Red (2010 film)
Encyclopedia
RED is a 2010 American action comedy film loosely inspired by the three-issue comic book series of the same name
created by Warren Ellis
and Cully Hamner
, and published by the DC Comics
imprint Homage
. The film stars Bruce Willis
, Morgan Freeman
, John Malkovich
, Mary-Louise Parker
, Helen Mirren
, and Karl Urban
with Robert Schwentke
directing a screenplay
by Jon Hoeber and Erich Hoeber. The film was released on October 15, 2010.
In the film version, the title is derived from the designation of the status of agent Frank Moses (Bruce Willis), meaning "Retired, Extremely Dangerous".
), a former black-ops
CIA
agent, is retired and living a quiet life in Cleveland, Ohio
. However, he begins to feel lonely and often chats on the phone with Sarah (Mary-Louise Parker
), a customer service agent working for Frank's pension office in Kansas City
. He creates opportunities to talk to her by tearing up his pension checks and calling her to say they had never arrived.
His life is disrupted when a hit squad raids his house in the middle of the night. Frank kills the assassins and, knowing they would have tapped his phone, goes to Kansas City to protect Sarah. She becomes Frank's reluctant companion while he tries to find out who is trying to kill him, and track down his old black ops team for help. Meanwhile, CIA agent William Cooper (Karl Urban
) is assigned to hunt and kill Frank.
Frank kidnaps Sarah, keeping her tied up and gagged in his car and then at the hotel, first goes to New Orleans to find his mentor Joe Matheson (Morgan Freeman
), currently living in a retirement community and terminally ill, who tells him that the hit squad Frank killed were also responsible for the murder of a New York Times reporter. While avoiding Cooper, Frank and Sarah find clues left behind by the deceased reporter, which leads them to a hit list. They then track down Marvin Boggs (John Malkovich
), also a former black ops agent and a paranoid conspiracy theorist, to provide more information. Marvin tells them that the names on the list are all connected to a 1981 secret mission in Guatemala
in which Frank and Marvin participated, and that one person, Gabriel Singer (James Remar
), is still alive. The trio track down Singer, who tells them that the mission involved extracting a person from a village and that everybody on the list has been killed to silence them. Singer is then assassinated by a helicopter-borne sniper, and the team makes their escape as Cooper closes in. With the help of Russian secret agent Ivan Simanov (Brian Cox), Frank and Sarah infiltrate the CIA headquarters to steal the file but Frank is injured in the process after fighting with Cooper. Joe, having escaped an attempt on his life, helps extract the team and joins them, and they all hide out in Victoria's (Helen Mirren
) house for first aid. Victoria, who misses her old life as a wetwork agent, joins the team as well.
After reviewing the file, all the team can figure out is that the only man involved on the reporter's list but not in the file, Alexander Dunning (Richard Dreyfuss
), has some way of protecting himself. The team arrives at Dunning's house, where he reveals under interrogation that the mission was to extract Vice-President
Robert Stanton (Julian McMahon
), who at the time was a young lieutenant who experienced a breakdown and massacred the occupants of the village. It becomes apparent that Stanton is trying to erase all the loose ends as he plans to run for president
. At that moment, Cooper and the FBI surround Dunning's mansion. Cooper tries to negotiate Frank's surrender, but Frank tells Cooper about the vice-president's treachery
, which shakes his faith. Joe sacrifices himself by taking Frank's place and pretending to give up.
An unknown sniper kills Joe as he leaves the mansion, despite Cooper's order to hold fire. The confusion buys the team enough time to escape, but Sarah is captured. Frank calls Cooper and threatens his family if Sarah is harmed, and says that he intends to kill Stanton.
The team, along with Ivan (revealed to be Victoria's former lover), infiltrate Stanton's fundraising gala in Chicago and successfully kidnap him despite Cooper's best efforts to stop them. Frank calls Cooper and says he is willing to trade Stanton for Sarah. At the meeting point, Dunning arrives and reveals that he is the mastermind behind the assassinations and that Stanton was merely a pawn and scapegoat. Cooper's handler, Cynthia Wilkes (Rebecca Pidgeon
), is also in on the plot. Disgusted with Dunning and Wilkes' greed and corruption and being used by her and Dunning, Cooper gives Frank the key to his handcuffs and shoots Wilkes while Marvin and Victoria kill Dunning's bodyguards, and Frank crushes Dunning's windpipe. Cooper agrees to let Frank and his team go. As they leave the scene, Frank and Sarah are eager to start a new life together.
The final scene shows Frank and Marvin in Moldova
, fleeing from Moldovan Army troops with a stolen nuclear device, in a wooden wheelbarrow with Marvin wearing a dress being pushed by Frank, as part of returning a favor to Ivan for his help.
working in Hollywood to get their titles made into films, wanted the comic developed but Warner Brothers was not interested. The creators of the comic exercised their right to go to elsewhere but this required approval from all divisions of Warner including television before it could be approved. After several years, in 2008 Noveck was allowed to take the project elsewhere, to Mark Vahradian at Di Bonaventura Productions. Unusually this made it the first film from DC not produced by Warner Bros.
In June 2008, Summit Entertainment
announced plans to adapt Warren Ellis
and Cully Hamner
's RED
. RED was adapted for the big screen by brothers Erich and Jon Hoeber, who also wrote the adaptations of Whiteout and Alice. The project was produced by Lorenzo di Bonaventura
(GI Joe, Transformers).
By April 2009, Bruce Willis
was reportedly in discussions with Summit to take the starring role of Frank Moses. It was reported in July 2009 that Morgan Freeman
was in talks to co-star alongside Bruce Willis
in the film. Also in July 2009, Robert Schwentke, the director of The Time Traveler's Wife
and Flightplan
, was in negotiations to direct RED. In August 2009 Schwentke confirmed to MTV News
that he was onboard. He stated that he loved the script but there are differences between the comic and the movie stating; "It's very funny, which the comic book isn't ... It's not as violent as the comic book," and that "The script that I've read is obviously different from the comic, because I don't think the comic gives you enough for a two-hour movie."
In November 2009, it was reported that Helen Mirren
would work alongside Freeman and Willis in the film. It was also reported in November 2009 that John C. Reilly
and Mary-Louise Parker
were in negotiations to join the cast. Reilly would play a retired CIA agent who is paranoid that everyone is out to kill him. Parker would play the romantic interest, a federal pension worker who becomes embroiled in the Willis character's struggle to stay alive. In the same month Julian McMahon
, Ernest Borgnine
, Richard Dreyfuss
and Brian Cox entered negotiations to join the cast.
In December 2009, creator Warren Ellis stated on his mailing list that "(I) Read the RED script. Not bad. Not the book, but not bad. Funny. Especially when you know the casting. Very tight piece of work. Talked to the producers last week. They're all kind of giddy over the casting coups. Who wouldn't want to see Helen Mirren with a sniper rifle?" Also in December 2009 Summit Entertainment announced a release date of October 22, 2010. The same month James Remar
was cast in an unspecified role, in addition to Karl Urban
as "Cooper". In January 2010 it was reported that John Malkovich
had signed to star opposite Bruce Willis, replacing John C. Reilly, who exited the role in late December.
Principal photography
began on RED on January 18, 2010 in Toronto, Canada
. RED was shot in and around the Toronto metropolitan area for nine weeks before moving on to the road and ending in New Orleans in late March for the final two weeks of principal photography. Filming in the French Quarter
of New Orleans commenced in March 2010. Additional photography was shot for a post-credits scene
in Louisiana in August 2010.
for the film was released in June 2010. The first full trailer debuted in July 2010 at the San Diego Comic-Con International.
on January 25, 2011.
based on 170 reviews with an average
rating of 6.3/10. Metacritic
gave the film a score of 61% based on a normalized
rating of 37 reviews.
Positive reviewers of the film include Justin Chang of Variety
stated RED is "An amusing, light-footed caper about a team of aging CIA veterans rudely forced out of retirement".
John DeFore of The Hollywood Reporter
stated "Although tailor-made for genre fans, it benefits from flavors of humor and romance that keep its appeal from being fanboy-only".
Critics of the film include Roger Ebert
who gave the film two stars out of four, stating that it's "neither a good movie nor a bad one. It features actors that we like doing things we wish were more interesting."
's expectations.
In September 2011, Helen Mirren confirmed on The Jonathan Ross Show that she would reprise her role as Victoria, with filming due to start in 2012.
Red (comics)
Red is a three-issue comic book mini-series published in 2003 and 2004 by WildStorm imprint Homage Comics. It was created by writer Warren Ellis and artist Cully Hamner.-Plot:...
created by Warren Ellis
Warren Ellis
Warren Girard Ellis is an English author of comics, novels, and television, who is well-known for sociocultural commentary, both through his online presence and through his writing, which covers transhumanist themes...
and Cully Hamner
Cully Hamner
Cully Hamner is an American comic book artist and writer.-Career:Since his 1992 debut on Green Lantern: Mosaic, Hamner has worked for nearly every major American comic book publisher, and is chiefly known for such titles as the aforementioned Green Lantern: Mosaic, Blue Beetle, and Red...
, and published by the DC Comics
DC Comics
DC Comics, Inc. is one of the largest and most successful companies operating in the market for American comic books and related media. It is the publishing unit of DC Entertainment a company of Warner Bros. Entertainment, which itself is owned by Time Warner...
imprint Homage
Homage Comics
Homage Comics was a comic book publishing imprint, a subdivision of Wildstorm. It was created in 1995 to focus more on writer-driven titles. As part of Wildstorm, it was acquired by DC Comics in 1998...
. The film stars Bruce Willis
Bruce Willis
Walter Bruce Willis , better known as Bruce Willis, is an American actor, producer, and musician. His career began in television in the 1980s and has continued both in television and film since, including comedic, dramatic, and action roles...
, Morgan Freeman
Morgan Freeman
Morgan Freeman is an American actor, film director, aviator and narrator. He is noted for his reserved demeanor and authoritative speaking voice. Freeman has received Academy Award nominations for his performances in Street Smart, Driving Miss Daisy, The Shawshank Redemption and Invictus and won...
, John Malkovich
John Malkovich
John Gavin Malkovich is an American actor, producer, director and fashion designer with his label Technobohemian. Over the last 25 years of his career, Malkovich has appeared in more than 70 motion pictures. For his roles in Places in the Heart and In the Line of Fire, he received Academy Award...
, Mary-Louise Parker
Mary-Louise Parker
Mary-Louise Parker is an American actress, known for her current lead role on Showtime's television series Weeds portraying Nancy Botwin, for which she has received several nominations and the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress in 2006...
, Helen Mirren
Helen Mirren
Dame Helen Mirren, DBE is an English actor. She has won an Academy Award for Best Actress, four SAG Awards, four BAFTAs, three Golden Globes, four Emmy Awards, and two Cannes Film Festival Best Actress Awards.-Early life and family:...
, and Karl Urban
Karl Urban
Karl-Heinz Urban is a New Zealand actor.He is known for playing Éomer in the second and third installments of Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings trilogy, Dr. Leonard "Bones" McCoy in the 2009 film Star Trek and Julius Caesar on Xena: Warrior Princess...
with Robert Schwentke
Robert Schwentke
Robert Schwentke is a German film director best known for the films Tattoo and Flightplan.He was a graduate of Columbia College Hollywood in 1992....
directing a screenplay
Screenplay
A screenplay or script is a written work that is made especially for a film or television program. Screenplays can be original works or adaptations from existing pieces of writing. In them, the movement, actions, expression, and dialogues of the characters are also narrated...
by Jon Hoeber and Erich Hoeber. The film was released on October 15, 2010.
In the film version, the title is derived from the designation of the status of agent Frank Moses (Bruce Willis), meaning "Retired, Extremely Dangerous".
Plot
Frank Moses (Bruce WillisBruce Willis
Walter Bruce Willis , better known as Bruce Willis, is an American actor, producer, and musician. His career began in television in the 1980s and has continued both in television and film since, including comedic, dramatic, and action roles...
), a former black-ops
Black operation
A black operation or black op is a covert operation typically involving activities that are highly clandestine and often outside of standard military protocol or even against the law.-Origins:...
CIA
Central Intelligence Agency
The Central Intelligence Agency is a civilian intelligence agency of the United States government. It is an executive agency and reports directly to the Director of National Intelligence, responsible for providing national security intelligence assessment to senior United States policymakers...
agent, is retired and living a quiet life in Cleveland, Ohio
Ohio
Ohio is a Midwestern state in the United States. The 34th largest state by area in the U.S.,it is the 7th‑most populous with over 11.5 million residents, containing several major American cities and seven metropolitan areas with populations of 500,000 or more.The state's capital is Columbus...
. However, he begins to feel lonely and often chats on the phone with Sarah (Mary-Louise Parker
Mary-Louise Parker
Mary-Louise Parker is an American actress, known for her current lead role on Showtime's television series Weeds portraying Nancy Botwin, for which she has received several nominations and the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress in 2006...
), a customer service agent working for Frank's pension office in Kansas City
Kansas City, Missouri
Kansas City, Missouri is the largest city in the U.S. state of Missouri and is the anchor city of the Kansas City Metropolitan Area, the second largest metropolitan area in Missouri. It encompasses in parts of Jackson, Clay, Cass, and Platte counties...
. He creates opportunities to talk to her by tearing up his pension checks and calling her to say they had never arrived.
His life is disrupted when a hit squad raids his house in the middle of the night. Frank kills the assassins and, knowing they would have tapped his phone, goes to Kansas City to protect Sarah. She becomes Frank's reluctant companion while he tries to find out who is trying to kill him, and track down his old black ops team for help. Meanwhile, CIA agent William Cooper (Karl Urban
Karl Urban
Karl-Heinz Urban is a New Zealand actor.He is known for playing Éomer in the second and third installments of Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings trilogy, Dr. Leonard "Bones" McCoy in the 2009 film Star Trek and Julius Caesar on Xena: Warrior Princess...
) is assigned to hunt and kill Frank.
Frank kidnaps Sarah, keeping her tied up and gagged in his car and then at the hotel, first goes to New Orleans to find his mentor Joe Matheson (Morgan Freeman
Morgan Freeman
Morgan Freeman is an American actor, film director, aviator and narrator. He is noted for his reserved demeanor and authoritative speaking voice. Freeman has received Academy Award nominations for his performances in Street Smart, Driving Miss Daisy, The Shawshank Redemption and Invictus and won...
), currently living in a retirement community and terminally ill, who tells him that the hit squad Frank killed were also responsible for the murder of a New York Times reporter. While avoiding Cooper, Frank and Sarah find clues left behind by the deceased reporter, which leads them to a hit list. They then track down Marvin Boggs (John Malkovich
John Malkovich
John Gavin Malkovich is an American actor, producer, director and fashion designer with his label Technobohemian. Over the last 25 years of his career, Malkovich has appeared in more than 70 motion pictures. For his roles in Places in the Heart and In the Line of Fire, he received Academy Award...
), also a former black ops agent and a paranoid conspiracy theorist, to provide more information. Marvin tells them that the names on the list are all connected to a 1981 secret mission in Guatemala
Guatemala
Guatemala is a country in Central America bordered by Mexico to the north and west, the Pacific Ocean to the southwest, Belize to the northeast, the Caribbean to the east, and Honduras and El Salvador to the southeast...
in which Frank and Marvin participated, and that one person, Gabriel Singer (James Remar
James Remar
James Remar is an American actor and voice artist. He has appeared in movies, video games, and TV shows. He is perhaps best known as Richard, the on-off tycoon boyfriend of Kim Cattrall's character in Sex and the City, as Ajax in The Warriors, as the homicidal maniac Albert Ganz in the 1982...
), is still alive. The trio track down Singer, who tells them that the mission involved extracting a person from a village and that everybody on the list has been killed to silence them. Singer is then assassinated by a helicopter-borne sniper, and the team makes their escape as Cooper closes in. With the help of Russian secret agent Ivan Simanov (Brian Cox), Frank and Sarah infiltrate the CIA headquarters to steal the file but Frank is injured in the process after fighting with Cooper. Joe, having escaped an attempt on his life, helps extract the team and joins them, and they all hide out in Victoria's (Helen Mirren
Helen Mirren
Dame Helen Mirren, DBE is an English actor. She has won an Academy Award for Best Actress, four SAG Awards, four BAFTAs, three Golden Globes, four Emmy Awards, and two Cannes Film Festival Best Actress Awards.-Early life and family:...
) house for first aid. Victoria, who misses her old life as a wetwork agent, joins the team as well.
After reviewing the file, all the team can figure out is that the only man involved on the reporter's list but not in the file, Alexander Dunning (Richard Dreyfuss
Richard Dreyfuss
Richard Stephen Dreyfuss is an American actor best known for starring in a number of film, television, and theater roles since the late 1960s, including the films American Graffiti, Jaws, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, The Goodbye Girl, Whose Life Is It Anyway?, Stakeout, Always, What About...
), has some way of protecting himself. The team arrives at Dunning's house, where he reveals under interrogation that the mission was to extract Vice-President
Vice President of the United States
The Vice President of the United States is the holder of a public office created by the United States Constitution. The Vice President, together with the President of the United States, is indirectly elected by the people, through the Electoral College, to a four-year term...
Robert Stanton (Julian McMahon
Julian McMahon
Julian Dana William McMahon is an Australian actor and former fashion model. He is best known for his portrayals of Cole Turner in The WB hit series Charmed, womanizing plastic surgeon Christian Troy on the Emmy and Golden Globe award-winning TV show Nip/Tuck, and Doctor Doom in Fantastic Four and...
), who at the time was a young lieutenant who experienced a breakdown and massacred the occupants of the village. It becomes apparent that Stanton is trying to erase all the loose ends as he plans to run for president
President of the United States
The President of the United States of America is the head of state and head of government of the United States. The president leads the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United States Armed Forces....
. At that moment, Cooper and the FBI surround Dunning's mansion. Cooper tries to negotiate Frank's surrender, but Frank tells Cooper about the vice-president's treachery
Treachery
Treachery is a statutory offence in Australia. There was also an unrelated statutory offence bearing that name in the United Kingdom, but it has been abolished. Both of these offences were derived from or inspired by the related offence of treason. The name treachery was chosen because it is a...
, which shakes his faith. Joe sacrifices himself by taking Frank's place and pretending to give up.
An unknown sniper kills Joe as he leaves the mansion, despite Cooper's order to hold fire. The confusion buys the team enough time to escape, but Sarah is captured. Frank calls Cooper and threatens his family if Sarah is harmed, and says that he intends to kill Stanton.
The team, along with Ivan (revealed to be Victoria's former lover), infiltrate Stanton's fundraising gala in Chicago and successfully kidnap him despite Cooper's best efforts to stop them. Frank calls Cooper and says he is willing to trade Stanton for Sarah. At the meeting point, Dunning arrives and reveals that he is the mastermind behind the assassinations and that Stanton was merely a pawn and scapegoat. Cooper's handler, Cynthia Wilkes (Rebecca Pidgeon
Rebecca Pidgeon
Rebecca Pidgeon is a British actress and singer-songwriter. She has maintained a recording career while also acting on stage and in feature films. She is married to the American writer and director David Mamet.-Early life:...
), is also in on the plot. Disgusted with Dunning and Wilkes' greed and corruption and being used by her and Dunning, Cooper gives Frank the key to his handcuffs and shoots Wilkes while Marvin and Victoria kill Dunning's bodyguards, and Frank crushes Dunning's windpipe. Cooper agrees to let Frank and his team go. As they leave the scene, Frank and Sarah are eager to start a new life together.
The final scene shows Frank and Marvin in Moldova
Moldova
Moldova , officially the Republic of Moldova is a landlocked state in Eastern Europe, located between Romania to the West and Ukraine to the North, East and South. It declared itself an independent state with the same boundaries as the preceding Moldavian Soviet Socialist Republic in 1991, as part...
, fleeing from Moldovan Army troops with a stolen nuclear device, in a wooden wheelbarrow with Marvin wearing a dress being pushed by Frank, as part of returning a favor to Ivan for his help.
Cast
- Bruce WillisBruce WillisWalter Bruce Willis , better known as Bruce Willis, is an American actor, producer, and musician. His career began in television in the 1980s and has continued both in television and film since, including comedic, dramatic, and action roles...
as Frank Moses - Mary-Louise ParkerMary-Louise ParkerMary-Louise Parker is an American actress, known for her current lead role on Showtime's television series Weeds portraying Nancy Botwin, for which she has received several nominations and the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress in 2006...
as Sarah Ross - Morgan FreemanMorgan FreemanMorgan Freeman is an American actor, film director, aviator and narrator. He is noted for his reserved demeanor and authoritative speaking voice. Freeman has received Academy Award nominations for his performances in Street Smart, Driving Miss Daisy, The Shawshank Redemption and Invictus and won...
as Joe Matheson - Helen MirrenHelen MirrenDame Helen Mirren, DBE is an English actor. She has won an Academy Award for Best Actress, four SAG Awards, four BAFTAs, three Golden Globes, four Emmy Awards, and two Cannes Film Festival Best Actress Awards.-Early life and family:...
as Victoria - John MalkovichJohn MalkovichJohn Gavin Malkovich is an American actor, producer, director and fashion designer with his label Technobohemian. Over the last 25 years of his career, Malkovich has appeared in more than 70 motion pictures. For his roles in Places in the Heart and In the Line of Fire, he received Academy Award...
as Marvin Boggs - Karl UrbanKarl UrbanKarl-Heinz Urban is a New Zealand actor.He is known for playing Éomer in the second and third installments of Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings trilogy, Dr. Leonard "Bones" McCoy in the 2009 film Star Trek and Julius Caesar on Xena: Warrior Princess...
as William Cooper - Julian McMahonJulian McMahonJulian Dana William McMahon is an Australian actor and former fashion model. He is best known for his portrayals of Cole Turner in The WB hit series Charmed, womanizing plastic surgeon Christian Troy on the Emmy and Golden Globe award-winning TV show Nip/Tuck, and Doctor Doom in Fantastic Four and...
as Vice PresidentVice President of the United StatesThe Vice President of the United States is the holder of a public office created by the United States Constitution. The Vice President, together with the President of the United States, is indirectly elected by the people, through the Electoral College, to a four-year term...
Robert Stanton - Ernest BorgnineErnest BorgnineErnest Borgnine is an American actor of television and film. His career has spanned more than six decades. He was an unconventional lead in many films of the 1950s, including his Academy Award-winning turn in the 1955 film Marty...
as Henry, The Records Keeper - Richard DreyfussRichard DreyfussRichard Stephen Dreyfuss is an American actor best known for starring in a number of film, television, and theater roles since the late 1960s, including the films American Graffiti, Jaws, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, The Goodbye Girl, Whose Life Is It Anyway?, Stakeout, Always, What About...
as Alexander Dunning - Brian Cox as Ivan Simanov
- James RemarJames RemarJames Remar is an American actor and voice artist. He has appeared in movies, video games, and TV shows. He is perhaps best known as Richard, the on-off tycoon boyfriend of Kim Cattrall's character in Sex and the City, as Ajax in The Warriors, as the homicidal maniac Albert Ganz in the 1982...
as Gabriel Singer - Rebecca PidgeonRebecca PidgeonRebecca Pidgeon is a British actress and singer-songwriter. She has maintained a recording career while also acting on stage and in feature films. She is married to the American writer and director David Mamet.-Early life:...
as Cynthia Wilkes
Production
Gregory Noveck, a representative of DC ComicsDC Comics
DC Comics, Inc. is one of the largest and most successful companies operating in the market for American comic books and related media. It is the publishing unit of DC Entertainment a company of Warner Bros. Entertainment, which itself is owned by Time Warner...
working in Hollywood to get their titles made into films, wanted the comic developed but Warner Brothers was not interested. The creators of the comic exercised their right to go to elsewhere but this required approval from all divisions of Warner including television before it could be approved. After several years, in 2008 Noveck was allowed to take the project elsewhere, to Mark Vahradian at Di Bonaventura Productions. Unusually this made it the first film from DC not produced by Warner Bros.
In June 2008, Summit Entertainment
Summit Entertainment
Summit Entertainment LLC is an independent film studio headquartered in Santa Monica, California with international offices in London.-History:...
announced plans to adapt Warren Ellis
Warren Ellis
Warren Girard Ellis is an English author of comics, novels, and television, who is well-known for sociocultural commentary, both through his online presence and through his writing, which covers transhumanist themes...
and Cully Hamner
Cully Hamner
Cully Hamner is an American comic book artist and writer.-Career:Since his 1992 debut on Green Lantern: Mosaic, Hamner has worked for nearly every major American comic book publisher, and is chiefly known for such titles as the aforementioned Green Lantern: Mosaic, Blue Beetle, and Red...
's RED
Red (comics)
Red is a three-issue comic book mini-series published in 2003 and 2004 by WildStorm imprint Homage Comics. It was created by writer Warren Ellis and artist Cully Hamner.-Plot:...
. RED was adapted for the big screen by brothers Erich and Jon Hoeber, who also wrote the adaptations of Whiteout and Alice. The project was produced by Lorenzo di Bonaventura
Lorenzo di Bonaventura
-Life and career:He spent the 1990s as an executive at Warner Bros. Pictures, eventually rising to President of Worldwide Production. His production company di Bonaventura Pictures is based at Paramount Pictures. His tenure at Warner Bros. included discovering and shepherding The Matrix into...
(GI Joe, Transformers).
By April 2009, Bruce Willis
Bruce Willis
Walter Bruce Willis , better known as Bruce Willis, is an American actor, producer, and musician. His career began in television in the 1980s and has continued both in television and film since, including comedic, dramatic, and action roles...
was reportedly in discussions with Summit to take the starring role of Frank Moses. It was reported in July 2009 that Morgan Freeman
Morgan Freeman
Morgan Freeman is an American actor, film director, aviator and narrator. He is noted for his reserved demeanor and authoritative speaking voice. Freeman has received Academy Award nominations for his performances in Street Smart, Driving Miss Daisy, The Shawshank Redemption and Invictus and won...
was in talks to co-star alongside Bruce Willis
Bruce Willis
Walter Bruce Willis , better known as Bruce Willis, is an American actor, producer, and musician. His career began in television in the 1980s and has continued both in television and film since, including comedic, dramatic, and action roles...
in the film. Also in July 2009, Robert Schwentke, the director of The Time Traveler's Wife
The Time Traveler's Wife (film)
The Time Traveler's Wife is a 2009 romantic film based on Audrey Niffenegger's 2003 novel of the same name. Directed by Robert Schwentke, the film stars Eric Bana as Henry DeTamble, a Chicago librarian with a genetic disorder that causes him to time travel randomly as he tries to build a romantic...
and Flightplan
Flightplan
Flightplan is a 2005 thriller film directed by Robert Schwentke and starring Jodie Foster, Peter Sarsgaard, Erika Christensen, Kate Beahan, Greta Scacchi, and Sean Bean. It was released in North America on September 23, 2005...
, was in negotiations to direct RED. In August 2009 Schwentke confirmed to MTV News
MTV News
MTV News is the news division of MTV, one of the first and most popular music television network in the U.S., as well as some of MTV's related channels around the world. MTV News began in the late 1980s with the program The Week In Rock, hosted by Kurt Loder, the first official MTV News correspondent...
that he was onboard. He stated that he loved the script but there are differences between the comic and the movie stating; "It's very funny, which the comic book isn't ... It's not as violent as the comic book," and that "The script that I've read is obviously different from the comic, because I don't think the comic gives you enough for a two-hour movie."
In November 2009, it was reported that Helen Mirren
Helen Mirren
Dame Helen Mirren, DBE is an English actor. She has won an Academy Award for Best Actress, four SAG Awards, four BAFTAs, three Golden Globes, four Emmy Awards, and two Cannes Film Festival Best Actress Awards.-Early life and family:...
would work alongside Freeman and Willis in the film. It was also reported in November 2009 that John C. Reilly
John C. Reilly
John Christopher Reilly, Jr. is an American film and theater actor, singer, and comedian. Debuting in Casualties of War in 1989, he is one of several actors whose careers were launched by Brian De Palma. To date, he has appeared in more than fifty films, including three separate films in 2002...
and Mary-Louise Parker
Mary-Louise Parker
Mary-Louise Parker is an American actress, known for her current lead role on Showtime's television series Weeds portraying Nancy Botwin, for which she has received several nominations and the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress in 2006...
were in negotiations to join the cast. Reilly would play a retired CIA agent who is paranoid that everyone is out to kill him. Parker would play the romantic interest, a federal pension worker who becomes embroiled in the Willis character's struggle to stay alive. In the same month Julian McMahon
Julian McMahon
Julian Dana William McMahon is an Australian actor and former fashion model. He is best known for his portrayals of Cole Turner in The WB hit series Charmed, womanizing plastic surgeon Christian Troy on the Emmy and Golden Globe award-winning TV show Nip/Tuck, and Doctor Doom in Fantastic Four and...
, Ernest Borgnine
Ernest Borgnine
Ernest Borgnine is an American actor of television and film. His career has spanned more than six decades. He was an unconventional lead in many films of the 1950s, including his Academy Award-winning turn in the 1955 film Marty...
, Richard Dreyfuss
Richard Dreyfuss
Richard Stephen Dreyfuss is an American actor best known for starring in a number of film, television, and theater roles since the late 1960s, including the films American Graffiti, Jaws, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, The Goodbye Girl, Whose Life Is It Anyway?, Stakeout, Always, What About...
and Brian Cox entered negotiations to join the cast.
In December 2009, creator Warren Ellis stated on his mailing list that "(I) Read the RED script. Not bad. Not the book, but not bad. Funny. Especially when you know the casting. Very tight piece of work. Talked to the producers last week. They're all kind of giddy over the casting coups. Who wouldn't want to see Helen Mirren with a sniper rifle?" Also in December 2009 Summit Entertainment announced a release date of October 22, 2010. The same month James Remar
James Remar
James Remar is an American actor and voice artist. He has appeared in movies, video games, and TV shows. He is perhaps best known as Richard, the on-off tycoon boyfriend of Kim Cattrall's character in Sex and the City, as Ajax in The Warriors, as the homicidal maniac Albert Ganz in the 1982...
was cast in an unspecified role, in addition to Karl Urban
Karl Urban
Karl-Heinz Urban is a New Zealand actor.He is known for playing Éomer in the second and third installments of Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings trilogy, Dr. Leonard "Bones" McCoy in the 2009 film Star Trek and Julius Caesar on Xena: Warrior Princess...
as "Cooper". In January 2010 it was reported that John Malkovich
John Malkovich
John Gavin Malkovich is an American actor, producer, director and fashion designer with his label Technobohemian. Over the last 25 years of his career, Malkovich has appeared in more than 70 motion pictures. For his roles in Places in the Heart and In the Line of Fire, he received Academy Award...
had signed to star opposite Bruce Willis, replacing John C. Reilly, who exited the role in late December.
Principal photography
Principal photography
thumb|300px|Film production on location in [[Newark, New Jersey]].Principal photography is the phase of film production in which the movie is filmed, with actors on set and cameras rolling, as distinct from pre-production and post-production....
began on RED on January 18, 2010 in Toronto, Canada
Toronto
Toronto is the provincial capital of Ontario and the largest city in Canada. It is located in Southern Ontario on the northwestern shore of Lake Ontario. A relatively modern city, Toronto's history dates back to the late-18th century, when its land was first purchased by the British monarchy from...
. RED was shot in and around the Toronto metropolitan area for nine weeks before moving on to the road and ending in New Orleans in late March for the final two weeks of principal photography. Filming in the French Quarter
French Quarter
The French Quarter, also known as Vieux Carré, is the oldest neighborhood in the city of New Orleans. When New Orleans was founded in 1718 by Jean-Baptiste Le Moyne de Bienville, the city was originally centered on the French Quarter, or the Vieux Carré as it was known then...
of New Orleans commenced in March 2010. Additional photography was shot for a post-credits scene
Post-credits scene
A post-credits scene is a short clip that appears after some or all of the closing credits of a film have run...
in Louisiana in August 2010.
Release
RED premiered at Grauman’s Chinese Theatre in Hollywood, California on October 11, 2010.Marketing
A teaser trailerTeaser trailer
A teaser campaign is an advertising campaign which typically consists of a series of small, cryptic, challenging advertisements that anticipate a larger, full-blown campaign for a product launch or otherwise important event. These advertisements are called "teasers" or "teaser ads"...
for the film was released in June 2010. The first full trailer debuted in July 2010 at the San Diego Comic-Con International.
Home media
RED was released on Blu-ray and DVDDVD
A DVD is an optical disc storage media format, invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995. DVDs offer higher storage capacity than Compact Discs while having the same dimensions....
on January 25, 2011.
Critical response
Reception for the film has been mostly positive. RED has a 71% approval rating on Rotten TomatoesRotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is a website devoted to reviews, information, and news of films—widely known as a film review aggregator. Its name derives from the cliché of audiences throwing tomatoes and other vegetables at a poor stage performance...
based on 170 reviews with an average
Weighted mean
The weighted mean is similar to an arithmetic mean , where instead of each of the data points contributing equally to the final average, some data points contribute more than others...
rating of 6.3/10. Metacritic
Metacritic
Metacritic.com is a website that collates reviews of music albums, games, movies, TV shows and DVDs. For each product, a numerical score from each review is obtained and the total is averaged. An excerpt of each review is provided along with a hyperlink to the source. Three colour codes of Green,...
gave the film a score of 61% based on a normalized
Normalization (statistics)
In one usage in statistics, normalization is the process of isolating statistical error in repeated measured data. A normalization is sometimes based on a property...
rating of 37 reviews.
Positive reviewers of the film include Justin Chang of Variety
Variety (magazine)
Variety is an American weekly entertainment-trade magazine founded in New York City, New York, in 1905 by Sime Silverman. With the rise of the importance of the motion-picture industry, Daily Variety, a daily edition based in Los Angeles, California, was founded by Silverman in 1933. In 1998, the...
stated RED is "An amusing, light-footed caper about a team of aging CIA veterans rudely forced out of retirement".
John DeFore of The Hollywood Reporter
The Hollywood Reporter
Formerly a daily trade magazine, The Hollywood Reporter re-launched in late 2010 as a unique hybrid publication serving the entertainment industry and a consumer audience...
stated "Although tailor-made for genre fans, it benefits from flavors of humor and romance that keep its appeal from being fanboy-only".
Critics of the film include Roger Ebert
Roger Ebert
Roger Joseph Ebert is an American film critic and screenwriter. He is the first film critic to win a Pulitzer Prize for Criticism.Ebert is known for his film review column and for the television programs Sneak Previews, At the Movies with Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert, and Siskel and Ebert and The...
who gave the film two stars out of four, stating that it's "neither a good movie nor a bad one. It features actors that we like doing things we wish were more interesting."
Box office
On its opening weekend Red earned an estimated $22.5 million on around 4,100 screens at 3,255 locations, coming in second behind Jackass 3-D. As of March 25, 2011, the film has grossed over $90 million in the United States and total of over $186.5 million worldwide.Awards
| Award | Category | Nominee | Result |
|---|---|---|---|
| 68th Golden Globe Awards 68th Golden Globe Awards The 68th Golden Globe Awards was broadcast live from the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills, California on January 16, 2011, by NBC. The host was Ricky Gervais.... |
Best Picture - Musical or Comedy | ||
| Satellite Award | Best Picture - Musical or Comedy | ||
| Best Actor - Musical or Comedy | John Malkovich John Malkovich John Gavin Malkovich is an American actor, producer, director and fashion designer with his label Technobohemian. Over the last 25 years of his career, Malkovich has appeared in more than 70 motion pictures. For his roles in Places in the Heart and In the Line of Fire, he received Academy Award... |
||
| Best Actress - Musical or Comedy | Mary-Louise Parker Mary-Louise Parker Mary-Louise Parker is an American actress, known for her current lead role on Showtime's television series Weeds portraying Nancy Botwin, for which she has received several nominations and the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress in 2006... |
||
| 2010 Vits Awards | Jury's Movie |
Sequels
In January 2011, it was reported and later confirmed that Summit rehired writers Erich and Jon Hoeber to write a second installment due to the film's financial success, which even surpassed producer Lorenzo di BonaventuraLorenzo di Bonaventura
-Life and career:He spent the 1990s as an executive at Warner Bros. Pictures, eventually rising to President of Worldwide Production. His production company di Bonaventura Pictures is based at Paramount Pictures. His tenure at Warner Bros. included discovering and shepherding The Matrix into...
's expectations.
In September 2011, Helen Mirren confirmed on The Jonathan Ross Show that she would reprise her role as Victoria, with filming due to start in 2012.