Alan Ritchson is quickly becoming one of Hollywood’s most bankable stars on the big and small screen, and his widespread popularity will no doubt continue to grow as Reacher Season 4 drops (via Amazon Prime subscription) and Fast 11 gets closer to filming. He technically doesn’t even need to use words to win over critics and audiences, as evidenced by the acclaimed action thriller Motor City. So it’s perhaps no surprise that Netflix has secured the actor for a huge deal that likely paves the way for War Machine 2 and more.
Netflix Signed A First-Look Movie Deal With Alan Ritchson
On the heels of the massive success of the sci-fi action romp War Machine, Netflix is staking semi-permanent claims in Alan Ritchson as a viewership commodity. According to Deadline, the streaming giant and the actor's Dancing Skeletons production shingle have partnered for a first-look creative deal for a slate of movies that Ritchson will star in and produce.
I don't think it's too much of a stretch to think that the Titans vet is more or less becoming the platform's action hero equivalent of Adam Sandler, who has been an audience-amassing value add for Team Netflix since 2014, starring in 15 or so features, a stand-up special, and other projects. Not that they were all comedies, much as I'm sure not all of Ritchson's Netflix projects will be action-oriented. (Which makes this the time for Blue Mountain State to return anew, no?)
In any case, Ritchson obviously has a ways to go to catch up with the Sandman's streak, but the dude has an uncrushable work ethic that makes me think he could hit 15 Netflix movies in the next 5 years alone.
Considering War Machine recently broke into the bottom of Netflix's all-time Top 10 movies, with 139.9 million views racked up during the 91-day window post-release, a sequel seems imminent, but has yet to be announced. That said, we already know what to expect first from this new partnership.
Alan Ritchson's First Project Under Netflix Deal Is With Fast & Furious Franchise Writer
Before this new first-look agreement was finalized, Ritchson was already set to headline the hurricane-set military action movie Maelstrom for Jaume Collet-Serra (whose Carry-On was another huge hit for the platform). After that, he'll be teaming up with another superstar creative in screenwriter Chris Morgan, who has handled storytelling duties for the Fast and Furious franchise since Tokyo Drift. The project also boasts the production power of Jeff Kirschenbaum and Joe Roth of RK Films, with the former being a Universal exec who oversaw F&F development before taking on producer duties.
The project is a still-untitled heist thriller centering around MotoGP. The narrative follows a group of motorcycle thieves who take their crimes global, targeting priceless relics around the world. Naturally, the only person who can stop them is a former MotoGP would-be-superstar recruited by Interpol to track them down. The harder part comes when he realizes the group is possibly being led by a younger brother that he thought was dead. Cue the dramatic blasts.)
Sounds like a fun idea, and I can easily see why the project was pitched to Netflix by Ritchson, Morgan & Co. as "Fast & Furious with motorcycles," as well as why Netflix's Powers That Be were quick to agree to it.
Helping things along is that MotoGP will be fully on board as well. The road-racing brand has signed their own deal with Netflix to serve in a consultation capacity during the development process. It's not everyday a huge company agrees to lend its products to movies where crimes are commited using said products. But that's usually less of a concern when it comes to higher-priced tie-ins like vehicles and resorts.
It's unclear if this new first-look deal throws a wrench into the works regarding his talks to play a DCU character, and it's also unclear whether or not this will potentially hinder Reacher beyond the already renewed Season 5, or if it will have an effect on his still-fresh creative deal with Amazon MGM to produce new TV projects.
Whichever way it goes, I do believe both Alan Ritchson and Netflix both come out of this looking like winners, winners, chicken dinners. Now who's going to be the genius who writes the movie where Ritchson and Adam Sandler play brothers?
