Red One, the upcoming Christmas movie from Amazon, is arguably among the most talked-about of the year. However, until now, the conversation has had little to do with the film itself. Instead, Red One looks set to go down in history as the film that tanked Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson’s reputation.
For the newcomers: in April, The Wrap ran a feature about exactly how troubled Red One’s production allegedly was, with several insiders pointing to The Rock’s chronic unwillingness to work as a key factor. Among claims of his wrongdoing, The Rock was accused of repeatedly showing up eight hours late to set, and also making his assistant dispose of bottles of his own urine that he’d fill when he couldn’t be bothered to walk to a bathroom.
As a result, not only was Red One’s release date pushed back from 2023 to this year, but its budget also spiralled out of control. According to The Wrap, the film cost a total of $250m to produce. This means that it is not only likely to be the most expensive movie ever made by Amazon, but also the most expensive Christmas movie. For reference, you could take Red One’s budget and use it to make 10 Die Hards, 14 Home Alones or two and a half Fred Clauses.
Of course, none of the backstage drama will matter a jot if the film turns out well. But the bad news is that Red One’s trailer has just dropped – and that is looking less and less likely by the second.
This is the best summary I could come up with:
For the newcomers: in April, The Wrap ran a feature about exactly how troubled Red One’s production allegedly was, with several insiders pointing to The Rock’s chronic unwillingness to work as a key factor.
Among claims of his wrongdoing, The Rock was accused of repeatedly showing up eight hours late to set, and also making his assistant dispose of bottles of his own urine that he’d fill when he couldn’t be bothered to walk to a bathroom.
The premise of Red One is that Santa Claus (here played by an extremely ripped JK Simmons) goes missing and has to be rescued by the unlikely double act of Chris Evans and Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson.
Want a scene where a character windmills his arms and legs as he jumps an unnaturally high distance towards a huge baddie in slow motion?
And that would be fine in itself – God knows the streamers are perfectly capable of churning out endless cheap made-for-TV movies like a spluttery sausage machine gone bad – had Red One not cost more to make than both Matrix sequels combined.
But watch the Red One trailer all the way to the end and you’ll see something quietly significant: a moment where The Rock is slapped to the ground by a CGI Krampus.
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