Chris Evans Joins Dwayne Johnson in Red One

Chris Evans is set to star opposite Dwayne Johnson in the holiday event film Red One for Amazon Studios.

Jake Kasdan will direct the film and also produce via his production company, The Detective Agency, alongside Melvin Mar and co-producer Sky Salem Robinson. The film will reunite Kasdan, Dwayne Johnson and Seven Bucks Productions after their collaboration on Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle and Jumanji: The Next Level; those two films have earned a combined $1.7 billion at the worldwide box office.

Plot details on Red One were not available, but the movie, with a script penned by Chris Morgan, is based on an original story from Hiram Garcia, president of production at Seven Bucks. The film, which Amazon Studios outbid other suitors for, is billed as an action-adventure comedy that imagines a new universe for the holiday genre. Hiram Garcia, Dany Garcia, Johnson and Morgan will share producer credits.

Amazon’s Holiday Action-Comedy From Director Jake Kasdan

Chris Evans (Avengers franchise, Defending Jacob) is set to star opposite Dwayne Johnson in an upcoming holiday event film from Amazon Studios.

The film, which is currently titled Red One, aims to shoot this year. It is a globe-trotting, four-quadrant action-adventure comedy imagining a whole new universe to explore within the holiday genre. Plot specifics are under wraps.

The project stems from an original story by Seven Bucks Productions’ President of Production Hiram Garcia that Amazon Studios landed after a competitive bidding war last year. Jake Kasdan (Jumanji franchise) is directing from a screenplay by Seven Bucks Productions’ frequent collaborator Chris Morgan, who previously worked with them on such titles as Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs and Shaw, The Fate of the Furious, Furious 7, Fast & Furious 6 and Fast Five.

Kasdan is producing through his production company The Detective Agency alongside Melvin Mar and co-producer Sky Salem Robinson, with Morgan for Chris Morgan Productions and Johnson, Hiram Garcia and Dany Garcia for Seven Bucks.

Johnson announced his involvement with the title, slated for a 2023 holiday release, back in June. It reunites him with Kasdan and his collaborators at Seven Bucks on the heels of their blockbuster successes with Sony’s Jumanji films Welcome to the Jungle (2017) and The Next Level (2019), which have collectively grossed $1.7 billion worldwide. While Johnson and Evans both appeared in Shawn Levy’s 2021 comedy Free Guy for Disney, Red One is the first film that the pair will topline together.

Evans is best known for his turn as Steve Rogers (aka Super Soldier Captain America) in the Marvel films Captain America: The First Avenger, The Avengers, Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Avengers: Age of Ultron, Ant-Man, Captain America: Civil War, Spider-Man: Homecoming, Avengers: Infinity War, Captain Marvel and Avengers: Endgame. The actor will next star in the Russo brothers’ film The Gray Man for Netflix, and as the voice of Buzz Lightyear in Pixar’s origin story Lightyear, which is set for release in the U.S. on June 17. He is also in development on an untitled Gene Kelly project, which he will star in and produce, and is set to star in the upcoming Apple feature Ghosted.

Evans will next be seen in the Russo brothers’ The Gray Man for Netflix and is voicing the role of Buzz Lightyear in Lightyear for Pixar. He is also developing an untitled Gene Kelly project, which he will star in and produce, and is set to star in the upcoming Apple feature Ghosted.

Evans is represented by 3 Arts, CAA and Narrative. Johnson, Dany Garcia, Hiram Garcia and Seven Bucks Productions are represented by WME. Mar is represented by WME. Kasdan is represented by WME, and Morgan by ICM.

The Criterion Channel’s Lineup Includes February

Another month, another Criterion Channel lineup. In accordance with Black History Month their selections are especially refreshing: seven by Melvin Van Peebles, five from Kevin Jerome Everson, and Criterion editions of The Harder They Come and The Learning Tree.

Regarding individual features I’m quite happy to see Abderrahmane Sissako’s fantastic Bamako, last year’s big Sundance winner (and Kosovo’s Oscar entry) Hive, and the remarkably beautiful Portuguese feature The Metamorphosis of Birds. Add a three-film Laura Dern collection (including the recently canonized Smooth Talk) and Pasolini’s rarely shown documentary Love Meetings to make this a fine smorgasboard.

See the full list of February titles below and more on the Criterion Channel.

Assassinio sul Nilo streaming, Sterling Van Wagenen, 1992

Spider-Man: No Way Home streaming, Douglas Sirk, 1955

Scream streaming, Abderrahmane Sissako, 2006

The French Dispatch streaming, Stan Lathan, 1984

Cyrano streaming, David Koff, 1978

The Black Panthers: Vanguard of the Revolution, Stanley Nelson, 2015

The Black Press: Soldiers Without Swords, Stanley Nelson, 1999

Bright Road, Gerald Mayer, 1953

Cake Walk, Ulysses Jenkins, 1983

Chez Jolie Coiffure, Rosine Mbakam, 2018

Citizen Ruth, Alexander Payne, 1996**