The producer of Netflix’s Red Notice has been talking about how they made a globe-trotting movie, whilst barely leaving America.
Netflix has been boasting that the launch of the blockbuster Red Notice – starring Dwayne Johnson, Gal Gadot and Ryan Reynolds – has become its largest to date. The company, which has a habit of releasing viewing figures only when it favours itself, has declared that Red Notice had the ‘biggest opening day’ in Netflix’s history. It’s not given the numbers to back that up, but still, it’s hardly a surprise.
What’s also come to light is how the film, which follows the quest for some eggs going right around the world, didn’t pick up as many passport stamps as originally intended. Given that the movie was shot after lockdowns lifted for the first time, it was restricted in what it could do. But in a new piece at The Wrap, the levels the film had to go to in order to keep an international flavour have been revealed.
Producer Hiram Garcia has told the outlet – as we nattered about on our latest podcast episode – that the film was two weeks away from going to Rome, then tried to get to London. But things were shutting down fast. Instead? “We built parts of Rome on a back lot in Atlanta. You name it. We did all kinds of ‘movie magic’ like that to make it work, and it’s a great testament to our crew, our production team and our production designers in terms of just being able to pivot and create these iconic sets all on stages and all on a backlot to still bring the fans to these locales.”
This in turn sent the budget of the already-expensive movie towards $200m, up from the originally-planned $160m. “We shot that whole movie in Atlanta”, Garcia states, “but you certainly feel the globetrotting elements we wanted everyone to feel. It truly was an example of movie magic”.
Red Notice is available on Netflix now. Our review of the film is here.
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