Variety reporting that Dwayne Johnson, Gal Gadot and Ryan Reynolds will score “massive paydays” ($20 million each) to costar in the heist-thriller Red Notice, a Netflix original movie that Universal passed on. Director-writer Rawson Marshall Thurber (“Skyscraper”) will be paid $10 million.
The story revolves around an “Interpol agent tracking the world’s most wanted art thief.”
EDITED: It is being reported that the film’s budget could be well around $200M.
I wrote about Dwayne Johnson back in 7.27.18:
“Dwayne Johnson has been trying to find himself of late, box-office wise. His feud with Vin Diesel didn't help either, which consequentially, whether you want to admit it or not, had Johnson leaving the franchise for a spinoff film. Oy vey.”
“It doesn't look like Johnson's stock has gone up any higher either. With this spring's failed "Rampage," and this month's "Skyscraper" failing miserably at the box-office (a paltry $24M opening weekend) this should be of grave concern for the 46 year-old Johnson. ”
"Skyscraper" makes for Johnson’s lowest debut weekend since "Snitch" in 2013.
“Earlier in the month I brought out the theory that maybe, just maybe, Johnson had over-saturated the market. That maybe people were starting to get tired of his shtick, who knows, but if he didn't have the surprising success of "Jumanji" we'd seriously be talking about an actor who's market value has indeed gone down.”
“A Box-Office report dated 7.18.18 by Jack Shepherd with the sub-headline "The actor has appeared in five movies in the last 15 months (plus the TV series Ballers)," says,"These gradually decreasing returns have led to lots of speculation online, the majority of analysts concluding that cinemagoers are just Dwayne Johnson-ed out."
Netflix and Skydance Animation have also called it quits. The two sides announced Monday that they're ending the animated film deal struck back in 2023, framing it as a mutual decision.