عربي English Türkçe اردو فارسى
Logo
Latest News
Entertainment

Box Office Star Dwayne Johnson Lands on Netflix in Heist Movie ‘Red Notice'

Cast member and producer Dwayne Johnson attends the premiere for the film "Red Notice" in Los Angeles, California, US, November 3, 2021. (Reuters)
Cast member and producer Dwayne Johnson attends the premiere for the film "Red Notice" in Los Angeles, California, US, November 3, 2021. (Reuters)
TT
TT

Box Office Star Dwayne Johnson Lands on Netflix in Heist Movie ‘Red Notice'

Cast member and producer Dwayne Johnson attends the premiere for the film "Red Notice" in Los Angeles, California, US, November 3, 2021. (Reuters)
Cast member and producer Dwayne Johnson attends the premiere for the film "Red Notice" in Los Angeles, California, US, November 3, 2021. (Reuters)

Dwayne Johnson, the action star whose films pull in big bucks at global box offices, is aiming to entertain viewers in their living rooms with his next movie spectacle, the globe-trotting Netflix heist caper "Red Notice."

Johnson stars in the movie with Gal Gadot and Ryan Reynolds about a race to locate and steal three valuable artifacts. The movie will stream on Netflix starting Friday after playing for a week in a limited number of movie theaters.

The film ranks among the most expensive ever made by Netflix, with a price tag of roughly $200 million.

Johnson, the former wrestler known as the Rock and star of big-screen blockbusters such as "Jumanji" and "Furious 7," said he believed it was important to offer at-home streaming of movies that traditionally debuted only in theaters.

"I do have a handful of colleagues who are going to disagree with me," Johnson said in an interview with Reuters. "For me, the most important thing is to take care of the people and how they want to be taken care of, and ... there are a lot of people out there who want to enjoy movies from home."

"Red Notice" follows Johnson's FBI agent John Hartley as he tries to clear his name after being set up by an international art thief, The Bishop (Gadot).

To do so, he falls in with The Bishop's biggest competition, Nolan Booth, played by Ryan Reynolds.

Double crosses, comedy and fights ensue.

"I think Dwayne's fighting style is sort of ... brutalist, sort of not unlike his (World Wrestling Entertainment) life," Reynolds said, while Gadot's "is very athletic and elegant."

"Usually my character is just running away from the fight as much as possible," Reynolds said.

Production of "Red Notice" began shortly before COVID-19 started spreading around the world in early 2020. The health crisis forced a shutdown for months and a rewrite of filming plans.

"It was just a very intense environment, but I've got to give our crew such huge credit because they brought us to the finish line," Gadot said.

Most Viewed

 
 
Entertainment

André 3000's Alt-Jazz, ‘No Bars’ Solo Album Stunned Fans. Now, It’s up for Grammys

André Benjamin, also known as Andre 3000, arrives at the 30th Film Independent Spirit Awards in Santa Monica, Calif., on Feb. 21, 2015. (AP)
André Benjamin, also known as Andre 3000, arrives at the 30th Film Independent Spirit Awards in Santa Monica, Calif., on Feb. 21, 2015. (AP)
TT
TT

André 3000's Alt-Jazz, ‘No Bars’ Solo Album Stunned Fans. Now, It’s up for Grammys

André Benjamin, also known as Andre 3000, arrives at the 30th Film Independent Spirit Awards in Santa Monica, Calif., on Feb. 21, 2015. (AP)
André Benjamin, also known as Andre 3000, arrives at the 30th Film Independent Spirit Awards in Santa Monica, Calif., on Feb. 21, 2015. (AP)

No one was expecting it. Late last year, André 3000 released his debut solo album, "New Blue Sun," 18 years after his legendary rap group Outkast's last studio album, "Idlewild."

But "New Blue Sun" has "no bars," he jokes. It's a divergence from rap because "there was nothing I was liking enough to rap about, or I didn't feel it sounded fresh. I'm not about to serve you un-fresh (expletive.)"

Instead, he offered up a six-track instrumental album of ambient alt-jazz — with special attention paid to the flute.

"The sound, that's how I got into it," he says of the instrument. "The portability, too. You can't tote around a piano and play in Starbucks."

He's also invested in the flute's history — like learning about Mayan flutes made from clay, a design he had re-created in cedarwood. "There’s all kinds of fables and, you know, indigenous stories that go along with playing the flute — playing like the birds or playing your heart like the wind — it kind of met (me) where I was in life," he says.

"Flutes — wind instruments in general — are the closest thing you get to actually hearing a human," he continues. "You're actually hearing the breath of a person."

"New Blue Sun" is a stunning collection, one that has earned André 3000 three new Grammy Award nominations: album of the year, alternative jazz, and instrumental composition. Those arrive exactly 25 years after the 1999 Grammys, where Outkast received their first nomination — for "Rosa Parks," from their third album, "Aquemini" — and 20 years after the group won album of the year for "Speakerboxxx/The Love Below."

"It matters because we all want to be acknowledged or recognized," André 3000 says of his new Grammy nominations. "It's a type of proof of connection, in some type of way ... especially with the Grammys, because it's voted on by a committee of musicians and people in the industry."

He's a bit surprised by the attention, too, given the type of album he created. "We have no singles on the radio, not even singles that are hot in the street," he says. "When you're sitting next to Beyoncé and Taylor Swift, these are highly, hugely popular music artists, I'm satisfied just because of that ... we won just to be a part of the whole conversation."

He theorizes that it may be because popular music listening habits are broadening. "A lot of artists are just trying different things. Even, you know, the album that Beyoncé is nominated for, it’s not her normal thing," he says of her country-and-then-some record, "Cowboy Carter.We’re in this place where things are kind of shifting and moving."

For André 3000, "New Blue Sun" has allowed him to "feel like a whole new artist," but it is also an extension of who he's always been. "Being on the road with Outkast and picking up a bass clarinet at a pawn shop in New York and just sitting on the back of the bus playing with it — these things have been around," he says.

He's also always embraced "newness," as he puts it, experimenting creatively "even if it sounds non-masterful."

"Even producing for Outkast, I was just learning these instruments. If I ... put my hands down and play ‘Ms. Jackson,’ I'm not knowing what I'm playing. But I like it," he says.

As for a new Outkast album, "I never say never," he says. "But I can say that the older I get, I feel like that time has happened."