The Russo Brothers’ have targeted their first big blockbuster film since Avengers: Endgame for what will be Netflix’s financially biggest production. According to Deadline, the pair have casted Ryan Gosling (Blade Runner 2049) and Chris Evans (Knives Out) in The Gray Man, an espionage thriller that will see Gosling and Evans battle it out as a pair of spies.
The Gray Man is described as “a deadly duel between killers as Gentry (Gosling) is hunted across the globe by Lloyd Hansen (Evans), a former cohort of Gentry’s at the CIA.” The film is based off the 2009 novel by Mark Greaney with the script written by Joe Russo. The Russo’s Marvel collaborators Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely, who scripted the Russo’s Captain America and Avengers films, did a polish on Joe Russo’s script.
“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,” Anthony Russo said. “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.”
Netflix is hoping The Gray Man will launch their own franchise with a scale similar to the James Bond series with a budget of, and possibly over, $200 million, their largest to date. If it is successful, it is expected that Gosling will star in multiple films as Gentry. The Russos will produce through their production company AGBO withMike Larocca, along with Joe Roth and Jeff Kirschenbaum for Roth Kirschenbaum.
“The intention is for it to be competitive with any theatrical, and the ability to do with with Gosling and Evans is a dream for us,” said Joe Russo. “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.”
The Gray Man is expected to begin production in January 2021 with a shoot starting in Los Angeles while its international locations are finalized.
Ricky Church – Follow me on Twitter for more movie news and nerd talk.
