Dwayne Johnson Holiday Movie Recruits Spider-Man’s Best Villain
Dwayne Johnson's upcoming Holiday film cast J.K. Simmons, best known for his portrayal of J. Jonah Jameson of The Daily Bugle from Spider-Man.
Although Dwayne Johnson is currently basking in the success of Black Adam, which recently claimed the top spot at the box office for the third weekend in a row, he’s also staying as busy as ever with numerous projects in the works. One of his upcoming features is a family flick titled Red One, which is being described as a four-quadrant holiday film. It was recently announced that action legend Lucy Liu had joined the cast, and now Deadline is reporting that Spider-Man actor J.K. Simmons is set to star in the forthcoming Amazon Prime picture.
Simmons portrayed J. Jonah Jameson, show host of The Daily Bugle, in Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man trilogy for Sony before reprising the role in Spider-Man: Far from Home and Spider-Man: No Way Home, which are both entries in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Convinced Spider-Man is a menace to society, Jameson sought to expose the hero’s identity in both the comics and movies, making him one of Peter Parker’s greatest foes. In addition to Simmons, Lucy Liu, and Dwyane Johnson, Chris Evans is also attached to star in Red One along with Kiernan Shipka, Kristofer Hivju, Nick Kroll, Mary Elizabeth Ellis, Wesley Kimmel, and Bonnie Hunt.
Red One will reteam Dwayne Johnson with Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle and Jumanji: The Next Level director, Jake Kasdan, and the upcoming feature is said to be a globe-trotting action-adventure comedy that falls within the holiday genre. Amazon Prime won the rights to the movie in a massive bidding war, and although plot details are being kept under wraps for the time being, it looks to have all the ingredients to be a mega hit for the streamer when it lands next year. Chris Morgan, whose credits include several installments in the Fast and the Furious franchise and next year’s Shazam! Fury of the Gods, penned the script from a story conceived by Seven Bucks President of Production Hiram Garcia.
In addition to headlining Red One, Dwayne Johnson will serve as a producer alongside Hiram and Dany Garcia via Seven Bucks Productions. Chris Morgan will also produce the picture via Chris Morgan Productions, as well as Jake Kasdan and Melvin Mar under The Detective Agency banner. Executive producers for the project include Ainsley Davies and Barry Walman.
While Chris Evans is sitting out this time around in terms of producing, he’ll likely have a prominent role in the upcoming holiday flick given his star power. The actor, who portrayed Captain America in various MCU installments, recently took to Instagram to share a set photo from Red One. With filming now underway for the feature, it’s only a matter of time before other stars like Dwayne Johnson and Lucy Liu give their own updates from the movie’s set.
An action flick that teams Dwayne Johnson and Chris Evans is undoubtedly every genre fan’s dream come true, but we’ll have to wait until next December to see the two unite. In the meantime, both stars have recently appeared in several projects. Johnson is currently lighting up theaters across the globe in Black Adam, while Evans is pulling in rave reviews for his performance in the Netflix thriller The Gray Man.
