Getting to know the man behind Netflix’s No. 1 film of all time
Rawson Marshall Thurber’s plan to make a family-friendly action film “where nobody dies” worked. Red Notice, which the American filmmaker directed and wrote, is officially the most-watched Netflix film of all time.
In the globe-trotting heist film, FBI profiler John Hartley (Dwayne Johnson) teams up with the world’s greatest art thief Nolan Booth (Ryan Reynolds) in the hot pursuit of the world’s most wanted art thief, The Bishop (Gal Gadot).
According to Top10Netflix.com, Red Notice ranked first in the global Top 10 list of most popular (English-language) films, based on hours viewed in its first 28 days on the platform. With 328,800,000 hours viewed, it dethroned Sandra Bullock’s 2018 horror-thriller Bird Box. The No. 1 Non-English language film, on the other hand, is Blood Red Sky, which accumulated less than the hours viewed for Red Notice at 110,520,000.
On Instagram, the 46-year-old director said he was humbled and grateful to “everyone around the world who has embraced the joy, fun, thrills and hijinks we hoped to bring to your homes.” He also listed other Netflix records his film has smashed since its premiere last month: No. 1 in the world for three consecutive weeks, Top 10 film in all 94 countries for three weeks, and fastest to become No. 1 of all time at just 11 days. (It also became No. 1 in over 40 countries, including the Philippines.)
“This only happens when an audience embraces a movie that they love. We made Red Notice to entertain the world and the reaction to it has been so deeply heartening and inspiring,” wrote Rawson, whose name might not ring a bell right away, but you may all have seen his other hit films — We’re The Millers, Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story, Central Intelligence and Skyscraper.
There are several possible reasons why Red Notice sits on top of the heap, but if anything, Rawson has made a good case about his wholesome kind of action film. He recalled in the press notes that he had a “lofty goal” to produce a movie that could be enjoyed “from ages eight to 80, politically left or politically right, in almost any country.” He envisioned it as inviting and fun but “not necessarily scary or dark or edgy, that wasn’t the plan.” It was important to him that in Red Notice, “there’s not a lot of blood if any, no real violence, no sex, no drugs, a little bit of rock and roll. But yet it doesn’t feel soft.”
From a writer’s standpoint, Rawson found it tricky to figure out how his three main characters “stay on the loose and keep from getting caught without just simply shooting somebody.”
He added, “It’s easy to say, okay then your hero shoots the guard dead and leaves. But isn’t it more fun if they trick the guard instead of shooting him? Or headbutt him after he’s looking at Putin on his phone? It was a fun challenge.”
When The STAR had a 10-minute Zoom interview with Rawson recently, he got to talk more about this “fun yet tricky” challenge and propensity for blending action and comedy genres, as evidenced by his filmography. “I love action and I love comedy. You know, two great tastes that taste great together, I guess. And I just think that if you can pull off an action-comedy and do it well… I mean, it’s just so deeply satisfying if you’re able to have the thrills, the jeopardy and the derring-do but also the big laughs. And I don’t think they’re mutually exclusive. It can be really tricky to balance those tones. But I’ve had some practice at it and I’m getting better every time,” he explained.
As of writing, there’s no confirmation yet from the streaming service if there’s a Red Notice sequel. However, given its success or perhaps, the film franchises that served as the director’s inspiration, the possibility is likely. (He also liked an IG comment that said: “This has ‘franchise’ written all over it.”)
Rawson said, “The inspiration was drawn from films I loved growing up, you know, Raiders of the Lost Ark, National Treasure, James Bond franchise, the Mission Impossible franchise, Ocean’s Eleven, True Lies, The Thomas Crown Affair. I kind of wanted to put them all together in one big global action-adventure-heist romp. An old-school swashbuckler, as they say.”
He also shared how fortunate he was to cast his first three choices. “Dwayne was certainly my first and only choice for the role of John Hartley. We were making a movie called Skyscraper together and we went out to dinner and I told him the story and he said, I love it, I’m in. When the biggest movie star in the world says he wants to be in your movie, you better start writing. So, I worked really hard on the story.
“I wanted Gal to play the role she plays in the film. In my little notebook, I circled and wrote her name down, flew to London to meet her for the very first time, told her the story, pitched the idea and showed her my notebook for a minute. And she said, I’m in. Then I went away and wrote the script.
“The only person I had in mind was Ryan Reynolds to play the role that he plays in the film. I tried to hear his voice in my ear as I wrote. We sent him the script. He was the only person we sent the script to. And he read it overnight and said yes, the next day. So, here we are.”
If you enjoyed the lead stars’ onscreen chemistry and wondered whether their funny exchanges were adlibs, Rawson said that speaks to the kind of people his actors are. “They’re really grounded, kind people who have a sense of humor. They take the work seriously, but they don’t take themselves seriously.”
But in terms of any dialogue improv, he said that “85 to 90 percent of it was written, and the other 10 or 15 percent was improv. But that 10 to 15 percent made all the difference, right? Like, it’s so good.”
According to Rawson, he has an open door policy on improvisation. “I don’t care if it’s my idea or somebody else’s idea. The best idea wins, especially because I get all the credit at the end anyway (laughs).”
Meanwhile, The STAR learned that the film’s overseas scenes were all shot in a studio in Atlanta in the US because COVID happened. The places in the movie — from Bali, Rome to Russia — were some of his and his wife’s dream destinations.
He added, “When you’re jumping around the world, and you’re trying to take people on a journey, you want to mix up the climate as well as the location. You don’t want to have an entire film set in an arid landscape. Otherwise, you might feel like you didn’t really go anywhere. So, you know, super cold, snowy Russia to warm and sunny Bali, and back again. It was about making sure that we didn’t repeat beats.”
Rawson had to admit though that the struggle was real when it came to filming. “How were we able to pull it off? You know, that’s a great question,” Rawson told The STAR. “One, we had an incredible amount of support and care from Netflix. They were all-in on making sure the crew and cast were as safe as humanly possible. We were making this at a time when the pandemic was raging. There was no vaccine and people were still learning about the best practices for keeping people safe.”
Second, he said, the cast and crew were “committed completely” to the new-normal process. “They really embraced that old Hollywood adage that the show must go on.”
“Without question, this is the hardest film I’ve ever had to make,” Rawson also reflected. “I hope it’s the hardest film I ever have to make. It was a real incredible challenge to go do this.” Now, 328 million viewing hours later, it’s been well worth it.
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