Red (2010 film): Difference between revisions

RED
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Robert Schwentke
Screenplay by	Jon Hoeber Erich Hoeber
Produced by	Lorenzo di Bonaventura Mark Vahradian
Starring	Bruce Willis Mary-Louise Parker Morgan Freeman John Malkovich Helen Mirren Karl Urban
Cinematography	Florian Ballhaus
Edited by	Thom Noble
Music by	Christophe Beck
Production companies	di Bonaventura Pictures DC Entertainment
Distributed by	Summit Entertainment
Release date	October 15, 2010 (2010-10-15)
Running time	111 minutes
Country	Template:Film US
Languages	English Russian
Budget	$58 million[1][2]
Box office	$181,184,283[1]

RED is an 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, Mary-Louise Parker, Morgan Freeman, John Malkovich, 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.^[3]

In the film version, the title of the film, "RED", is derived from designation for the status of agent Frank Moses (Bruce Willis), meaning "Retired, Extremely Dangerous".^[4][5]

Frank Moses (Willis), a former black-ops CIA agent, is now living a quiet life in retirement. However, he begins to feel lonely and often chats on the phone with Sarah (Parker), a customer service agent working for Frank's pension office in Kansas City.

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 (Urban) is assigned to hunt and kill Frank.

Frank first goes to New Orleans to find his mentor Joe Matheson (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 news 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 (Malkovich), 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 (Remar), is still alive. The trio track Singer down, 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 (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 (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 (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 (McMahon), who at the time was a young lieutenant that 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. Victoria intentionally shoots and kills Joe as he leaves the mansion, making Cooper believe Frank is dead. Cooper goes to check the body, and finds that it is actually Joe. 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 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, 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.

• Bruce Willis as Frank Moses^[3]
• Mary-Louise Parker as Sarah Ross^[3]
• Morgan Freeman as Joe Matheson^[6]
• Helen Mirren as Victoria^[7][8]
• John Malkovich as Marvin Boggs^[8][9]
• Karl Urban as William Cooper^[10]
• Julian McMahon as Vice President Robert Stanton.^[11]
• Ernest Borgnine^[11] as Henry, The Records Keeper
• Richard Dreyfuss^[11] as Alexander Dunning
• Brian Cox as Ivan Simanov^[11][12]
• James Remar as Gabriel Singer^[13]
• Rebecca Pidgeon as Cynthia Wilkes

Gregory Noveck a representative of DC working in Hollywood to get their titles made into films, was interested in getting the comic developed but Warner Bros. were 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. Eventually several years later 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.^[14]

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).^[15]

By April 2009, Bruce Willis was reportedly in discussions with Summit to take the starring role of Frank Moses.^[16] It was reported in July 2009 that Morgan Freeman was in talks to co-star alongside Bruce Willis in the film.^[17] Also in July 2009, Robert Schwentke, the director of The Time Traveler's Wife and Flightplan, was in negotiations to direct Red.^[18] 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."^[6]

In November 2009 it was reported that Helen Mirren would work alongside Freeman and Willis in the film.^[7] 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.^[19] In the same month Julian McMahon, Ernest Borgnine, Richard Dreyfuss and Brian Cox entered negotiations to join the cast.^[11]

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?".^[20] Also in December 2009 Summit Entertainment announced a release date of October 22, 2010.^[21] The same month James Remar was cast in an unspecified role,^[13] in addition to Karl Urban as "Cooper".^[10] 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.^[9]

Principal photography began on Red on January 18, 2010 in Toronto, Canada. Red was filmed 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.^[3] Filming in the French Quarter of New Orleans commenced in March 2010.^[22] Additional photography was shot for a post-credits scene in Louisiana in August 2010.^[23]

Red premiered at Grauman’s Chinese Theatre in Hollywood, California on October 11, 2010.^[24][25]

A teaser trailer for the film was released in June 2010.^[26] The first full trailer debuted in July 2010 at the San Diego Comic-Con International.^[8]

Red was released on Blu-ray and DVD on January 25, 2011. ^[27]

Reception for the film has been mostly positive. Red has a 70% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes based on 170 reviews with an average rating of 6.3/10.^[28] Metacritic gave the film a score of 60% based on a normalized rating of 34 reviews.^[29]

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".^[30] 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".^[31]

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."^[32]

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.^[33] As of February 10, 2011, the film had grossed over $90 million in the United States and with worldwide total of over $181 million.^[1]

In January 2011 it was reported and later confirmed that Summit Entertainment rehired writers Erich and Jon Hoeber, to return to pen a second installment due to the films financial success which surpassed producer Lorenzo di Bonaventura's expectations.^[35][36]

• Official website
• Template:Allmovie title
• Red at Box Office Mojo
• Red at IMDb