Dwayne Johnson largely tends to adhere to the same formula for the majority of his projects, playing a charismatic action hero in an effects-driven blockbuster with a budget north of $100 million. While that remains true for Amazon’s Red One, it’s getting a unique spin by positioning The Rock as the leading man of a festive franchise-launcher.
There’s no word yet on whether or not Johnson is playing Santa Claus, but it definitely can’t be ruled out, either. After an intense bidding war broke out, Amazon ended up securing the distribution rights to Red One with the promise of an entire holiday universe to be cross-promoted all over the company’s multimedia empire.
Based on an original idea by Seven Bucks President of Production Hiram Garcia, Red One is being fast-tracked into development with an eye to becoming the leading man’s next film to shoot, in order to hit streaming during the 2023 festive season. In a new interview, Garcia offered some updates on the project, and he can barely contain his excitement.
“I created a treatment and came up with an entire universe of what I thought it should be and what DJ, Dany Garcia, and I had always envisioned in this type of film. Shortly after that I shared it with longtime friend, Chris Morgan, who’s written the majority of the Fast & Furious films, and fortunately his response was, ‘Hell yes! I’m in!’. My pitch to him was simple. Tonally lets make Hobbs & Shaw meets Miracle on 34th Street. Big, crazy, four-quad action all over the globe that infuses mythology and turns it on its head, and Chris got it right away.”
Miracle on 34th Street meets Hobbs & Shaw from the writer of seven Fast & Furious movies is nothing if not a uniquely fascinating proposition, and Garcia also hinted that Red One is closing in on a director. It’ll be interesting to see who ends up with that job, because the high concept is so outlandish that it could easily devolve into saccharine family formula or rote pyrotechnics if the deft balance required isn’t struck.
Morgan is one of Johnson’s regular collaborators, and the Jungle Cruise star teased that he’s lining up Emily Blunt for another one of his upcoming features, so maybe she’ll be roped in as the female lead.
