Star power is nowhere near as important in selling a high profile project to the masses as it used to be, with the current era positioning big name brands and recognizable properties at the forefront of the marketing as opposed to the people who appear in the film/show. However, that hasn’t stopped Netflix from shelling out big bucks to secure some serious talent for their roster of original movies and TV series.
Dwayne Johnson, Ryan Reynolds and Gal Gadot are picking up at least $20 million each for upcoming action blockbuster Red Notice, while Reynolds scooped $27 million for headlining Michael Bay’s 6 Underground and Gadot will pocket roughly the same amount after the streamer acquired the rights to her in-development spy thriller Heart of Stone.
Several former Marvel Cinematic Universe alumni have also found themselves regularly working with the company, and we’ve now heard from our sources – the same ones who told us Netflix were developing a live-action prequel to The Witcher long before Blood Origin was announced – that the streamer wants to tie down Robert Downey Jr., Chris Evans and Chris Hemsworth for multiple upcoming projects.
Of course, Downey Jr. already has comic book adaptation Sweet Tooth in the works, but he’s not expected to take an onscreen role in the series, although most big stars tend to collaborate with Netflix more than once after getting a taste for the creative freedom afforded. Evans, meanwhile, starts shooting the Russo brothers’ The Gray Man next month having previously appeared in The Red Sea Diving Resort for the streamer, while Hemsworth has sci-fi Escape from Spiderhead coming before the end of 2021, while Extraction 2 also films this year.
According to our intel, this could be just the tip of the iceberg, too, with Netflix keen to assert themselves as the go-to place for A-listers to tackle a combination of passion projects and big budget epics to continue dominating the streaming wars.
