Red One director Jake Kasdan promises that Christmas movie will be ‘epic’

‘Red One’ director Jake Kasdan has teased the movie will be "a little more kick-a**" than other festive flicks.

The picture follows a rag-tag team of special forces as they try to save Christmas after Santa Claus is kidnapped from the North Pole, and the 49-year-old filmmaker has now said the movie will be a "more aggressive kind of action-comedy" that is usually seen in the season, while retaining some more traditional festive elements.

During an interview with Entertainment Weekly, he said: "You don’t do this if you don't love Christmas movies.

"So a big part of it was trying to figure out how to bring in all of those Christmas elements, even in this slightly edgier, more aggressive kind of action-comedy and let them resonate on their own."

The upcoming film - which hits cinemas in November - sees Kasdan reunite with Dwayne Johnson, 52, in what is the first project for the pair since they worked together on 2019’s ‘Jumanji: The Next Level’, and the director stressed he wanted to collaborate with the actor again because "he’s able to do things that really nobody else can do".

Kasdan explained: "I believe that he's a singular film presence.

"And if it’s the exact right thing for him, then he’s able to do things that really nobody else can do, and you can’t picture anyone else in a part that he's played.

"The Bravestone character in the ‘Jumanji’ movies was like that, and in a completely different way, Cal, his character in this movie, is also like that."

The 'Bad Teacher' moviemaker added that the tone of the picture - which also stars Chris Evans, J.K. Simmons, Lucy Liu and Bonnie Hunt - and its plot was inspired by producer Hiram Garcia’s original story, which Kasdan described as a "wild Christmas action movie that takes place partly in the world as we know it, and then partly in this mythological realm".