Red
Notice movie poster
RED NOTICE - NETFLIX FILM 2021
Red Notice is a 2021 American action comedy film written, directed, and produced by Rawson Marshall Thurber. Dwayne Johnson, who also served as a producer, stars as an
FBI agent who reluctantly teams up with a renowned art thief (Ryan Reynolds) in order to catch an even more notorious criminal
(Gal
Gadot). The film marks the third collaboration between Thurber and Johnson, following Central Intelligence (2016) and Skyscraper (2018).
Originally planned for release by Universal Pictures, the film was acquired by Netflix for distribution. It began a limited theatrical release on November 5, 2021 before digitally streaming on the platform on November 12, 2021. The film received mixed reviews from critics and positive response from the audience, who praised the performances of the cast (particularly Reynolds and Johnson), humor and action sequences but criticized lack of originality. It became the most-watched film in its debut weekend on Netflix, as well as the most-watched film within 28 days of release on the platform. It also became the 5th most-streamed movie title of 2021.
Two sequels are in development and will be filmed back-to-back with Johnson, Reynolds, Gadot, and Thurber expected to return.
PLOT
Two thousand years ago, Roman general Mark Antony gifts Egyptian queen Cleopatra three bejeweled eggs as a wedding gift to show his devotion. The eggs are lost in time until two are found by a farmer in 1907, but the last one remains lost.
In 2021, criminal profiler for the FBI Special Agent John Hartley, is assigned to assist Interpol agent Urvashi Das in investigating the potential theft of one of the eggs on display at the Museo Nazionale di Castel Sant'Angelo in Rome. The head of security dismisses the concerns, but Hartley reveals the egg is a forgery and the real egg has been stolen.
Before the room is sealed shut, international art thief Nolan Booth manages to escape with the egg. Arriving to his home in Bali with the egg, he finds Hartley, along with Das and an Interpol strike team there. They arrest Booth and take the egg into custody. Unbeknownst to everyone, Booth's main competition, Sarah Black "The Bishop", disguised as one of the strike team members, swaps the real egg with another forgery. The next day, Das confronts Hartley and has him incarcerated in a remote Russian prison in the same cell as Booth, believing he's responsible for the theft.
Shortly after arrival, Black proposes that Booth work with her to find the third egg as he knows about its whereabouts. Booth declines her modest offer, so Hartley suggests they work together to beat her. If Booth helps him imprison her, Booth will be the number one art thief in the world. The pair escapes from prison, heading to Valencia to steal the second egg, in possession of notorious arms dealer Sotto Voce who is having a masquerade ball. There, they find Black, who's also there to steal it. The three arrive in Voce's vault where Hartley and Booth fight Black. Voce arrives with his security detail while Black reveals she is working with Voce.
They torture Hartley until Booth reveals the location of the third egg. Black double-crosses Voce and leaves for Egypt where Booth claims it is. After leaving Valencia, Booth reveals to Hartley that the egg is actually in Argentina, a location only he knows as it was inscribed on his late father's beloved watch which had once belonged to Adolf Hitler's personal art curator Rudolph Zeich. They search the Argentinian jungle, to find a secret bunker, full of countless Nazi artifacts, including the third egg.
Black steals the egg from them, only to be interrupted by Das and a team of local police. Hartley, Booth and Black escape in an antique 1931 Mercedes-Benz 770, chased by Das in an armored vehicle. Eventually, they exit near the top of a waterfall where they jump. Booth swims to shore with the egg, only to discover that Hartley and Black are actually romantic and professional partners and Hartley was never FBI but a conman like his father, both going by the alias "Bishop". Booth surrenders the egg and they leave him handcuffed.
In Cairo, Hartley and Black deliver the three eggs to an Egyptian billionaire, in time for his daughter's wedding. The wedding is subsequently interrupted by Das' Interpol raid who arrest the bride and her father.
Six months later in Sardinia, Hartley and Black are met again by Booth who informs them that he told Das about their Cayman Islands account containing the $300 million payout, which Das freezes leaving them with no money. Booth also reveals that Interpol is on their way to capture them, but offers a chance to escape if they help him with a new heist, which requires three individuals to pull off. They agree and escape, and Das places red notices on all three of them as they begin their heist at the Louvre.
CAST
Dwayne Johnson as John Hartley
Ryan Reynolds as Nolan Booth
Gal Gadot as Sarah Black / The Bishop
Chris Diamantopoulos as Sotto Voce
Ritu Arya as Inspector Urvashi Das
Ivan Mbakop as Tambwe
Vincenzo Amato as Director Gallo
Rafael Petardi as Security Chief Ricci
Additionally, Daniel Bernhardt has a cameo appearance as Drago Grande, and singer-songwriter Ed Sheeran makes an uncredited cameo as himself.
PRODUCTION, DEVELOPMENT & FILMING
On February 8, 2018, it was announced that major studios were fighting a bidding war for the rights to an action comedy from Dwayne Johnson and writer-director Rawson Marshall Thurber. Universal Pictures, Warner Bros. Pictures, Sony Pictures and Paramount Pictures were all considered. The film would be produced by Beau Flynn through his Flynn Picture Company, and by Johnson, Dany Garcia and Hiram Garcia through their Seven Bucks Productions banner, along with Thurber's Bad Version Inc., with Wendy Jacobson executive producing. The following day, it was announced that Universal and Legendary had won the bidding war.
Gal Gadot was confirmed to star opposite Johnson in June 2018, and Ryan Reynolds was added in July 2019. Ritu Arya and Chris Diamantopoulos were also cast in February 2020.
Johnson, Reynolds, and Gadot were each paid $20 million to star in the film, while Thurber was paid $10 million to write and direct. After working on the film, Gadot became the third highest-paid actress in the world in 2020.
Principal photography began on January 3, 2020, in Atlanta, Georgia. Production on the film was previously expected to start in April 2019, after Johnson wrapped filming on Jumanji: The Next Level. On July 8, 2019, filming was delayed to early 2020. A planned shoot in Italy was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic in the country. On March 14, it was announced production had been halted indefinitely due to the COVID-19 pandemic overall.
Filming resumed on September 14, 2020. Reynolds and Gadot completed filming their scenes by the end of October. Production in Atlanta was completed on November 14, before moving to Rome and Sardinia, Italy for a week of shooting. Filming in Italy was completed on November 18. The film was greenlit with an estimated production budget of $160 million and by the time it was released the reported cost had reached $200 million, making it the most expensive film in Netflix's history.
Visual effects artist Richard R. Hoover served as the overall visual effects supervisor for the film.
Red Notice is one of the first feature films to extensively use the first-person view (FPV) drone flying for cinematography. FPV drone pilot Johnny Schaer participated in filming.
VIEWING
Netflix revealed on December 28, 2021 that Red Notice accumulated a viewership of 364.02 million hours in its first 28 days of release. According to Samba TV, the film was watched in 9.8 million households in its first 30 days of release. In the seventh week, the film dropped to the seventh position on Netflix's weekly rankings for English films, with 12.14 million hours viewed, while also being ranked seventh on TV Time's chart for most-streamed-films for the week in the United States. Nielsen stated that it was the fifth most-streamed-film in the US in 2021 with 5,528 million minutes viewed.
In the eighth week it rose to the fifth position on Netflix's weekly rankings with a viewership of 14.54 million hours, while per Nielsen it was the seventh most-streamed-film in the United States with a viewership of 288 million minutes. In the ninth week it occupied the sixth spot with 11.09 million hours viewed. It retained its position in the following week with 8.71 million hours viewed. In the eleventh week it dropped to the eighth rank with a viewership of 7.31 million hours. The following week it rose to the sixth position despite the viewership dropping to 6.54 million hours. It remained in the top 10 rankings for English-language films on Netflix for three months since its release before dropping out.
SEQUELS
Beginning in August 2020, there were reports that Netflix was looking to develop a sequel to Red Notice. In November 2021, Hiram Garcia announced that there were tentative plans for a sequel, stating that Thurber had officially pitched a sequel and that all creatives involved were optimistic regarding its development, while announcing that Netflix had officially told them that they were interested in continuing the film series. The producer later said that the potential sequel would include the trio of stars involved in additional heists around the world, while reaffirming that its development was dependent on the reception to the first film.
Johnson celebrated the positive audience reception to Red Notice on his social media, saying that there was "more to come." Following announcements that the release set the record all-time viewership for Netflix, Johnson further teased a future film announcement. Thurber later said that if a sequel was greenlit, he intends to film two sequels back-to-back. In December 2021, Hiram Garcia once again discussed plans for a sequel, stating that the end of Red Notice sets up the story.
By January 2022, it was announced that the two sequels are officially in development and will be filmed back-to-back. Thurber will once again serve as writer/director, while Johnson, Reynolds, Gadot, and Thurber will reprise their respective roles. The sequels will also feature a number of supporting cast, with an ensemble cast planned similar to the Ocean's franchise. Johnson, Hiram Garcia, Dany Garcia, Thurber, and Beau Flynn will return as producers. The films will be joint-venture productions between Seven Bucks Productions, Flynn Pictures Co, Bad Version Productions, and Netflix Original Films. The films will be distributed by
Netflix.
REFERENCE
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CLEOPATRA
THE MUMMY - UNDER DEVELOPMENT
'Cleopatra
- The Mummy' was to have been the sequel to 'Kulo-Luna.'
Kulo-Luna was
the first of the John Storm franchise (for which a draft
script is available to studios and actor's agents). The John Storm
franchise is a series of
ocean awareness adventures, featuring the incredible solar
powered trimaran: Elizabeth
Swann. Kulo Luna and Treasure
Island, could be sequel or prequel.
