The good thing about Christmas movies is they never really go out of style. Even the bad ones will get recycled over and over again each year. The best ones live on and make money forever. There’s more Elf merch now than ever, for example. Amazon MGM hopes it has a Christmas classic on its hands with Red One, a holiday action-comedy starring Dwayne Johnson, Chris Evans, and JK Simmons as Santa.
Based on a story by Johnson’s producing partner Hiram Garcia, and written by his Hobbs & Shaw writer Chris Morgan, Red One centers on the North Pole’s head of security who teams with an infamous bounty hunter to save the kidnapped Santa Claus.
The film is directed by Jake Kasdan, Johnson’s director on two Jumanji films. Lucy Liu, Kiernan Shipka, Bonnie Hunt, Kristofer Hivju, Nick Kroll, and Wesley Kimmel co-star.
Reports surfaced that Johnson’s conduct during production, such as showing up hours late to filming, exploded the budget to around $250M. This has been disputed, but rumors like that are rarely good. They don’t just come out of nowhere.
SYNOPSIS: After Santa Claus – Code Name: RED ONE – is kidnapped, the North Pole’s Head of Security (Dwayne Johnson) must team up with the world’s most infamous bounty hunter (Chris Evans) in a globe-trotting, action-packed mission to save Christmas.
Amazon MGM releases Red One in theaters on November 15th.
