Universal and Legendary Pick Up Rights To Red Notice, Starring Dwayne Johnson

Deadline reports that Universal Pictures and Legendary have acquired the rights to the new action film Red Notice after a bidding war between multiple studios. The film will be written and directed by Rawson Thurber and will star Dwayne Johnson. It’s described as a “globe-trotting heist thriller” designed for Johnson and another star to co-lead. It’s said to be the biggest deal for a studio movie this year so far.

Universal and Legendary will be reuniting with Johnson and Thurber, who they worked with for Skyscraper. Red Notice is described as having “tentpole potential” for a franchise. It’s produced by Beau Flynn through FlynnPictureCo., along with Johnson, Dany Garcia and Hiram Garcia through Seven Bucks Productions, as well as Thurber. Wendy Jacobson will executive produce with Legendary’s Mary Parent and Universal’s Donna Langley and Peter Cramer. The producers had a little more than a pitch when they brought the film to studios.

It’s currently planned for the film to be released in 2020, meaning that it will likely be one of the Rock’s next projects in order to get it done on time. Production is expected to start in spring of 2019 after Johnson moved his schedule around. This is a similar development process that Skyscraper had.

The bidding war consisted of Universal, Legendary, Warner Bros., Paramount, Sony and Netflix, although the latter didn’t make it the final bids. It will include a $20 million deal for Johnson against breakeven gross, as well as eight figures for Thurber. The budget will be $125 million, and that’s before another star is cast. Thurber will begin writing on Monday.