Dwayne Johnson Reteaming With ‘Jumanji’ Franchise Filmmaker Jake Kasdan For Amazon Studios Holiday Pic

After their collaborative global success on Sony’s $1.76 billion grossing Jumanji movies, director Jake Kasdan is getting back in business with Dwayne Johnson and his Seven Bucks Productions for a holiday movie with Amazon Studios, previously titled Red One.  

Deadline told you in June about Johnson’s attachment to the project, which Amazon won in a competitive bidding war. The studio is developing the feature off an original story by Hiram Garcia, President of Production at Seven Bucks Productions.

The movie is billed as a globe-trotting, four-quadrant action-adventure comedy, imagining a whole new universe within the holiday genre. The hope here is that this concept will reach beyond a tentpole movie, across multiple industries and businesses in the Amazon fold. The pic aims to shoot in 2022 with a 2023 holiday release.

Kasdan will also produce the movie on behalf of his production company, The Detective Agency, alongside Melvin Mar and co-producer Sky Salem Robinson. Kasdan’s Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle made over $962M WW while the sequel, Jumanji: The Next Level grossed over $800M WW.

Kasdan previously directed and produced the feature comedies Walk Hard and Bad Teacher, which he also executive produced. On the TV side, Kasdan and Mar’s credits include New Girl for Fox, Fresh Off the Boat for ABC, and the newly launched Doogie Kamealoha, M.D. for Disney+.

Hiram Garcia, Johnson and Dany Garcia will produce on behalf of Seven Bucks Productions. Chris Morgan will pen the script and produce on behalf of Chris Morgan Productions. Morgan has been a frequent collaborator with Seven Bucks, including Fast and Furious Presents: Hobbs and Shaw, The Fate of the Furious, Furious 7, Fast & Furious 6, and Fast Five. In all, Morgan has authored seven installments in the franchise, his association beginning with the third film, Tokyo Drift.

Johnson, the Garcias, Seven Bucks Productions, and Mar are represented by WME. Kasdan is represented by WME and Sloss Eckhouse Dasti Haynes LawCo. Morgan is represented by ICM and McKuin Frankel Whitehead.

Next up for Johnson and Seven Bucks is the Netflix feature Red Notice starring the actor, Gal Gadot and Ryan Reynolds which will hit select theaters on Nov. 5 and stream on Nov. 12.