After the mega successful Extraction, the Russo Brothers have committed to yet another project with Netflix. Titled The Gray Man, it will be the streamer’s most expensive original film ever made with a budget of $200 million. It will start production from January.
As per a report in Deadline, The Gray Man will be a ‘franchise-starter’ espionage thriller starring Ryan Gosling and Chris Evans in the lead. It will also mark Anthony and Joe Russo’s return to direction after the record-breakingly successful Avengers: Endgame in 2019.
The Gray Man is based on Mark Greaney’s 2009 novel about a freelance assassin and former CIA operative named Court Gentry, to be played by Ryan. Chris will play Lloyd Hansen, also a former CIA agent. The film’s script has been written by Joe and ‘polished by’ Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely of Captain America and Avengers movies.
Anthony Russo told Deadline, “The movie is a real mano a mano between those two great actors who represent two different versions of the CIA, in what it can be, and what it can do. For those who were fans of Captain America: Winter Soldier, this is us moving into that territory in more of a real-world setting. That’s what this movie really means for us.”
Joe said, “The intention is for it to be competitive with any theatrical, and the ability to do with Gosling and Evans is a dream for us. The idea is to create a franchise and build out a whole universe, with Ryan at the center of it. We have all committed to the first movie, and that’s got to be great to get us to the second movie. These are master assassins, and Gosling’s characters gets burned by the CIA and Evans’ character has to hunt him down. We have a great working relationship with Netflix, and we go back almost 20 years with Scott Stuber. We formed AGBO to be an agnostic storytelling company, where we figure out the best platform. We think Netflix is the perfect place for this film.”
