Entertainment

‘Red Notice’ director talks about sequel prospects and safety on set – The Hollywood Reporter

Rawson Marshall Thurber has makeshift stacks of books in his office, even after moving into the historic Hollywood home nearly a year ago. But what else can you expect when your movie shuts down due to the pandemic and then reopens a few months later – leaving you to resume production while being shut down on the other side of the land. water in Atlanta? That’s the story behind Red Notice, the action comedy starring Dwayne Johnson, Gal Gadot, and Ryan Reynolds that kicked off a fierce auction war that Universal won, which was later canceled when the price was too high.

Now, after a perilous journey to the screen, it has been billed as the most expensive movie ever made by Netflix, with a price tag said to be $250 million. It was quite a leap for a participant in the USC Peter Stark Production Program, whose first film was a $19 million studio comedy. Dodgeball, a sudden blow that leads to We are Millers, Central Intelligence and Skyscraper – the two later cemented their relationship with Johnson. Not having to worry about opening weekend box office hits, Thurber is looking forward to letting off some steam with his wife, Sarah, whom he met when she was an assistant to Warner Bros. and he came to recommend a movie adaptation of a fantasy comic book. Leprechaun. “The movie was never made, but I was married and had three kids,” he said. “I’m much happier this way.”

Thurber – a baseball fan who threw his first pitch in the game this year for the San Francisco Giants, his hometown team – spoke to CHEAP about the costs of COVID-19, his big bidding war, and the future of guns in movies.

How do you feel about directing Netflix’s most expensive movie?

For me, it makes no difference whether it is the most expensive or the cheapest. If I make a movie with a budget of 1 million dollars or 100 million dollars, I have to sweat that too. Because every time someone spends money on art, they expect a hit. So every time you step on the disk, you are 0 for 0.

The cost of talent alone is enormous.

The number above is very, very high. When you make a Mission Impossible, assuming you have a Tom Cruise. We have three Tom Cruises in this movie.

There was a frenzy for this package when it arrived in town. For those of us who would never have an idea what it’s like to advertise a project with Johnson, Reynolds, Gadot attached, can you describe the bidding war?

When we got out, it was just Dwayne. Gal and Ryan were in my yard but unattached. It’s very interesting. When you first go out, you are very nervous. You don’t know if anyone will bid or not. We took Red Notice Go to 11 locations and get 11 offers. That has never happened to me before. It quickly became a serious knife fight for the idea. There are really no downsides, but what you don’t realize when in such a competitive situation, most of the times, you know all the buyers. You can only go to prom with one person, so you have to break some hearts.

Tell me about closing.

Everyone was laid off, it was force majeure. I don’t know if we’ll be back. No one did. When we decided to go back, we had to calculate the logistics of how to safely shoot a movie of this scale. No vaccines and a lot of misinformation [about] How to keep people safe. We had to invent the process. Then there is creativity.

What was one of the things you had to change or do differently?

There is a masquerade dance scene that is said to have an extra 300 parts where Dwayne and Gal dance together. We weren’t allowed to have that many people together, so the actors wore N95 masks under their masquerade masks. And we had to turn it into layers, into sheets, and put those pieces together. That’s why the budget goes up. We started the movie with 400 visual effects shots – it’s not a visual effects movie at all – and ended up with 1,500 shots or so.

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(Left) Thurber is one of the few filmmakers for whom Red Digital Cinema has built a completely custom Monster 8k camera (left). “It’s a very rare thing – David Fincher, Michael Bay, Zack Snyder and me,” Thurber said. (Right) “I wrote down the entire 28-page introduction and brought it into the room where I was pitching,” Thurber said of Red Notice.
Photographed by Emily Malan

You have three big personalities. How do you make sure they all play in the same movie?

That’s the whole job of a director: tone and balance, to make sure the actors are all in the same movie. I started directing when I started writing scripts. That’s when I put together my thoughts on tone and speed, what’s in the limit, what’s out of bounds. Because I wrote it and the actors read it, they knew what I was going to do. Then we talk about it before the clock runs. It’s not about me writing a perfect draft and taking no notes, it’s about having those discussions openly. My job is to be the arbiter of the melody.

Your big break point is writing and directing Dodgeball. Do you think it’s a movie that could be made today, given current studio economic models?

It’s a $19 million movie, not too much for a set. I wonder if the profits are still there. They don’t do little things anymore, it’s a shame you’re holding flyers about things like Police Academyand in the end it will have to pay for Ishtar. Hangover very low cost, and it became a billion dollar franchise.

There has been a lot of discussion about gun safety since Rust tragedy. Where do you fall on the spectrum of live guns on set?

The levels of precautions and safety procedures we have in place for firearms on set are many and varied. For something like that to happen, you’ll have to bypass half a dozen security protocols. So I don’t understand how it can happen. Serious gun damage is so, so rare. That said, there’s a lot of room to double-check as it relates to those protocols. The baseline should use clones and weapons, and generate gunfire and flares from the muzzle with visual effects. And if you want to use real guns with half-rounds or quarter-rounds, and if there’s a creative case for that, we should consider making it a bigger deal than it is now. Get a special exemption just like you have riders for nudity. That is where we are going.

You always look like you are being cheated. A lot of people want to know: What’s your productive workout regimen?

First of all, I don’t think many people want to know, and I think that’s a false premise for a question. But since you asked: It’s really hard to maintain any level of fitness when you’re making a movie. The time is too long and you always feel tired. So when filming, I’m very strict about my diet. That’s the biggest thing.

Have you seen my arm yet? Very few directors have arms like that.

This is misleading. It was a very tight shirt.

Take a look at potential sequels to your movie. Dodgeball 2?

Never say never, but I think I’ve said all that needs to be said about adults fighting with rubber balls in a single movie.

Central Intelligence 2?

We had an idea, but when Kevin and Dwayne went to work Jumanji, most people have an itch.

The Mystery of Pittsburgh? Maybe this time in Philadelphia?

Ha. I don’t think so, no.

Red Notice?

(Pause.) I think it’s a real possibility.

I heard that two and three will shoot each other.

If we were to do a sequel, the only responsible thing would be to do two and three in a row. It’s such a big product, and if you can mount it once, it’s better for everyone. Even for my mental health.

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Bookbound copy of Thurber’s screenplay
Photographed by Emily Malan

The edited interview is long and clear.

A version of this story first appeared in the November 17 issue of The Hollywood Reporter. Click here to subscribe.

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