A covert evacuation is underway in The Red Sea Diving Resort, the latest from writer and director Gideon Raff.
With a civil war in full swing, a team of Mossad agents are tasked with getting Ethiopian Jews to safety. Without intervention they face genocide, but any large-scale activity would draw the wrong kind of attention (you know, the kind with guns and death). Their proposed cover? A resort, one providing beaches, sun, and a whole lot of people moving silently out of Sudan.
Based on a true story and brought to the screen by television veteran Gideon Raff, the thriller looks to avoid falling into the dustbin that other action-driven Netflix films have found themselves in. Who remembers Triple Frontier or Outlaw King? Both of those were robust productions with big names in front of the camera just like The Red Sea Diving Resort, but they languished in the obscurity of straight to streaming releases. Netflix seemingly hasn’t figured out how to market these films, and their abrupt trailer drop for this one doesn’t exactly feel like they’ve found the answer, unless they expect Chris Evans’ face to do the marketing.
It is the return of bearded Evans, so I suppose it has a chance, but even a quick glance at his box office returns outside of the MCU will tell you he isn’t an audience magnet without the shield. Hopefully they’ll splash the robust group of co-stars up there with him, because the likes of Michael K. Williams, Ben Kingsley, and Haley Bennett could help draw in an audience. Otherwise, this could be another quiet death for Netflix.
The Red Sea Diving Resort is directed by Gideon Raff and stars Chris Evans, Michael K. Williams, Haley Bennett, Michiel Huisman, and Alessandro Nivola. It will be released worldwide on Netflix on July 31st, 2019.
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