Netflix picks up huge tab for action movie starring Dwayne Johnson, Gal Gadot, and Ryan Reynolds

By Sam Barsanti | July 9, 2019 | 12:58am

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Netflix picks up huge tab for action movie starring Dwayne Johnson, Gal Gadot, and Ryan Reynolds

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A year ago, we reported that Gal Gadot (in her first major starring role since Wonder Woman, somehow) would be appearing alongside Dwayne Johnson in a “globe-trotting, action-comedy, heist thriller” called Red Notice for Universal. It wasn’t super interesting, but now Netflix has swooped in with a twist: According to Deadline, the streaming service has taken Red Notice off of Universal’s hands with what is “arguably its biggest commitment to a feature film” to date—which is to say that this is going to cost Netflix a ton of money.

Part of that is because another big-name star is now attached, with Ryan Reynolds joining Johnson and Gadot now that the movie has a new home on Netflix. That will presumably balloon its budget a bit, with Deadline saying that Johnson was already set to make $20 million and that director Rawson Marshall Thurber (Skyscraper) had “an eight-figure deal” in place, and that’s on top of a reported $130 million budget. Throw in the salaries for Gadot and Reynolds, and Netflix might want to hike up its prices again before this movie comes out. (Especially since, as Deadline explains, the streaming service pays out salaries upfront instead of giving out set bonuses based on a film’s success, like most studios.)