut Black Adam, which starts production in July.
Check out Johnson’s Instagram post below. Red Notice is expected to be released on Netflix in 2021.
via Collider