Dwayne Johnson and Seven Bucks Productions have spent the last few years gathering up an inner circle of regular creative collaborators on either side of the camera, with several recurring names having been involved in a slew of the outfit’s most recent projects.
Jungle Cruise and Black Adam director Jaume-Collet Serra, Jumanji and Red One‘s Jake Kasdan, veteran Fast & Furious writer Chris Morgan, producer Beau Flynn, Journey 2: The Mysterious Island and Rampage helmer Brad Peyton, Kevin Hart, Emily Blunt, Ryan Reynolds and Skyscraper writer/director Rawson Marshall Thurber are all part of the crew, with the latter two reuniting with Johnson on Netflix smash hit Red Notice.
Thurber revealed that Reynolds confirmed his involvement in the star-studded actioner via a topless picture of The Golden Girls star Bea Arthur, but producer Hiram Garcia revealed to ScreenRant that it was his cameo appearance in Hobbs & Shaw that acted as the catalyst for getting him on board Red Notice in the first place.
“We knew we had this great partner for the Hartley character, but we were always trying to decide how we wanted it played. And as we were starting to hone in on it at the time DJ and I were shooting Hobbs & Shaw in London and Ryan was coming in for his cameo. And I just remember watching them together, being like, ‘Oh my God, these guys are incredible together’.
Just one little scene sitting across each other in a diner was fire. And I remember calling our partners and just being like, ‘I think we have the guy’. I mean, what these two are doing right now is so good. And DJ was so fired up after that cameo where he was on board as well. And so we focused on Ryan for that. We were very fortunate when we shared the script with him. He jumped right on board.”
Having already topped the Netflix most-watched list in 88 countries since debuting on Friday, Red Notice is on course to launch a major in-house franchise for the streamer, one that continues to give good buddies Johnson and Reynolds the chance to keep bouncing off each other to maximize their undeniable chemistry.
