In the wake of Dwayne Johnson notching the highest opening of his solo star career with this weekend’s Black Adam at $67M, his holiday movie, currently titled Red One, is ramping up with additional castings: Deadline has learned that Nick Kroll, Kristofer Hivju, Wesley Kimmel and Mary Elizabeth Ellis are joining.
They board alongside not just Johnson, but also Chris Evans, Lucy Liu, and Kiernan Shipka.
The pic’s plot is under wraps, however, the event film is looking to be a franchisable piece of IP which will extend to the tentacles of Amazon itself in merchandising.
Jake Kasdan, who helmed Johnson in the last two Jumanji movies, is directing off a script by Chris Morgan. The project was won by Prime in a bidding war and was developed off an original story by Seven Bucks President of Production, Hiram Garcia. Morgan has also been a frequent collaborator with Seven Bucks Productions on titles such as Fast and Furious Presents: Hobbs and Shaw, The Fate of the Furious, Furious 7, Fast & Furious 6, and Fast Five.
Kasdan, Melvin Mar via the Detective Agency, Morgan via Chris Morgan Productions; Hiram Garcia, Dany Garcia and Johnson through their Seven Bucks are producing. Sky Salem Robinson via The Detective Agency is co-producing. EP is Ainsley Davies via Chris Morgan Productions.
Kroll’s comedy special Little Big Boy recently debuted on Netflix, and he can also be seen in Warner Bros. recently released psychological thriller Don’t Worry Darling alongside Florence Pugh and Harry Styles which has racked up north of $82M WW. He also co-created Netflix’s animated series Human Resources and Big Mouth, the sixth season of which hits Oct. 28. He’s also starring in the upcoming Hulu feature sequel, History of the World Part II. Kroll is represented by UTA, Rise Management, and Schreck Rose.
Hivju is well-known for playing the role of Tormund Giantsbane on HBO’s critically acclaimed series Game of Thrones. On the film side, he previously appeared in The Fate of the Furious for Universal and will appear in the horror comedy Cocaine Bear and the sci-fi film Distant, also for Universal. Some of his other credits include After Earth for director M. Night Shyamalan, the critically acclaimed dramedy Force Majeure, Universal’s The Thing and the second season of Netflix’s The Witcher. Hivju is represented by UTA, Panorama Agency, and Felker Toczek.
Ellis’s previous credits include MGM’s critically acclaimed film Licorice Pizza, Godmothered for Disney+, and on the television side, It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia for FX. Ellis is represented by UTA and Haven Entertainment.
Kimmel’s previous credits include The Book of Boba Fett and WandaVision on Disney+, Good Girls on NBC, and Netflix’s upcoming romantic comedy Your Place or Mine starring Reese Witherspoon and Ashton Kutcher. Kimmel is represented by Zuri Agency and Jackoway Tyerman.
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