CREDITS
DIRECTED BY: Jake Kasdan
WRITTEN BY: Chris Morgan
STORY BY: Hiram Garcia
PRODUCED BY: Hiram Garcia, p.g.a., Dwayne Johnson, p.g.a., Dany Garcia, Chris Morgan, p.g.a., Jake Kasdan, p.g.a., Melvin Mar
CAST: Dwayne Johnson, Chris Evans, Lucy Liu, Kiernan Shipka, Bonnie Hunt, Kristofer Hivju, Nick Kroll, Wesley Kimmel and J.K. Simmons
EDITED BY: Mark Helfrich, Steve Edwards, Tara Timpone
MUSIC BY: Henry Jackman
DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY: Dan Mindle
PRODUCTION DESIGN: Bill Brzeski
COSTUME DESIGN: Michael Crow
CASTING DIRECTORS: Jeanne McCarthy, Nicole Abellera Hallman
MUSIC SUPERVISORS: Manish Raval, Tom Wolfe
EXECUTIVE PRODUCERS: Barry H. Waldman, Ainsley Morgan (credited as Ainsley Davies)
SYNOPSIS
The electrifying action comedy Red One takes audiences on a whirlwind trip into a hidden world of mythology and magic, long hidden from prying eyes. Action superstars Dwayne Johnson and Chris Evans lead a star-studded cast on an unforgettable action-packed adventure into the mythological world, liberally seasoned with holiday laughs.
For the first time in history, the unthinkable has happened: Santa’s (J.K. Simmons) legendary North Pole outpost has been breached and the man himself has been kidnapped. Callum Drift (Johnson), Commander of the E.L.F. and head of security for “Red One” (Santa’s code name), springs into action along with Jack O’Malley (Evans), the world’s best tracker and the man responsible for unwittingly revealing Santa’s secret location. As the mismatched duo crisscrosses the world to bring Santa home in time for his legendary annual run, they will have to confront the most treacherous of Yuletide dangers, from Christmas villains Krampus (Kristofer Hivju) and Grýla (Kiernan Shipka) to a trio of sinister snowmen.
Directed by Jake Kasdan (Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle) and written by producer Chris Morgan (Fast & Furious franchise) from an original story by producer Hiram Garcia (Black Adam), Red One reinvents the Christmas story with an epic, cross-cultural thrill ride through a magical world.
CHARACTER BIOS
PLAYED BY DWAYNE JOHNSON
Cal heads up the security detail (E.L.F.) for Santa, and his main job is to protect Santa and to ensure that Nick (J.K. Simmons) can bring joy and happiness to the world.
PLAYED BY CHRIS EVANS
Longtime naughty lister Jack is great at finding anyone in the world, which leads him to teaming up with E.L.F after Santa is kidnapped and the team needs Jack’s help in tracking him down.
PLAYED BY PLAYED BY LUCY LIU AND J.K. SIMMONS
Her job as the head of MORA, is to oversee all of the mythological creatures that so many of us have grown up with, such as the Headless Horseman and the Loch Ness Monster – and to protect the mythological world.
Nick is our Santa, who has that tough guy charm. He is still warm and fun, but there is a bit of grit to him. He vigorously trains 364 days a year for the big day. When he delivers presents, Nick puts in the work.
PLAYED BY PLAYED BY KIERNAN SHIPKA AND KRISTOFER HIVJU
Gryla is a witch who wants to punish naughty listers. Krampus is a legendary version of a Christmas villain. Where Santa rewards the good, Krampus punishes the naughty.
PLAYED BY PLAYED BY BONNIE HUNT GARCIA
Not your traditional Mrs. Clause, she is the backbone and project manager of the North Pole running the show and keeping Nick in line.
A valued member of E.L.F. and added muscle behind Cal, this prickly polar bear is a force to be reckoned with and doesn’t mess around when it comes to protecting Nick.
CAST INTERVIEW
INTERVIEW WITH DWAYNE JOHNSON, CHRIS EVANS, J.K. SIMMONS, LUCY LIU, BONNIE HUNT, AND KIERNAN SHIPKA
DWAYNE, HOW DID THE IDEA FOR THIS ADVENTURE COME ABOUT?
Dwayne Johnson: Years ago, we were just talking about making a Christmas movie – myself and Hiram Garcia, who I’ve known for a long time, and this story started to develop in his head. I said it was pretty good, and we went to Chris Morgan, who we’ve known for a long time, the writer. Then we went to Jake Kasdan, our director, who loved it and wrote with Chris as well. And then the million-dollar question was, who’s going to be the guy with me? And it was always Chris Evans.
CHRIS, WHAT WERE YOU THINKING WHEN YOU WERE HOLDING THE SCRIPT FOR THE FIRST TIME? Chris Evans: They didn’t give me the whole script at first. It was just the first half, and by the first half, I knew I was in because I mean, like you, I was like oh my God, I can’t wait to see what happens here. But, you know, Christmas movies just don’t come along very often. My team called me and said listen, we got this call that Dwayne is doing a Christmas movie
with Amazon, and I said, I’m in. I didn’t even need to read it, but then, luckily, it was fantastic and Jake gave a great pitch. It was original and exactly what you want a movie like this to feel. It just felt right.
J.K, THIS IS SANTA LIKE WE’VE NEVER SEEN HIM BEFORE. TELL US ABOUT YOUR VERSION OF HIM AND WHAT HAPPENED TO HIM TO KICK OFF THIS ADVENTURE.
J.K. Simmons: My version was the version they put on the page, which Jake Kasdan, Hiram Garcia, and Dwayne Johnson all contributed to creating this whole world, and this version of Nick jumped off the page to me. Jake and I spoke a few times before we started shooting about how to best inhabit this character, and it all came very naturally. The relationships, which are always the most important part of any character, film or life, with Mrs Claus, Kal, Jack, and Dylan all unfolded really beautifully.
“I play the head of the Secret Service in the North Pole responsible for the safety and well-being of Santa Claus. “
DWAYNE JOHNSON
WHAT KIND OF ROLES ARE YOU PLAYING IN THE MOVIE?
Dwayne Johnson: I play the head of the Secret Service in the North Pole responsible for the safety and well-being of Santa Claus.
Chris Evans: I’m responsible for no one. I play Jack O’Malley. He’s a bit of a rascal. He’s a big, naughty lister. He’s sort of a bounty hunter. He’s got a gambling problem, is a bit rough around the edges and is certainly in need of some Christmas spirit. When Santa Claus goes missing, they employ Jack’s services.
Lucy Liu: My character is Zoe Harlow, the head of M.O.R.A [an organisation that has oversight of mythological creatures]. When Santa gets kidnapped, she kicks into gear, and gets involved. And it’s her responsibility to make sure that everything goes according to plan. So obviously, when Santa gets kidnapped, and Christmas is the next day, we have to kick it into gear. And that is how it all comes together. But she oversees all of the mythological creatures, and if you can believe it or not, Saint Nick is a mythological creature, even though he seems real to everybody. He’s real to her.
Bonnie Hunt: Mrs Claus supports Santa, and they’re also a team. She has her strengths when they’re running something humongous where Santa goes to millions of homes, so she helps with that. I think it’s pretty cool that they have this mutual respect and love. It’s very sweet.
Kiernan Shipka: I play Gryla, an Icelandic witch who thinks the way things are going down in the North Pole is not working. She plans to fix Christmas and the world by punishing the naughty children in a more intense, permanent way that she thinks is for the best.
“Noasshole policy.”
CHRIS EVANS
HOW WAS THE TIME ON SET WORKING TOGETHER?
Chris Evans: It was so fun. It’s exactly what you would want it to be, and that starts from the top down. It’s not just the director, but Dwayne is such an entity in these movies, and
crews love working for him. The actors love working for him. He’s got such a good energy. He really takes care of everybody around him. I told the story about the $5 Fridays. We do a thing on movie sets where at the end of each week, the crews will put $5 in a jar, and you get a raffle ticket, and at the end, you pull a name, and someone wins a couple thousand bucks. It keeps the spirits high. Dwayne kept doing it. People are just screaming, losing their minds. He’s giving away six figures weekly and giving back to the people who work so hard on these movies. It felt like a Christmas movie in every way it possibly could.
Dwayne Johnson: We’ve been around for 20-plus years working, and it’s not always the case where you get a group of actors coming together where everyone is amazing, awesome and you have just such a good time. We were talking about this early on. We had a conversation where we reached this point in our careers where we would like and prefer not to work with assholes.
Chris Evans: No asshole policy.
Kiernan Shipka: It was amazing. Going back to what made me want to do it was that the script was awesome, super ambitious, and dialled in. I felt like I could really see the movie. And then you get on set and see the movie because it was extraordinary to be there, too. But everyone in every department cared so much and was the best at what they did. I think Jake, Chris, and Hiram created this beautiful, amazing story, and this kind of story feels right in their hands. And then the cast is just wonderful. It was so fun to work with everyone. I had such good experiences with everyone and to see these absolute dynamite pros do what they do best. To see Chris Evans and Dwayne Johnson in an action movie riffing, you have to remind yourself to stay in the scene sometimes because I just wanted to observe them do their thing. It was really cool.
Lucy Liu: I agree, it’s very fun.
Bonnie Hunt: It’s always fun. It’s great to play tennis with great tennis players because you’re getting that ball back every time. I especially loved being with J.K. It was really fun.
“INTERVIEW EVERYONE ELEVATES EACH OTHER’S GAME”
J.K. SIMMONS
HOW WAS THE TIME ON SET WORKING TOGETHER?
J.K. Simmons: Everyone elevates each other’s game, especially when you’re starting out with something you can see on the page that could be really special. With a big movie like Red One, the days are long, but the bigger the movie, the more time you spend between shots where we’re sort of hanging around, chatting and getting to know each other.
My first scene with Dwayne is the mall scene that happens early in the movie, and I very quickly felt comfortable as compadres and teammates. He’s a very imposing and intimidating figure, but he’s also a super approachable guy who really makes an effort to make people comfortable and feel like they can just be themselves.
Bonnie Hunt: It was nice to see the chemistry between Chris and Dwayne; as well as their humour and mutual respect.
HOW WAS IT TO WORK WITH JAKE KASDAN?
Bonnie Hunt: You could always tell how stressful the day was on the set with how much we were getting done, which was a lot every single day. And by how big Jake’s hair got because he would put his hands through his hair, and by the time I came in, it’d be like Jiffy Pop, and I was like, wow, it’s been a long day already.
J.K. Simmons: Jake was remarkable. I always found it remarkable that he didn’t pull his hair out. He’s got so many balls in the air, and for somebody to direct a movie of these proportions is an amazing job.
Bonnie Hunt:Jake was into it. He loves it. It’s his passion.
WHAT IS SO SPECIAL ABOUT THIS CHRISTMAS MOVIE?
WHAT SHOULD AUDIENCES TAKE HOME AFTER WATCHING RED ONE?
Chris Evans: For me, it’s fresh. I’m a Christmas purist, so I take seriously how we depict Santa, how we depict the North Pole, and what kind of message are we sending. But everything about this movie kind of turns that on its head. It’s Santa like you’ve never seen. It’s the North Pole like you’ve never seen. This movie just knocked it all out of the park and gave it a fun, fresh, exciting new look at these things that we all know so well.
Dwyane Johnson: In addition to what Chris said, a lot of times in these Christmas movies, there’s not a lot of action. We’re certainly not on this scale, and we need a guy like Jake Kasdan, who understands big-scale action, comedy, and heart. That’s the number one thing. I think what really drove Red One for us was just to make sure that we had a message. Ultimately, you could get lost in the visual effects. It’s beautiful, the North Pole like you’ve never seen it. The reindeer are 15, 20ft high, Santa Claus is completely jacked and muscular. But what’s the message? The world is noisy, it’s loud. A lot is going on, especially lately. If you look around every corner, you could find a lot of negativity and a lot of pessimism. As Santa Claus says in our movie, you want to look past that in people and see the child in everybody.
Bonnie Hunt: Heart, humour and adventure for sure.
J.K. Simmons: That’s the trifecta of those three. It’s a fun rollercoaster ride of a movie with funny stuff, and it all comes from the heart. INTERVIEW CONT…
WHAT DOES CHRISTMAS MEAN TO YOU DURING THIS TIME OF THE YEAR?
Bonnie Hunt:Cherishing Family. We miss the ones who aren’t here anymore and celebrate the future with everyone, living in honour of all the ones we love.
J.K. Simmons: Absolutely. Being with the ones you love and the joy of sharing and the joy of giving.
DO YOU BELIEVE IN SANTA?
Kiernan Shipka: I’m a very spiritual person. So there’s that. And I believe in milk and cookies and there’s that too.
Lucy Liu: A lot of my son’s friends don’t believe in Santa. And he asks me, Mommy, you know, so many people say that Santa doesn’t exist. And I say, well if you don’t believe that, he’s not going to show up, but if you do believe, he’ll be there. So it’s like an individual choice, but if you don’t believe it, it’s not going to happen.
Kiernan Shipka: That’s an amazing sort of lesson in the Santa discourse.
Lucy Liu: Because what do you say when a child asks you if they really believe? And then you ask them like, do you believe in this? Whatever it is. And if you do, then that’s real to you. You never take it away from somebody else.
