This festive season will herald the arrival of what might just be the most bizarre Christmas movie of them all when Dwayne Johnson’s Red One lands.
Carrying an estimated budget of at least $150 million, the leading man and producer has reportedly secured himself the single biggest upfront paycheck in history to headline what’s long been touted as a cross between Miracle on 34th Street and Hobbs & Shaw, originating from an idea devised by Johnson’s longtime business partner Hiram Garcia.
That’s about all we’ve got to go on other than the wondrous prospect of J.K. Simmons playing the most jacked Santa you’ll ever see, with Chris Evans also along for the ride in his first major effects-driven role since he went full ham and stole every scene of Netflix’s The Gray Man.
Even though he’s attempting to broaden his horizons by moving away from the blockbuster arena in the aftermath of his career-defining stint as the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s Captain America, his reasoning for boarding what Prime Video is hoping becomes the first installment of an entire shared universe is eminently simple, as he revealed to GQ.
“And then Red One: I’ve just been looking for a Christmas movie my whole career.”
It’s probably on every actor’s bucket list to make at least one feature full of Yuletide cheer at some point, but partnering up with The Rock to do it in a massive-scale globetrotting adventure when the fate of the entire world is at stake isn’t necessarily the most straightforward way to go about it.