‘Red One’ Writer on Hopeful Ending and ‘Hobbs & Shaw’ Sequel

Writer-producer Chris Morgan was on the set of Hobbs & Shaw when Dwayne Johnson’s right-hand man, Hiram Garcia, started sharing his idea for Red One. They were shooting the Fast & Furious spinoff’s complicated car and helicopter chase near a cliff in ​​Kauai and, with red dirt flying everywhere, Morgan admits he could only pay so much attention to the premise at the time. But that evening, Garcia, who’s the president of Johnson’s Seven Bucks production company, persisted, opting to pitch the action-comedy’s overall plot involving Santa’s (J.K. Simmons) abduction and his head of security (Johnson) having to team up with a complicit rogue (Chris Evans) to recover him. 

“I was prepared not to, but I really, really loved it. I was like, ‘I actually think you have a hopeful message that’s really cool and that the world could use.’ So we agreed to try and put this thing together,” Morgan tells The Hollywood Reporter. 

They subsequently took the makings of Red One to Johnson and fellow Seven Bucks co-founder Dany Garcia, who instantly fell for the idea. And, in a career first, Morgan didn’t actively pitch the film once they took it around town. 

“Dwayne has been aching to do a Christmas movie forever. He’s like the king of Christmas. So [Johnson and Dany Garcia] jumped in, and we ended up pitching it to every studio,” Morgan says. “Hiram actually pitched the movie … I wanted him to get that experience of getting in there and doing it. So he sold it in every single room, and then Amazon ultimately jumped in.”

Morgan has been a key architect of the Fast & Furious franchise ever since the third installment, The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift (2006). He’s written and/or produced every single chapter from there, with the exception of F9. But the most reappraised film in the saga is the Japan-based story that introduced him to the world, as the standalone sequel was not well received upon its release. That reappraisal became most evident when Christopher Nolan commented in 2020 that he has a “very soft spot” for the Lucas Black and Sung Kang-led entry. Naturally, Morgan lights up like a Christmas tree upon being reminded of such validation. 

“How could it not? He is literally one of the greatest filmmakers in the history of humanity, and he likes my movie. By the way, I’ve spoken to him about it since then,” Morgan shares. “From where we started to now, you have no idea how good it feels to hear that everyone appreciates what we’ve always appreciated about it.”

When Johnson surprised Fast fans with his return to the primary Fast storyline in Louis Leterrier’s Fast X, he proceeded to announce that his feud with Vin Diesel had been resolved and that a Hobbs movie would set up what is now regarded as Fast 11. At the time of his post, there was no mention of Jason Statham’s Shaw in the equation, and then there was talk that this latest spinoff might instead involve Jason Momoa’s Fast X villain, Reyes. However, it no longer sounds like Fast 11 will be preceded by a Hobbs-led film at the moment, but Morgan does confirm that he’s still working on a Hobbs & Shaw script. (Confused yet?) 

“[The release schedule] is really something the studio would have to speak to. We’re talking about what comes when and how, but I’ll leave that to greater minds than mine,” Morgan says. “I can say that I’m working on a Hobbs & Shaw kind of script. So we’ll see where that goes, but I’m excited about it.”

Below, during a recent conversation with THR, Morgan also discusses why the ending of Red One is a helpful balm during a trying time in the world, before revealing the genre he’s been wanting to tackle for quite some time.

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Your first writing credit, Cellular (2004), was led by Chris Evans, which was one of his first top billings. Did you guys actually meet back then to where you could reconnect on Red One?

Oh, for sure. I was on set every day on Cellular, which was an amazing learning lesson. What a crazy cast that was back then. There was Chris and [Jason] Statham, who I’ve also reconnected with over the years [through the Fast franchise]. We also had Bill Macy, Kim Basinger and Jessica Biel. It was a pretty crazy group for a little movie. 

Opposite Chris’ jack-of-all-trades character in Red One is Dwayne Johnson’s Callum Drift. Clearly, his last name is a nod to your second produced screenplay, The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift.

(Laughs) I wish it was that well played. I’ve got to say that I never really connected the two. Callum Drift was more for the snowy theme, but you’re 100 percent right.

Hiram Garcia originated the idea to treat the North Pole like a military or government operation, with Dwayne playing Santa’s head of security in the wake of his abduction. Was that the extent of your jumping-off point?

There was more to it. We were working on Hobbs & Shaw in Hawaii, and while we were shooting what turned out to be a difficult cliffside sequence, Hiram turned to me and went, “Hey, man, I’ve got this idea for a movie that I keep thinking about.” So he started pitching it, but there was just no time to focus on it at the time. But then, at the end of the day, he came back and said, “I really do think I have something.” And I was like, “Okay, what is it?” And then he pitched what the movie is: Santa is abducted and the head of his Secret Service has to team up with a Naughty Lister to go find him. But more than that, he had the entire spine of the movie broken out. We ended up making some very different turns since then, but he had the core of it, the whole journey. And I loved it. I was prepared not to, but I really, really loved it. I was like, “I actually think you have a hopeful message that’s really cool and that the world could use.” So we agreed to try and put this thing together, and we really broke down the entire outline of the movie. 

We then pitched it to Dwayne and Dany [Garcia], and they loved it. Dwayne has been aching to do a Christmas movie forever. He’s like the king of Christmas. So they jumped in, and we ended up pitching it to every studio. Hiram actually pitched the movie, and I got to sit back, which is something I’ve never done before. I knew that I was going to write it, but I wanted him to get that experience of getting in there and doing it. So he sold it in every single room, and then Amazon ultimately jumped in. Jen Salke was so passionate about it and put together a presentation: “This is what we love about it. This is the team we’ll put around it.” She was just very supportive, and that’s where we ended up going. From there, we got [director] Jake Kasdan, and Chris was who we wrote towards, so we were just really, really lucky.

Cal’s second-in-command E.L.F agent is a polar bear named Garcia, who I presume is named after Hiram. Was that his request since he’s Dwayne’s second-in-command in real life? 

That was me commenting on that. (Laughs)

Generally, I find it easier to write creatively when I have a kernel of an idea to work with already. Do you have a preference either way? 

I typically don’t sit down with just the blank page and then hope inspiration and magic happens. I’m a pretty structured guy. I tend to research and outline very heavily. I need to know where I’m going, which is weird. My mom was a novelist who published 18 novels. You’ve never heard of any of them. They were smaller print sorts of things, but she would just sit down at a computer and say, “I want to do a murder mystery.” She would just start, and it always confounded me. It gives me panic attacks just thinking about it. For movies, you always start with your character. What is the hurdle they need to overcome, and what is the lesson that they need to learn? That’s the core. If you don’t have that, then you have literally nothing, no matter how cool things look. 

But where the inspiration comes from just depends. On Fast 8 [The Fate of the Furious], a scene appeared in my head where you hear two guys’ voices, and they’re like, “Man, you’ve got to go faster. You better go faster.” You’re then on a blue sky, and you pan down to see this endless vista of just ice. And then there’s a little car that’s racing along with nobody chasing it. There’s nothing. But the voices are still panicked, “Man, you’ve got to go faster. You’ve got to go faster.” And then, from under the ice, boom, a submarine comes up and starts chasing it. I was like, “Oh, that’s awesome.” So once I had that, I went to Universal and said, “Here’s your moment.” And they were like, “Let’s do it.”

I also asked that question because you’ve had a number of jobs where you’ve come on to rewrite a script or fine-tune a third act, so it seems like you thrive when the baton is passed to you.

If the idea catches me … At the end of the day, I’m just a big fan of movies. I grew up obsessed with Raiders of the Lost Ark. I worked in a video store for 10 years. When I go out with my family or friends, we always end up talking about what we have seen. If we go to movies, we tend to go to dinner afterwards, and we’ll say, “That was awesome, but you know what would’ve been cool?” It always comes from an excited place. So if there’s a story or an idea that makes me go, “Oh, that’s kind of cool,” then I know I can write it. If I don’t have that feeling, then I would never go near it.

Red One is an original movie, but you got to play with a bunch of familiar elements in the public domain, like Santa Claus, Krampus and Headless Horseman. Thus, did you feel a lot more freedom than you do when working within the parameters of an established IP?

I don’t know if I felt more freedom, but there were a lot more toys to play with. Our sandbox here was all the Christmas lore throughout the history of mankind, and beyond that, Lucy Liu’s character, Zoe, is the director of this group called M.O.R.A. The Mythological Oversight and Restoration Authority protects us from mythological creatures, but more importantly, it protects the mythological world from us since we’re more detrimental to them than they are to us. So she’s not only dealing with the Christmas elements that Cal is dealing with as the overseer of Santa’s operations; she’s also dealing with every other mythological being, story, culture, folklore, everything. So it gave us probably the widest canvas to draw from compared to anything I’ve ever worked on . But you have 120 minutes, and you have to narrow it down. We had a giant section in an earlier script that dealt with a trip to M.O.R.A, which was pretty spectacular, but you have to focus on the character journey.

Red One is about rediscovering your childhood self and asking whether that inner child is proud of what you’ve become. Maybe I’m expecting too much of a Christmas action movie, but do you hope this movie spawns some self-reflection during a very contentious time?

That is literally the reason why I took the job. Of course, I love working with Dwayne and Hiram and Jake and our whole cast, but this movie happened at the right time for so many reasons. The message of the movie really is hope. It reminds you that no matter how dark things get, if you look at the people next to you and find the light within them, you can find it within yourself. As humans, we’ve recently gone through Covid, which was devastating around the world. Social media and elections can also be divisive. And, recently, for me, my dad passed away. 

I’m sorry to hear that.

Thank you. So there are always things that want to crush your spirit or make you feel a little darker. I was able to take Dwayne, who is one of the most positive, hopeful, genuine people I’ve ever met in my entire life, and put his character through something where he’s doubting himself. It’s the first time the Naughty List is longer than the nice, and it sure feels like that right now in the real world. But then, by the end of it, he gets to a resolution where he feels reinvigorated and hopeful again.

Whether it’s Hobbs or Fast or something else, Dwayne, Hiram and I are always very cognizant of what it takes for a family to go to the theater. It’s a commitment, but being at the theater with my family is one of my life’s greatest experiences. So we always want to make sure that when other people’s families leave the theater, they’re leaving with something that feels good. It’s not necessarily a lesson, but it’s just a reminder to be positive. 

So the aforementioned Tokyo Drift has always been one of my favorite Fast movies, and in 2020, Chris Nolan also proclaimed it to be one of his favorites of the franchise. Did that news knock you sideways at the time? 

How could it not? He is literally one of the greatest filmmakers in the history of humanity, and he likes my movie. By the way, I’ve spoken to him about it since then. That movie was an open writing assignment, and I pitched, “They’re doing a thing in Tokyo called drifting. Here’s what it is, and here’s how the movie could go.” But I didn’t get the job at first because I didn’t realize that the studio mandate at the time was to do a $10 million straight-to-DVD movie in Los Angeles. The movie I pitched was more expensive, but they ultimately called me back. So we talked it through, and we got a chance to do it. 

When the movie came out, the reviews weren’t great; people didn’t like it. All they wanted was Vin [Diesel] and Paul [Walker]. We had put that tag with Vin at the end of Tokyo Drift to suggest that maybe we could go do another one with them. We had wanted to bring them back earlier on, but we still hoped we could have a shot at doing Fast 4. And when the movie came out, it did fine [at the box office], but the critics and the fans were like, “Oh my gosh, they’re going to bring Vin and Paul back,” which let us survive. 

We then did Fast 4 and 5, which was my favorite, and it kept going with billions of dollars in profit. We pulled all the characters in and made them all a family, and now people love [Tokyo Drift]. Generally, they saw that movie when they were younger, and now it’s beloved to them. It’s kind of cult-y and people appreciate it. So, from where we started to now, you have no idea how good it feels to hear that everyone appreciates what we’ve always appreciated about it, which is Japan and drifting culture. And Sung Kang, come on. He’s just one of the greatest.

Technically speaking, Jason Statham’s Shaw didn’t kill Han; you killed Han. That was your cross to bear, right? 

It was! Think about that. We retconned the entire timeline of the franchise to save Han. It’s pretty cool. [Note: Despite being released as the third installment in 2006, Tokyo Drift was retconned to take place in between Fast & Furious 6 (2013) and Furious 7 (2015), so that Kang’s Han could stick around longer. F9 would then retcon his death at the hands of Shaw, turning it into a fake death and marking Han’s return to the present timeline.]

There was once a plan to do a Hobbs movie in order to set up Fast 11. Is that no longer the case in this age of contraction?

That’s really something the studio would have to speak to. We’re talking about what comes when and how, but I’ll leave that to greater minds than mine.

What’s the state of the industry from your vantage point right now? Is it as doom and gloom as many believe it is? 

I’m generally a hopeful person. I am a diehard theatrical movie fan. It’s what I was raised on. It’s affected my life in so many ways, and there’s nothing quite like that experience. I’m cognizant and scared and aware just like everybody else of where entertainment might be headed, but I’m also very hopeful because we have ardent defenders of theatrical movies. Universal has basically dedicated their business to it. It is their business. They care incredibly about the theatrical experience, and Amazon just did that with Red One, as well. It was originally conceived as a streaming giant movie, and when we tested it, the audiences liked it so much that Amazon really made the effort to give it a crack in the theater. It just always felt like a big theatrical film. So there are passionate defenders of cinema, and I will always be one. People just like the communal movie-watching experience, and I’m hoping we’re always going to support that.

Lastly, can you say what’s occupying your mind right now, or is it under lock and key? 

It’s under lock and key. I can say that I’m working on a Hobbs & Shaw kind of script. So we’ll see where that goes, but I’m excited about it. We also have a project [called Deputy X] that we’re doing at Universal with Glen Powell. Will Bell just wrote an awesome draft, and it feels like we’re gearing up for a big fun franchise. I have another action thing that I’m thinking about writing. But one of my passions is horror, and I would like to do one great horror movie someday. Basically, every night, I’m watching some new horror movie. Again, I worked at a video store for ten years. So I’ve been through all of them, and I never get bored of horror. I just love it.

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Red One is now in theaters.