Dwayne Johnson slammed after ‘disastrous’ mega-budget Christmas movie shoot

Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson has been slammed for his alleged behavior on-set of a “disastrous” Christmas movie, with insiders claiming issues have caused the production’s budget to balloon. 

More than a dozen insiders directly involved in the festive action-comedy Red One spoke with TheWrap, many of them accusing The Rock of turning up as much as eight hours late to shoot scenes.

“The only thing Dwayne was consistent at was being chronically late,” one source told the outlet, while another commented, “Dwayne truly doesn’t give a f**k.” 

According to the report, Johnson was late for an average of seven to eight hours a day, and sometimes missed full days of production, which added around $50 million to the already massive budget. 

This isn’t a good sign for the Amazon MGM movie, the production costs of which are estimated to be at a whopping $250 million. “It was a f**king disaster,” said another insider, who claimed that on the days he didn’t show up, they had to film scenes around him.

TheWrap goes on to explore previous complaints, including one that Johnson himself confirmed — when he’s caught short on set, he’ll pee in an empty Voss water bottle. But back in 2021, a crew member called him out in an Instagram post, writing, “Nevermind what you expect the PA’s to clean up after you.”

Despite these claims, none of the Red One insiders mentioned Johnson’s pee habit, while two denied Johnson had ever asked a PA to dispose of his urine while filming. Meanwhile, a spokesperson for Amazon MGM denied any on-set issues with Red One. 

In a statement shared with the outlet, they said: “Dwayne Johnson and Seven Bucks have been incredible partners on Red One — a film that audiences of all ages are going to love this holiday season.

“Our testing has been very strong — the reaction from CinemaCon speaks for itself — and we couldn’t have made it without Dwayne’s constant work and support. Any reporting that implies that we got to this point with him showing up seven-eight hours late to set is both ridiculous and false.”

But the facts suggest otherwise. Although Red One started filming in 2022, and was set for release in December 2023, it was later delayed until November this year. And at the aforementioned CinemaCon, Amazon MGM showcased footage to a small group of journalists, who weren’t allowed to write anything about what they saw. 

Additionally, it’s quite unusual for a film of this type to spend $250 million on the production alone — normally this would be saved for big-budget Marvel or DC flicks. 

Red One is still raging ahead nonetheless, with Johnson joining the likes of Chris Evans, Lucy Liu, and J. K. Simmons in the cast. The plot tells the story of a villain who kidnaps Santa Claus from the North Pole, leading an E.L.F. (Extremely Large and Formidable) operative to team up with an accomplished tracker to find him and save Christmas.

Red One arrives in cinemas on November 15, 2024. You can find more movies to stream this month here.