Dwayne Johnson And His Jumanji Director Are Reuniting For A Holiday Flick

Former WWE wrestling champion Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson has been a Hollywood leading man for many years now, but his career is surely showing no signs of slowing down anytime soon. According to Forbes, Johnson was 2020's highest-paid male actor for the second year in a row, with amassed earnings for the year of $87.5 million. This came after he earned a total of $89.4 million in 2019 with roles in high-grossing films like "Fast and Furious" spin-off "Hobbs & Shaw" and "Jumanji: The Next Level" (via Forbes).  

This year, Johnson starred in Disney's "Jungle Cruise," alongside actress Emily Blunt. Though the film (which was recently pegged for a sequel) was hampered at the box office by the COVID-19 pandemic, it was largely seen as a success earning more than $200 million worldwide (via Box Office Mojo). This year, Johnson also made appearances in all 11 episodes of "Young Rock," an NBC sitcom based on his life. He will next appear as FBI profiler John Hartley in Netflix's "Red Notice," alongside Gal Gadot and Ryan Reynolds. "Red Notice" is scheduled to hit Netflix screens on November 12, 2021 (via IMDb).

In 2022, Johnson is set to star in the long-gestating DC comics adaptation of "Black Adam," in which Johnson will portray the titular character. While Johnson will likely be focusing most of his energies on "Black Adam" for the foreseeable future, he is already lining up projects set for release in 2023.

Coming fresh off of another busy year, Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson has been cast in an upcoming Christmas-themed film at Amazon (via The Hollywood Reporter). The movie will be titled "Red One," and is now set to be directed by Jake Kasdan, the son of legendary "Star Wars" writer, Lawrence Kasdan. The younger Kasdan will join a team of producers on the project, which also includes Johnson, Dany Garcia, Hiram Garcia, Melvin Mar, and Sky Salem Robinson. Though details on the project are scarce at the moment, The Hollywood Reporter writes that Johnson could be starring in the film as Santa Claus. Amazon has previously described the project as "a globe-trotting, four-quadrant action-adventure comedy, imagining a whole new universe to explore within the holiday genre." As with all productions in modern Hollywood, it is being eyed with the potential for future spin-offs and merchandising options.

Johnson and Kasdan are, of course, already familiar with each other after their work together in the 2017 film "Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle" and its 2017 sequel, "Jumanji: The Next Level." Both of the duo's prior collaborations were wildly successful at the box office with a combined domestic gross of over $700 million (via Box Office Mojo), and there's no doubt the studio expects the same kind of performance from this new project.